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Ant Photographs.

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The Indian jumping ant, Harpegnathos saltator, is one of the first ants slated to have its genome sequenced.

A Podomyrma ant tends to a Lycaenid caterpillar in South Australia. These caterpillars secrete substances that the ants find attractive, and the ants in turn provide protection from parasites. Ants are so abundant that many other species have come to depend on them in various ways.

Among the oddities of the ant family are the Malagasy Mystery Ants (Mystrium species). which are predatory inhabitants of rainforest leaf litter.

Cecropia ants (Azteca alfaroi) guard their tree zealously against intruders. Working together, they surround and immobilize their opponents by pinning down their appendages. This trap-jaw ant (Odontomachus bauri) had a trick up her sleeve, however. She escaped shortly after this photo was snapped by slamming her mandibles shut with enough force to propel her from the tree and out of the territory of the Azteca

One of the world's rarest insects is Thaumatomyrmex, a tropical American ant whose bizarre mandibles had long mystified ant scientists. In 1990, a Brazilian team finally solved the puzzle: Thaumatomyrmex are specialized predators of a porcupine-like millipede. The long jaws allow the ant to grasp their prey without getting injured.

Along a sun-soaked beach on a Panamanian island, workers of the crazy ant (Paratrechina longicornis) drink from nectaries on the underside of a leaf. Many plants attract ants with nectaries, and the ants in return help remove the plant's herbivorous pests.

South American Dinoponera species, at over an inch long, are some of the world's largest ants.

Two harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex rugosus) from adjacent nests engage in ritual warfare, pushing against each other in a display of force but not actually harming each other. It is thought that colonies use these mock battles to gather information about their neighbors. Knowledge about the strength of competing colonies helps ants set territorial borders without loss of life.

Ants in arid climates must store food to survive long periods of dearth. In the deserts of North America, Myrmecocystus honeypot ants use their bodies as living containers, their bodies swollen with liquid reserves that they regurgitate to nestmates when needed.

The Indian jumping ant, Harpegnathos saltator, is one of the first ants slated to have its genome sequenced.

The Indian jumping ant, Harpegnathos saltator, is one of the first ants slated to have its genome sequenced.

The Indian jumping ant, Harpegnathos saltator, is one of the first ants slated to have its genome sequenced.

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