TIL: Cool Ant Facts

When that sexy wasp came to build her cozy home on my balcony, I gave you a hot photostory with her [Playing With The Camera: A Sexy Wasp On My Balcony]. Three days ago I got you another photostory with hardworking ants in the leading roles [Playing With The Camera: Dur Dur D'Etre Fourmi (Hard Being An Ant)].

Today I thougt of bringing you a bunch of cool ant facts that will might make you appreciate those tiny workers a bit more.

#1 More than 12,000 identified species

A multitudinous population with estimatedly 22,000 species, ants belong to the same family (Formicidae) with bees and wasps (order of Hymenoptera). [1]

#2 Came along with the dinosaurs

Ants are among the oldest inhabitants of this planet. They evolved during the Cretaceous (some 140 million years ago) from creatures that looked more like wasps at the time. [1]

#3 They should be named Hercules of the animal kingdom

Lots of insects and other animals can carry weights multiple times their body weight, but a study in 2014 showed that the neck joint in an ant's body is capable of withstanding forces 3,400-5,000 times their average body weight. This does not necessarily imply that the insect can and will carry such heavy loads. [2, 3]

#4 Some species develop symbiotic relationships with other ants, insects, plants and fungi

A symbiosis with a plant, for example the Pseudomuyrmex Ferrugineus ants and the acacia plant, is a give and take deal. The plant offers free nesting space and the ants pay the rent by working as a security force against herbivores and pathogens. [1, 4]

#5 They are everywhere!

Found on every nook and cranny of this planet except for Antarctica and some other places unsuitable to host life. [1, 5]

#6 The blind and deaf

Some ant species are totally blind (these applies to species that live underground). Communication can be substituted with their antennae. [1]

Also, despite not having ears, ants can perceive sounds through vibrations with their antennae and feet. Another way of communicating with each other is through pheromone secretion that sends signals of imminent danger, help keep the trail "active" or even confuse the enemy. Antennae are useful here too, as smell perception comes through them.[1]

#7 Raiders

Some species become a bit too aggressive and invade other nests, kill the queen and then have the enslaved workers bring up the conqueror's eggs (sounds quite a GOT scenario, no?) [1]

#8 Queen is not always needed

Some nests may still stand without a queen, whereas there are also colonies with more than one "governor". [1]

#9 I can do it myself!

Although there are male and female ants (with the ladies being the majority and the gents expendable right after fertilization), certain species have the ability to reproduce asexually through parthenogenesis. [1]

#10 Their population weighs almost as much as ours

Ok, don't be deceived by their small size and their negligible weight, their total biomass almost equals the biomass of the whole human population on Earth. [1]

#11 Long live the queen

A queen ant can make it to 30 (Thank God I am not an ant queen, I'd have less than a year left). Workers on the other hand have a life expectancy of 1-3 years and males (drones) live only a few weeks. [1]

#12 Two stomachs

Ants have two stomachs (no, the second one is not for dessert). One stomach is meant to hold and digest food and the second one serves as a "food container" to preserve food that is meant to be shared with other ants (talking about chewed food or what?!). [1, 6]

#13 A supercolony

The largest colony recorded, called a supercolony (the total number of lots of nearby colonies), counted almost 300 million workers, 1 million queens and 45,000 nests spreading over an area of 2.7km2 and was found in Japan. Four years later in Australia, another supercolony of 100 km2 was found. [7]

#14 That power nap

From a study at University of South Florida it appears that if you want to make it through a hard day of carrying food that weighs so much more than yourself, you need to take regular power naps during your shift. If you are a queen though, you can enjoy a sleep of let's say 9 whole hours! [8]

#15 Dreaming

The above study also revealed that the queens, which have the luxury to enjoy deeper sleep sessions can also dream (based on speculations by watching antennae movements). [8]