How About the Largest Civilization on Earth?

can you guess what the largest civilization on Earth is

you're probably thinking about the country with the most people

well the largest civilization or group of living beings on the planet is not human at all and no I'm not referring to some bacteria you need a microscope to see you're more familiar with these insects we've all seen ants maybe some of them walked over you during a camping trip maybe they got into your clothes not a pleasant feeling right but these Critters are not as primitive as you think they've built up an entire Empire similar to human societies the total number of ant species is more than twelve thousand if they had a country its flag would probably be black brown and red those are the most common colors of ants the size of this ant land would dwarf human countries these insects live in almost every corner of the planet Iceland Antarctica Greenland and some smaller islands are the only places they haven't reached that's because they aren't used to temperatures lower than 52 degrees Fahrenheit but they have a trick up their sleeve a really tiny sleeve ants can slow their metabolism in cold climates they can live for three to five days in temperatures close to the ones in your refrigerator humans also feel cold in Sub-Zero conditions but luckily we have clothes to keep us warm it's nearly impossible to count all the individual ants on Earth biologists estimate that there are at least 20 quadrillion of them you'd probably run out of paper if you tried to write this number down so let me scale that for you for every human on the planet there are around two and a half million ants but what we lack in numbers we make up for and wait we outweigh ants 193 to 1. still their total weight is about seven times as heavy as the Empire State Building and ants are much older than humans back in 1967 scientists discovered a fossil of an ant species in Amber yeah something like that mosquito from the Jurassic Park movie researchers dated the fine to the Cretaceous Period this was the time when dinosaurs roamed Antarctica back then the region was covered by forests not ice and snow like today the ants we have today are descended from an ancient wasp species this is odd because wasps are solitary creatures on the other hand ants are social creatures that live in colonies their society has various roles similar to a human one the leader of the colony is the queen there's usually one but some species have several the queen is larger than other ants and it has wings it also lives longer than other members of The Colony up to 30 years compare that to worker ants that can live seven to eight years the Queen's role is to lead the ant society and lay eggs in fire ants it can lay up to 800 eggs per day wow she does this with the help of male ants called drones they literally have one job mate with a queen you've probably never seen them before because they rarely leave the nest hey they're busy they live for around one week the best way to recognize them is by their wings the queen has wings too but drones are smaller in size an ant Society can have up to half a million members Which percentage of these are the queen inner drones not much just several hundred the biggest population is the workers they're all female and they have a variety of tasks workers take care of the larva find food and last but not least protect the colony when it comes to size they're somewhat between the queen and the males workers never have wings and they don't lay eggs but they are great when it comes to defending the home territory their array of defenses is impressive ants can Sting the Intruder and even cough her back up the sheer number of ant Defenders allows them to successfully tackle Intruders 50 times their size they can stop other insects mammals and even vines that come too close to their home base but most ant species aren't a real danger to humans although you're going to feel their pitch ants release a chemical called formic acid we use it to produce livestock feed some people are allergic to formic acid so think twice before going head-to-head with an ant researchers have discovered a fungus that takes over ants to help itself reproduce it lives in tropical forests and it can infect a foraging ant with spores this isn't an easy task the spores have to go through the animal's exoskeleton that's something like our skin it's waterproof and hard because of it ants can lift objects 10 times their way now once the Spore is breaching the ant's Behavior starts to change it leaves its nest and head towards a more humid microclimate why because those are the favorable conditions for the fungi's growth the ant sinks its teeth into a vein of a leaf and waits for its ultimate end after a couple of days fungi grow out of the ant's body now it's ready to infect the next unsuspecting ant with its poisonous spores seems like something you watched on the TV show The Last of Us but scientists aren't worried the fungus would need a lot of evolution before it could infect humans have you ever wondered how ants communicate texting will almost they communicate through the antenna on their heads ants pick up scents in the air through them they also tap the ground and touch pieces of food and most importantly they touch each other using these antennas this helps them identify the ant next to them and relay information if the nest is in danger the news has to travel fast to The Defenders and other senses aren't that sharp they don't have ears at all these tiny insects sense vibration through the ground and their eyesight isn't the best either they are nearsighted ants can see up to three feet in front of them any objects further than that appear blurred to them species that live underground don't see it all that's why the antenna are so important for these Critters ants are pretty good Farmers leaf cutter ones do exactly what their name suggests they bring the leaves back to the Colony there fungi grow on them the good kind they service food for the larva nearly 80 ant species have mastered this primitive form of farming it might look basic to us but not many animals farm food Gophers beetles and termites are the only other species that do it and no ants are not termites a carpenter rat might look like a termite but they are different species biologists consider several dozen ant species Advanced Farmers their crop is mushrooms whole Gardens of them they've even cultivated special mushroom varieties these were domesticated by generations of ants if you took the mushrooms outside of the ant Garden they wouldn't be able to survive in the wild but that's not all ants grow they've also mastered husbandry humans have livestock and ants keep aphids these are small green bugs that take nutrients from plants and produce nectar called honeydew it serves as a high energy food for the ants they protect aphids from predators and that's not all they even milk them an ant will tickle the bug's abdomen with its antenna the little fella then willingly releases excess nectar for the ant to feed on nature can sometimes be really adorable there is even a stranger natural phenomenon in the Ant World ant species from the Americas have been known to go in circles they do so without stopping until they drop down out of exhaustion since they can't see they follow the femorons of the leading ant and if it gets off track the ants following it become trapped in an endless spiral humans call these traffic jams.