interesting ant facts

September 21, 2009 | In: Animal facts for kids

Ants can lift 20 times their own body weight.

An ant brain has about 250 000 brain cells. A human brain has 10,000 million so a colony of 40,000 ants has collectively the same size brain as a human.

The Army Ant (Ecitron Burchelli) of South America, can have as many as 700,000 members in its colony.

More than 10,000 known ant species occur around the world.

Many think that ants only use their antennas for touch, as they do use them for feeling they also use them for smelling.

Some ants are able to sleep seven hours a day.

The average life span of an ant is 45 to 60 days.

Most ants are between 2mm and 10mm (0.08″ and 0.20″) long. Yet some ants are a mere 0.7mm (1.2″) long.

Fire ants do not bite. They sting like wasps and bees.

Colonies of driver ants, a type of sightless ant found in Africa, can survive a flash flood and even travel for days by water!

Driver ants are known for traveling in huge columns, and when they are caught by a flash flood, they pack themselves into a huge sphere, with the soldiers on the outside protecting the workers, eggs, and queen on the inside. Driver ants can survive like this for days until they wash ashore!