The Ants

"The neglect of ants in science and natural history is a shortcoming that should be remedied, for they represent the culmination of insect evolution, in the same sense that human behings represent the surimit of vertebrate evolution." (Hölldobler and Wilson 1990, "The Ants")

"A "supercolony" of the ant Formicia Yessensis on the Ishikari Coast of Hokkaido was reported to be composed of 306 million workers and 1,080,000 queens living in 45,000 interconnected nests across a territory of 2.7 square kilometers." (Hölldobler and Wilson 1990, "The Ants", p.1)

"A notorius colony [of Pharaoh's ants (Monomorium pharaonis)] occupied the entire Biological Laboratories of Havard University during the 1960s and 1970s. An extermination campaign was finally undertaken when workers were discovered carrying radioactive chemicals from culture dishes into the surrouding walls. (The incident was made the basis of the melodramatic scientific novel Sprials by William Patrick, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1983)." (Hölldobler and Wilson 1990, "The Ants", p.2)

"What makes ants unusual even in the select company of eusocial insects is the fact that they are the only eusocial predators occupying the soil and ground litter. Termites live in the same place and also have wingles workers, but they feed almost exclusievely on dead vegetation." (Hölldobler and Wilson 1990, "The Ants", p.29)

"At this point many more workers pour out of the nest, running excitedly around it and attacking any moving object encountered (including the careless myrmecologist)." (Hölldobler and Wilson 1990, "The Ants", p.149)

"Aging workers of the green tree ant of Australia (Oecophylla smaragdina), who are distinguished by reduced fat bodes and ovaries, emigrate to special "barack nests" located at the territorial boundry of the colony. When Oecophylla workers from neighbouring nests or other invaders cross the line, these guards are the first to rush to the attack. (It can be said that a principle difference between human beings and ants is that whereas we send our young men to war, they send their old ladies)" (Hölldobler and Wilson 1990, "The Ants", p.174)

"Among the more arresting spectacles in the ant world are the dense retinues of certain species that guard the mother queen as she moves from one nest site to another." (Hölldobler and Wilson 1990, "The Ants", p.194)

http://www.antweb.org/index.jsp