Ants are one of the smallest creatures on earth, but if you take a few moments to read up about them you might discover that they are also the most amazing. Here are ten of the most incredible ants you will ever see…

10 – Pogonomyrmex Barbatus – alampedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/5-jenis-serangga-berbisa-di-dunia.html

Let’s start with a rather nasty species. They are called Fire ants and each Each sting from a fire ant makes welts or pustules that can cause infections, allergic reactions thanks to is high concentration of toxins.

9 – Dinoponera – www.panoramio.com/photo/24957704

You don’t need me to tell you that this is the world’s biggest species of ant, you only have to look at the image to know that! But it is also one of the most passive species, and are often the victim of other species of ants and anything else that might eat them.

8 – Mutillidae – ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/5048

The “Mutillidae” family of ants are most of the brightly coloured ones you will see on this list, but each of them has a much darker secret that you will come to learn a little later.

7 – Polyrhachis Bihamata – www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2155441/Scientists-unveil-20-new-species–blue-scorpion-tarantula-size-hand-got-knowing.html

I would love to tell you that they use those back hooks to fish and that is how it got its name, but sadly I would be lying. In fact, this extremely dangerous creature uses them to hook humans and other larger animals as they passed and used the razor-sharp fish hook like a claw to cut its pray open and eat them from the inside out! …gulp!

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6 – Mutillidae – onebigphoto.com/panda-ant

This cute looking panda coloured ant is anything but cute in reality. In fact, it has another family name as a Cow Killer, and yes, in swarms they do indeed kill cattle.

5 – Myrmecocystus – www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/these-rainbow-colored-transparent-ants-are-what-they-eat-25521112

Honey ants normally look orange thanks to the honey they store in their bodies. But Dr Mohamed Babu from South India noticed their abdomens transparent and got an idea for a stunning set of photographs using different varieties of food colouring. The results are well worth seeing.

4 – Dorylus – commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dorylus_nigricans_casent0172641_head_1.jpg

Some call it a driver ant or safari ant, but everyone who knows them calls them the world’s deadliest ant. They have been known to kill and strip a human bare in under 24 hrs, nothing by bones are left. What a pleasant fellow!

3 – Mutillidae – www.earthporm.com/20-animals-unexpected-colors

This ant is from the Mutillidae family of more than 3,000 species. But much like our next ant, they are only ants by name and shape, in reality, they are wingless wasps much like our next one…

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2 – Dasymutilla Gloriosa – wordlesstech.com/a-thistledown-velvet-ant

It might look cute, and have a rather soft name, but most farmers know this ant as “The Cow Killer.” It is found in the Mojave Desert, California and despite its look technically it is not an ant at all, but a wingless female wasp!

1 – Cephalotes Varians – canadianmuseumofnature.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/amazing-ants

This heavily armoured-ant can use his odd shaped head to “parachute” by steering their fall if they drop off of the tree they’re on. But the flat head is also used to plug holes during an attack!