These ant facts are gathered all over the web. They do not have any scientific value, it’s just a summary. But when you are interested… feel free to look up the species here or click the resource links below each fact.

How many ant species

12565 world wide. But because there are new species discovered every week this changes very very often.

• Hymenoptera Name Server, Ohio State University

How many ants

There might be at least 10 quadrillion on earth, according to the American counting. That is 10.000.000.000.000.000 ants.

• Masters of the Earth, Gentry Lee, SPACE.com 2000
• What is a Quadrillion?, Quadrillion Corporation 2009

How much weight for all ants together

Ants, all together, weight 15 to 25% of the total biomass of all animals on earth. This is really amazing.

• Wikipedia outline of ants

Oldest ant

Queens of the Formica species can reach the age of 25 years. But there is a record of Lasius niger in captivity that became 28, almost 29 years old.

• Antfarm Yuku
• Waldameisen , Karl-Heinz Baake Bio-Gärtner.de

World’s rarest ant

This could be the Dracula ant (Adetomyrma) on Madagascar. Scientists believe this ant could be the missing link in ant evolution.

• Dracula Ants: The Missing Link, Brian Fisher 2005

Strangest ant

Strange is subjective. But at this time it is definitely the Crazy Rasberry ant. This invasive ant runs randomly and eats… electronics. So, while you are reading this you might hear crunsh crunsh in your PC.

• Crazy Ant Identification (One Node Ant)
• Crazy-Rasberry-ant (Ant-maps)

Most obnoxious ant

Each part of the world has it own ants. But trough transport many species are brought to other parts and sometimes they survive, like the fire ants. One ant does so well that it is a pest in almost all parts of the world: Monomorium pharaonis. Also known as Pharaoh Ant or sugar ant.

• Monomorium pharaonis (Linnaeus)