Facts about Ants

Ants are AMAZING!
If you don't agree with me on this, read these interesting facts on these amazing insects and you will definitely agree with me on this. Now I love ants too, just like I love platypus.

An ant's abdomen contains two stomachs. one stomach holds food for itself while the other one contains food to be shared with other ants.

They have six legs, all of them having three joints each.

Did you know these amazing intelligent insects use tools?

They have 250,000 brain cells while humans have 10,000 million.

There is a type of ants known as slave-maker ants, they raid the nests of other ants and steal their pupae. When these new ants hatch, they work as slaves within their colony.

Many ants such as the common Red species have a sting which is used to defend their nest.

Army Ants are nomadic and they are always moving. They carry their larvae and their eggs with them in a long column.

Did you know some birds put ants in their feathers because they squirt formic acid which gets rid of the parasites.

Average life expectancy of an ant is between 35 to 60 days.

Did you know they groom each other?

Ants are quite particular about their hygiene and use a special rubbish dump. Some worker ants are given the job of taking the rubbish from the nest and putting it outside in a special rubbish dump.

They may form 15 - 20% of the terrestrial animal biomass.

Combined weights of ants on earth is more than the combined weight of humans.

These insects have two eyes where each eye is made of many smaller eyes. These eyes are known as compound eyes.

Did you know they love hang gliding?

The head of the ant has a pair of large, strong jaws. The jaws open and shut sideways like a pair of scissors.

A group of ants is called army or colony.

Did you know that some ants have wings?

Their eggs are groomed by licking.

Army Ants are nomadic and they are always moving. They carry their larvae and their eggs with them in a long column.

The army ant of South America can have as much as 70,000 members in its colony.

Their size varies from 0.08 to 1 inch.

At night the worker ants move the eggs(which are laid by the queen) and larvae deep into the nest to protect them from the cold.

Some of them sleep seven hours a day, while a type of ant i.e. fire ant takes about 250 naps each day.

An ant can lift more than 3 times its own body weight. A huge number of people and websites say they can lift 20 times the weight of their body but I will take the word of National Geographic as their website clearly states about the amount of weight they can lift is thrice their own body weight.

They rarely fight but when they fight it is a fight to death most of the time.

It is a known fact that ants use their antennas for touch, but did you know the antennas are also used to smell things?

After reading these facts, now what do you think of ants. Tell us in comments beow.