Ant

Cosma / Communication / Knowledge / Realm / Terrestrial / Life / Animal / Invertebrate / Ant
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Introduction1

Inside the ant colony (Deborah M. Gordon, TED-Ed)
TED-Ed (YouTube Channel)

Dictionary

ant : any of a family (formicidae) of colonial hymenopterous insects with a complex social organization and various castes performing special duties — Merriam-Webster   See also   OneLook

Encyclopedia

Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the Cretaceous period, about 99 million years ago, and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than 12,500 of an estimated total of 22,000 species have been classified. They are easily identified by their elbowed antennae and the distinctive node-like structure that forms their slender waists. — Wikipedia

Ant (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Hymenoptera: Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Bug Guide, Iowa State University)

Hymenoptera: Ants, Bees & Wasps (One Zoom)
Hymenoptera (Catalogue of Life)
Hymenoptera (WolframAlpha)

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Inspiration

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Inspiration

Leafcutter Ant Colony (Museum of Science, YouTube 360° Video)

Talks about Ants (TED: Ideas Worth Spreading)
Articles about Ants (Big Think)

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Innovation

Science

Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term “insect” was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arachnids, myriapods, and crustaceans. This wider meaning may still be encountered in informal use. — Wikipedia

Entomology (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Myrmecology is a branch of entomology focusing on the scientific study of ants. Some early myrmecologists considered ant society as the ideal form of society and sought to find solutions to human problems by studying them. Ants continue to be a model of choice for the study of questions on the evolution of social systems because of their complex and varied forms of eusociality (social organization). Their diversity and prominence in ecosystems also has made them important components in the study of biodiversity and conservation. Recently, ant colonies are also studied and modeled for their relevance in machine learning, complex interactive networks, stochasticity of encounter and interaction networks, parallel computing, and other computing fields. — Wikipedia

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Preservation

Library

DDC: 595.796 Ants (Library Thing)
Subject: Ants (Library Thing)

Subject: Ants (Open Library)

LCC: QL 568.F7 Ants (UPenn Online Books)
Subject: Ants (UPenn Online Books)

LCC: QL 568.F7 Ants (Library of Congress)
Subject: Ants (Library of Congress)

Subject: Ants (WorldCat)

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Participation

Education

MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
OER Commons: Open Educational Resources

Community

Occupation

Careers in Entomology (Royal Entomological Society)
What is an Entomologist? (Environmental Science.org)
Entomologist (Future Farmers of America)

Organization

International Society of Hymenopterists
Royal Entomological Society
Entomological Society of America
American Entomological Society

News

Journal of Hymenoptera Research (International Society of Hymenopterists)
Annals of the Entomological Society of America
Journal of Insect Science (Entomological Society of America)

Ants (EurekaAlert, American Association for the Advancement of Science)
Ants (bioRxiv: Preprint Server for Biology, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
Ants (Science Daily)
Ants (JSTOR)
Ants (Science News)
Ants (Phys.org)
Ants (NPR Archives)


More News…

Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine.

  • Fruit flies turn fleeting scent puffs into...
    on July 22, 2026 at 3:00 pm

    When a fruit fly catches a whiff of a ripe peach, it quickly heads toward it. Time after time, it finds the fruit—even from many feet away and even if the scent arrives only as a few drifting, disconnected puffs. How do they home in with such unerring accuracy?

  • Tapeworm hijacks worker ants, giving them...
    on July 21, 2026 at 9:20 pm

    A tapeworm fundamentally changes the lives of ants: Workers of the species Temnothorax nylanderi infected with the tapeworm Anomotaenia brevis live several times longer than their uninfected nestmates. They are also less active, and their metabolism becomes more similar in some respects to that of queens. A new study by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), published in the journal BMC Genomics, reveals the molecular basis of this unusual effect.

  • Butterfly experts are planting 15,000 milkweed...
    on July 18, 2026 at 5:30 pm

    If you've driven down two-lane highways in rural parts of North Florida recently, you may have noticed a spate of new signs that designate the grassy knolls bordering the asphalt as wildflower areas. The signs likely feel redundant right about now as thousands of milkweeds produce thick umbels packed full of pentagonal buds and fully developed flowers. Many of these flowers and all the monarchs they attract have the same attention-grabbing orange color as the safety vests worn by workers who […]

  • Naked mole-rat queens produce an odorous chemical...
    on July 15, 2026 at 3:00 pm

    An international team led by Dr. Gary Lewin, group leader of the Molecular Physiology of Somatosensory Perception lab at the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin, has discovered that the queens of naked mole-rat colonies release a volatile compound called isopropyl myristate, which induces temporary infertility in all other females in the colony.

  • Tiny 60,000-neuron ant brains reveal how parental...
    on July 8, 2026 at 4:10 pm

    Long before the dawn of modern parenting, animals laid eggs and moved on, leaving their progeny to fend for themselves. Now, a study published in Nature uncovers one of the elegant ways evolution transformed neglect into nurture. Working with clonal raider ants, a surprisingly parental insect, researchers found that rather than evolving entirely new brain circuits for caregiving, evolution repurposed ancient neural systems for regulating hunger into triggers for social behaviors.

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Related

Here are links to pages about closely related subjects.

Knowledge Realm

Terrestrial   (Earth)

Sphere Land, Ice, Water (Ocean), Air, Life (Cell, Gene)
Ecosystem Forest, Grassland, Desert, Arctic, Aquatic

Tree of Life
Microorganism Virus
Prokaryote Archaea, Bacteria
Eukaryote Protist, Fungi, Algae, Protozoa (Tardigrade)
Plant Flower, Tree
Animal
Invertebrate
Cnidaria Coral, Jellyfish
Cephalopod Cuttlefish, Octopus
Crustacean Lobster, Shrimp
Arachnid Spider, Scorpion
Insect Ant, Bee, Beetle, Butterfly
Vertebrate
Fish Seahorse, Ray, Shark
Amphibian Frog, Salamander
Reptile Turtle, Tortoise, Dinosaur
Bird Penguin, Ostrich, Owl, Crow, Parrot
Mammal Platypus, Bat, Mouse, Rabbit, Goat, Giraffe, Camel, Horse, Elephant, Mammoth
Walrus, Seal, Polar Bear, Bear, Panda, Cat, Tiger, Lion, Dog, Wolf
Cetacean Whale, Dolphin
Primate Monkey, Chimpanzee, Human

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Notes

1.   The resources on this page are are organized by a classification scheme developed exclusively for Cosma.