The Ant, Taxonomic Family: Formicidae
by Dr. Carolyn Pararas-Carayannis

Ants are fascinating insects even though most people think of them as a nuisance. They are extremely hard workers and live in complex, underground colonies. Alone, a single ant cannot survive but as part of a team, where each ant has a particular job to do, they not only survive but they thrive. Twenty subfamilies compose Family: Formicidae (ITIS, 2006) and as of December, 2008 there have been 12,471 species recorded (Antbase, 2005). Over twice the number of recorded species are believed to exit. Ants thrive throughout the world in all geographic locations except for a few remote islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, Greenland, Iceland and the polar regions. Ants, Family: Formicidae range in size from 0.75 to 52 mm (0.030 to 2.0 in) and vary in color. Most are red or black, green is rare, and some tropical species have a metallic luster (Wikipedia, 2008). Ants are covered with read more