Q 01/05

Ants belong to the family Formicidae within which insect order?

A) Coleoptera

B) Lepidoptera

C) Diptera

D) Hymenoptera

Answer · why

D) Hymenoptera

That puts them alongside wasps and bees. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors during the Cretaceous period.

Q 02/05

Roughly how many ant species have been described, out of an estimated 22,000?

A) 1,400

B) 4,800

C) 13,800

D) 21,000

Answer · why

C) 13,800

Ants are identified by their elbowed antennae and the node-like waist formed by a constricted abdominal segment.

Q 03/05

Which continent has no indigenous ants at all?

A) Australia

B) Africa

C) South America

D) Antarctica

Answer · why

D) Antarctica

Only a few remote islands such as Greenland, Iceland and Hawaii also lack native ants. In tropical forests ants may outweigh all wild birds and mammal...

Q 04/05

The original West Germanic meaning of the word ant was what?

A) The digger

B) The biter

C) The crawler

D) The builder

Answer · why

B) The biter

The archaic English word emmet shares the same root. The family name Formicidae comes from the Latin formica.

Q 05/05

The scientific study of ants is called what?

A) Entomography

B) Apiology

C) Formicology

D) Myrmecology

Answer · why

D) Myrmecology

The word comes from the Greek myrmex. It was coined by William Morton Wheeler, who also described honeypot ants in 1908.