Ants Temporal range: Berriasian – Present
A group of fire ants.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Superfamily:	Formicoidea
Family:	Formicidae Latreille, 1809
Type species
Formica rufa Linnaeus, 1761
Subfamilies
Agroecomyrmecinae Amblyoponinae (incl. "Apomyrminae") Aneuretinae †Brownimeciinae Dolichoderinae Dorylinae Ectatomminae †Formiciinae Formicinae Heteroponerinae Leptanillinae Martialinae Myrmeciinae (incl. "Nothomyrmeciinae") Myrmicinae Paraponerinae Ponerinae Proceratiinae Pseudomyrmecinae †Sphecomyrminae Cladogram of subfamilies Martialinae Leptanillinae Amblyoponinae Paraponerinae Agroecomyrmecinae Ponerinae Proceratiinae Ecitoninae‡ Aenictinae‡ Dorylini‡ Aenictogitoninae‡ Cerapachyinae‡* Leptanilloidinae‡ Dolichoderinae Aneuretinae Pseudomyrmecinae Myrmeciinae Ectatomminae Heteroponerinae Myrmicinae Formicinae A phylogeny of the extant ant subfamilies. *Cerapachyinae is paraphyletic ‡ The previous dorylomorph subfamilies were synonymized under Dorylinae by Brady et al. in 2014

An example of symbiosis: the ant protects the aphids and harvests their sugary excretion.

Ants are a kind of insect that live together in big groups. Scientists sometimes use the name Formicidae when talking about all of the different kinds of ants that have lived.

Ants are a lot like wasps and bees. They all came from the same kind of animal a long time ago, but now they are different. There are about 22,000 different kinds of ants, but we only know of 12,500 for sure. Every kind of ant has a thin part in the middle of their body and two long body parts on their heads called antennae.