It’s #WorldAntDay, where we celebrate the little insect civilizations that run the planet.

After two decades of obsessively stalking ants, I’ve managed to photograph maybe 5% of the world’s species. Browse them here:

https://www.alexanderwild.com/Ants/Taxonomic-List-of-Ant-Genera

There are roughly four species of ants on our planet for every mammal species. So if we think about all the mammals we know- the shrews, whales, giraffes, bats, dogs, and so on- the diversity of ants is several times greater.

Here are some of them.

Odontomachus is a huntress ant found in tropical regions worldwide, with jaws modified into a trap fired on a literal hair trigger.

Myrmecocystus honeypot ants are common in the arid Southwest of North America. Most look like normal ants, but deep below ground some members of each colony serve as living storage containers to help their colony survive dearth seasons.

Dorylus driver ants, found in Africa, have the world’s largest colonies, with several million very bitey individuals. Their vast nomadic colonies try to eat nearly any kind of animal, including people.

Colonies of Thaumatomyrmex, on the other hand, may have fewer than 10 individuals. These lurk in the leaf litter of South American rainforests hunting only polyxenid millipedes. The ultimate specialist!

I don’t know anything about Tetramorium pulcherrimum, from Uganda. But it’s fuzzy and adorable.