Ants: The Invisible Majority

Recommended QUEST Resources

• "This Week in Northern California" Interview with E.O. Wilson

  Watch an extended interview with legendary scientist E.O. Wilson, sharing his love of ants and reading excerpts from his first novel.

• Producer's Notes - Ants: The Invisible Majority

• Interactive Map: Ants of the Bay Area

  Ants aren't just foragers. They're ranchers, farmers and even blood-suckers. Meet some of the amazing ants found in the Bay Area and find out why they're the favorites of local ant scientists.

• Why I Do Science: Edward O. Wilson

  As the “father of biodiversity”, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and guru of myrmecology (the study of ants), E. O. Wilson has been an inspiration to young scientists around the globe. Wilson discusses his life, his career, and his hope for the future of our living world.

• Bay Area Ant Invasion

  If you’ve ever had small, black ants in your kitchen, chances are they’re Argentine Ants. These invasive insects have spread across California, forming what some scientists say is one of the largest colonies on Earth. They’re also harming native ants. Now, scientists are developing ways to stop the invasion, by learning the language ants use to communicate. Lauren Sommer reports.

Additional Links

• AntWeb

  AntWeb is the place to go if you want to not only see stunning high-resolution images of ants from all over the globe but it is also an amazing, interactive resource to learn more about the diversity and ecology of ants. AntWeb also gives visitors the tools to start collecting specimens of ants and sharing the information with ant taxonomists and the larger community of ant enthusiasts.

• California Academy of Sciences - Entomology web page

  The California Academy of Sciences boasts one of the four largest entomology collections in North America. It contains about 10,000,000 curated specimens, representing all orders, nearly all families, and approximately 250,000 species of insects, myriapods, and arachnids.

• The Tsutsui Lab

  Learn more about UC Berkeley Professor Neil Tsutsui's pioneering work on the invasive Argentine ant and honeybees.