Ants are social insects that belong to the same order as the wasps and bees. They are of particular interest because of their highly organized colonies or nests which sometimes consist of millions of individuals. Individuals are divided into workers, soldiers, drones and queens and colonies can occupy and use a wide area of land to support them. Ant colonies are sometimes described as superorganisms because the colony appears to operate as a single entity. Ants have colonized almost every landmass on Earth. They can constitute up to 15-25% of the total animal biomass. Up to a third (33%) of the terrestrial animal biomass has been estimated to be made up of ants and termites. There are about 11,880 known ant species, most of which are tropical. Termites, sometimes called white ants, though similar in social structure are not even closely related to ants. They comprise the more primitive order Isoptera and are more closely related to cockroaches. More detail

Ants Formica rufa worker Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Subphylum: Hexapoda Class: Insecta Subclass: Pterygota Infraclass: Neoptera Superorder: Endopterygota Order: Hymenoptera Suborder: Apocrita Superfamily: Vespoidea Family: Formicidae Latreille 1809 Subfamilies Aenictinae Aenictogitoninae Aneuretinae Apomyrminae Cerapachyinae Dolichoderinae Dorylinae Ecitoninae Formicinae Leptanillinae Leptanilloidinae Myrmeciinae Myrmicinae Nothomyrmeciinae Ponerinae Proceratiinae Pseudomyrmecinae