Question 1

True or false: A single army ant colony can contain over 20 million individuals.

Accepted Answer

True. Some species, like the African driver ant, can have colonies with up to 20 million or more ants in one mobile superorganism.

Question 2

True or false: Army ants use their own bodies to form bridges and rafts for crossing gaps and water.

Accepted Answer

True. They link legs and jaws to create living structures, enabling the colony to traverse obstacles or float across water as a cohesive unit.

Question 3

True or false: Army ants are actually blind and rely on scent and touch to navigate and hunt.

Accepted Answer

True. Most army ant species have reduced or absent eyes, so they follow pheromone trails and use antennae to sense their environment.

Question 4

True or false: Army ants only eat other insects and never attack larger animals.

Accepted Answer

False. While they primarily eat insects, army ants can overwhelm and consume small vertebrates like lizards, frogs, and even birds caught in their swarm.

Question 5

True or false: Army ants build permanent underground nests with multiple chambers.

Accepted Answer

False. Army ants are nomadic and form temporary bivouacs—clusters of their own bodies—instead of constructing permanent nests.

Question 6

True or false: Army ants migrate to follow a fixed seasonal calendar regardless of food availability.

Accepted Answer

False. Their migrations are driven by the colony's needs—especially food scarcity and brood development—not by a strict seasonal schedule.

Question 7

True or false: Army ant queens can lay up to 100,000 eggs in a single day.

Accepted Answer

True. The queen of some army ant species is an egg-laying machine, producing over 100,000 eggs daily to sustain the colony's massive workforce.

Question 8

True or false: Army ants are found on every continent except Antarctica.

Accepted Answer

False. Army ants are restricted to tropical and subtropical regions, mainly in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, not in Europe or Australia.

Army Ant Trivia Questions