
- Common Name: Army Ant
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Hymenoptera
- Family: Formicidae
- Total Species: 200+
14 Army Ant Facts for Kids
- An army ant is a generic name used to describe over 200 species of ants.
- An army ant can also be referred to as legionary ant or marabunta.
- All species of ants that are called army ants are members of Formicidae.
- Ant species that are considered army ants are divided into two groups, they are Old World army ants and New World army ants.
- Some species of army ants can have a colony with more than 20 million ants.
- There are four types of ants found in an army ant colony, and they are workers, soldiers, males and queens.
- An army ant is an ant species that is known for aggressive foraging. Army ants forage together in large numbers and can cover a large area.
- A group of foraging army ants is called a swarm, swarm raid or column raid.
- When army ants go out to forage the foraging party can create a trail that is over 65 feet wide and over 320 feet long.
- Army ants are followed by various other animal and insect species who feed on the insects they flush out when foraging.
- Army ants can kill upwards of 100,000 insects, spiders and small vertebrates in a single day.
- Army ants don’t build permanent nests, instead of a nest, army ants live in a bivouac. The most common place to find an army ant bivouac is in a burrow dug by the ants or a tree trunk.
- Army ants complete a process called colony fission about every three years. This is when the colony size gets to large and it splits off into two separate army ant colonies.
- The Eciton army ant (Eciton burchellii) is the most studied army ant in the world, and they can be found in Central America and the Amazon jungle.
Army Ant Pictures

A picture of army ants moving in a column.Credit: ESA

A close-up picture of an army ant’s head.Credit: Alex Wild

A picture of army ants attacking a scorpion.Credit: National Geographic Video
Additional Resources for Army Ant Facts
- Army Ant Facts – Discover more awesome army ant facts on the Study.com website.
- Watch Army Ants Rampage – An amazing video on YouTube from BBC Earth, showing army ants rampage through the forest.
- Army Ant – Wikipedia – Find more information about army ants on the Wikipedia website.