What Is a Group of Ants Called?
Tiny insects, enormous numbers — and a colony that behaves like a single, coordinated superorganism.
A group of ants is most often called an army, with colony, nest, and swarm also in regular use. Ants (family Formicidae) are eusocial insects related to bees and wasps, and scientists estimate roughly 20 quadrillion of them are alive on Earth at any given moment.
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What Is a Group of Ants Called?
Army is the term most people reach for, capturing the disciplined, marching-column look of ants foraging or relocating in large numbers. Colony is the more precise term biologists use for the full social unit — queen, workers, and brood living and working together, whether they’re on the move or settled underground. Nest refers to a colony’s physical home site, and swarm describes the short-lived mating flights when winged reproductive ants take to the air together to found new colonies.
Where Did the Name Come From?
Unlike terms drawn from medieval hunting vocabulary, “army” and “colony” for ants are straightforwardly descriptive: they read as behavior observed and named, not whimsical invention. “Army” likely took hold because of how coordinated and unstoppable a foraging or migrating column looks, while “colony” borrows the language used for any settled, cooperative community. Older dictionaries of collective terms also record the archaic “bike of ants” (attested from the 1700s), a once-common but now largely forgotten word for a swarm of ants or bees that has simply fallen out of everyday use.
Ant Facts
- Enormous numbers: Researchers estimate roughly 20 quadrillion ants are alive on Earth at any moment, with a combined weight greater than that of all wild birds and mammals put together.
- Same order as bees and wasps: Ants belong to the order Hymenoptera and the family Formicidae, which includes more than 12,000 known species.
- Fungus farmers: Leafcutter ants (genus Atta) slice up leaves not to eat directly, but to feed an underground fungus garden that in turn feeds the colony.
- Living bridges and rafts: Army ants link their own bodies together to form bridges across gaps and rafts that float on water, letting the colony cross obstacles as a unit.
- Long-lived queens: While worker ants typically live only months to a couple of years, some queen ants have been recorded living up to three decades.
- Chemical communication: Ants coordinate almost entirely through pheromone trails, chemical signals that recruit nestmates to food or warn them of danger.
Example Sentences
- An army of ants marched across the patio in a thin, unbroken column, carrying crumbs back toward the nest.
- Biologists excavating a colony of ants beneath the old oak found dozens of interconnected chambers, each with its own job.
Other Names for a Group of Ants
Army remains the most widely recognized term, especially for the coordinated look of ants foraging or on the move. Colony is the term of choice in biology, describing the entire cooperative unit rather than just its appearance in motion. Nest is used more narrowly for the physical site a colony calls home, and swarm is reserved for the brief window when winged queens and males take flight to mate and disperse.
🧠 Test Your Ant Knowledge
Three quick questions. See what stuck.
1. What’s the most common term for a group of ants?
2. Ants belong to which insect family?
3. How do ants mainly communicate with each other?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a group of ants called?
Most often an army, with colony, nest, and swarm also used depending on the situation.
Why is a colony of ants sometimes called a superorganism?
Because a colony’s queen, workers, and brood function together so closely that the whole group behaves more like one coordinated organism than a collection of individuals.
How many ants are there in the world?
A 2022 study estimated roughly 20 quadrillion ants are alive on Earth at any given time, outweighing all wild birds and mammals combined.
What is the difference between an ant army and an ant swarm?
Army usually describes a colony’s coordinated foraging or marching movement, while swarm refers specifically to the mating flight when winged queens and males take to the air.
Are ants dangerous in large numbers?
Most species are harmless in groups, though a few, like fire ants and army ants, can bite or sting aggressively when their nest or column is disturbed.
Do all ants in a colony stay there for life?
Most workers spend their entire lives in their birth colony; only the winged reproductive ants leave, during a mating swarm, to found colonies of their own.
Small Insect, Massive Numbers…
An army of ants is a small piece of one of the most successful stories in the animal kingdom: a colony that functions like a single organism, multiplied across roughly 20 quadrillion individuals worldwide.