Ant is an Insect, an Invertebrate whose body has an external skeleton. The skin, impregnated of chitin, forms a tough carapace, a true armor enclose the body and legs, movements are however possible thanks to joint, on the level of which the skin remains flexible.

Ants, Bees and Wasps

Just like other classes, that of Insects is divided into orders. An order is make up of a group of similar animals having a certain number of common character.

Ants, bees and wasps are joined in the Hymenopterans order (an origin Greek word meaning "membranous wings"). The body of an ant, look like a lot a bee or wasp body ; but while all bees have wings, only the males and the young females of ants have. It is there the principal difference between these very close groups. Moreover, ants and bees are very similar. Hymenopterans represent the most advanced order of Insects, and comprising the greatest number of social species.

Ants Classification

The scientific name of the family of all the ants is Formicidae. There are approximately 15 000 species of known ants and several hundreds of news are discovered and described every year. In the ants there are social species and not social species, the more primitive are the less social. most social being on the contrary the most advanced species. The size of ants vary from 1 millimeter to 5 centimeters. We group them in 8 subfamilies enumerated below.

Subfamilies : with their characteristics: