Because of their large numbers and biological dominance, ants are among the
most legendary of animals. Although a single ant, like this brown ant, is
less than one-millionth the size of a human, collectively they rival people
as the dominant organisms of the land, according to famed myrmecologist E.
O. Wilson. A conservative estimate of their total population on Earth at
any given moment is ten thousand trillion. In some places, such as
tropical habitats, ants can compose nearly a third of the animal biomass,
including other insects. A 20-acre patch of rain forest can support more
than 300 species of ants. To date, science knows of some 9,500 ant species
and some scientists estimate that at least twice that number of species
remain to be discovered. The extraordinary success of ants is attributed in
large measure to their social attributes. Their highly-developed colonial
existence enables nests, resembling large communal estates, to be passed
from generation to generation. Some individual nests can survive for
decades and, architecturally speaking, can be the equivalent of 40-story
skyscrapers.
This portrait of a brown ant is a scanning electron micrograph made by
(and copyrighted to) photomicrographer Dennis Kunkel who has an awesome
gallery of things small and beautiful.
