Ant information

Ants are to be found everywhere from the arctic to the tropics, on mountains or seashore, in the wettest regions or driest deserts. They belong to the order Hymenoptera, along with the wasps and bees.

The ant's body is constricted into the three divisions of head, thorax and abdomen. The antennae are hinged and the abdomen is attached to the thorax by one or two segments known as pedicels.

Each ant species consists of three castes: sterile worker ants, which are wingless males and females, and queens (the fertilized female ants, which lose their wings after mating). They live in ant colonies in nests with cavities in the ground or in decaying wood.

An ant colony is made up of one or two queens, which spend their lives laying eggs, and thousands of worker ants which feed the ant queen(s) and tend the young ant larvae.