Five number facts about ants

There are 63 species of ant in Britain, 17 of which are introduced.

Twelve thousand species of ants have been identified so far but it has been estimated that there are total of 22,000 species worldwide,

• 

The southern wood ant (Formica rubra) is Britain’s largest ant; the workers are 10mm long and queens 12mm .

A black ant (Lasius niger) queen can live for 15 years.

Ants may form 15–25% of all terrestrial animal biomass.

•