Ants are not so­me­thing we think about when we hear the word „in­sects". You might have heard of the leaf cut­ter ant and their ama­zing abi­li­ties. Howe­ver these litt­le ani­mals can do many more ama­zing things.

These crea­tures are some of the most fa­sci­na­ting and hard­wor­king in­sects on the pla­net.
Sci­en­tists esti­ma­ted that there are rough­ly 20 qua­dril­li­on in­di­vi­du­al ants on the pla­net, more than 12 000 ant spe­ci­es over the world - and they have been on our pla­net since the Jur­ra­sic pe­ri­od. So ants lived side by side with some of the lar­gest ani­mals and even out­lived them.

They are ani­mals wit­hout ears or lungs, they have two sto­machs and can hold their breath up to 24 hours under water. Some of the ant spe­ci­es have tre­men­dous strength, others are high­ly ag­gres­si­ve and in­ha­bit large ter­ri­to­ries.
What all ant spe­ci­es have in com­mon is that they are or­ga­ni­zed in a so­cial order.
While one ant by its­elf does not pos­sess a brain ac­ti­vi­ty or in­tel­li­gence than lar­ger mam­mals, their collec­ti­ve be­ha­vi­ors and in­ter­ac­tions within co­lo­nies de­mons­tra­te re­mar­kab­le in­tel­li­gence.

Have you ever seen an ant hill? It just looks like a pile of sand, but in­si­de you will find an ex­tre­me­ly well or­ga­ni­zed com­mu­ni­ty cal­led ant co­lo­ny.
Within the co­lo­ny, each ant has a spe­cial task. All of them are or­ga­ni­zed around one queen ant. There are worker ants which gather food, care for the young, and main­tain the nest. Sol­dier ants pro­tect the co­lo­ny, while the queen ant lays thousands of eggs.
They use che­mi­cals cal­led phe­ro­mo­nes to ‘talk’ to each other. When an ant finds so­me­thing in­te­resting, it re­leases a phe­ro­mo­ne trail for other ants to fol­low, hel­ping the co­lo­ny stay con­nec­ted. They also use touch and vi­bra­ti­ons to re­co­gni­ze fa­mi­ly mem­bers and share in­for­ma­ti­on.

While an ant hill is al­re­a­dy quite im­pres­si­ve, some ants have for­med co­lo­nies as large as ten­nis courts by in­ter­con­nec­ting their un­der­ground nests.
An Ar­gen­ti­ni­an ant spe­ci­es is known for buil­ding the lar­gest co­lo­nies on earth, the so cal­led mega or super co­lo­nies.
One co­lo­ny in Eu­ro­pe spre­ads across 6000 km from of the coasts of Por­tu­gal, Spain, France and Italy and con­tains mil­li­ons of in­ter­con­nec­ted nest.

Next time you meet an ant, re­mem­ber - this tiny crea­tu­re has to have some re­spect for its achie­vements.

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