Ant Facts

· When combined, all ants in the world weigh about as much as all human beings.

· In the Amazon rainforest, ants and termites make up nearly 1/3 of the total animal biomass.

· About 9,500 species of ants are known. Scientists believe at least twice as many species of ants have yet to be discovered.

· There are one million trillion (10¹⁸) insects alive at any moment.

o One percent of these are ants.

o There are ten thousand trillion (10¹⁶) live ants at any moment.

Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson, Journey to the Ants, Harvard University Press, 1994.