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#27: Ants

Bonus points if you can spot the beetle larvae on the leaf!


 Litinsects #27: Ants

Think about this for a second...there are 10 QUADRILLION ants 🐜 on the planet. This number is pretty much unfathomable... that’s around 1.3 million ants for every human alive on the planet!

It is estimated that ants make up around 15-25% of terrestrial animal biomass. That means if you put all the animals living on land onto a giant scale and added up the weight, ants would account for about a fifth of that weight. JUST THE ANTS!!!

Here are some fun facts about ants in general, but stay tuned for some later posts that go into some more really cool ant topics.

  • Ants are some of the strongest animals in relation to their size. Depending on the species, an individual can carry from 10-100 times its own body weight and working together they can carry even heavier objects!
  • Despite its name, ANTARCTICA is the only continent not home to ants
  • The most painful insect sting in the world is by the BULLET ANT, named for the intense pain felt by its sting
  • Ants are EUSOCIAL (refer to my last post to learn more about that) and live in COLONIES with queens. Colonies sometimes merge to form supercolonies, the largest of which was recorded to be 3,700 miles long!
  • The aptly named SLAVE-MAKING ANTS invade and enslave ants of other species, which they put to work in their own nests. The workers of this species are specialized for scouting and raiding
  • Ants are the only animals besides humans who farm other animals for a food source! Ants farm and protect aphid colonies and “milk” them for their sweet excretions, which is a great meal for the ants. This interaction is definitely worthy of its own post and I can't wait to share more about this!
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