• There are ten thousand trillion ants on Earth (BBC).

• An ant has 250,000 neurons, equivalent to 2.5 lobsters.

• If a BBC trillion is a thousand billion, that gives 2.5 × 10^21 global ant neurons.

• There are 7.5 × 10^9 people in the world.

• Humans have 8.6 × 10^10 neurons per capita.

• Thus there are 6.5 × 10^20 human neurons on Earth.

• 6.5 × 10^20 human neurons vs. 2.5 × 10^21 ant neurons puts the ants ahead.

• But synapses provide a networking effect.

• That’s why an ant couldn’t invent a Walkman.

• But ants are also superorganisms. {cf. holobiont}

• Some ant colonies contain millions of individuals.

• Ant colonies coordinate just fine without portable stereos.

• There are also ant supercolonies, cooperating groups of colonies.

• A supercolony in Japan has as many ants as the U.S. has people.

• In 2009, a global megacolony of Argentine ants was identified.

• The megacolony contains Japanese, Californian and European supercolonies.

• This megacolony is the most populous nonhuman society known.

• Ants wage war.

• Ants practice slavery.

• Ants domesticate aphids for their honeydew secretions.

• Ants eat their domesticated aphids.

• This interaction has been recorded in Ancient Chinese writings and is noted as one of the oldest instances of biological pest control.

• Some ants have obligate relationships with farmed insects, each depending on the other to survive.

• Acropyga is a subterranean ant genus.

• The Acropyga queen carries a gravid mealybug during her nuptial flight to found a new colony.

• Carpenter ants practice suicidal altruism.

• In autothysis, the ant explodes, spraying invaders with toxic glue.

• There is an ant Wikipedia at AntWiki.org.

• AntWiki contains many anonymous edits showing surprisingly good language skill.

• The word "formic" comes from the Latin word for ant, formica.

• Formic acid is used as a preservative and antibacterial agent in livestock feed.

• Formic acid was made by distillation of ant bodies.

• Formication is the sensation of bugs crawling on or under the skin.

• Ants are the official insect of Verizon.