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Each kind of ant does a different job. Worker ants dig tunnels, raise young ants, collect food, and build and clean the nest.
Ants are small insects. Like all insects, ants have six legs. The smallest ants are 0.03 inch (0.7 millimeter) long. They are hard to see! The biggest ants are almost 1 inches (3 centimeters) long.
Most ants have two compound eyes. Compound eyes have many parts called lenses that help insects see well. Other ants have three simple eyes, with one lens in each. Some ants that live underground are blind.
There are about 11,000 species of ants. Ants live in most places of the world.
After the queen mates with a male ant, she makes or finds a nest. She then lays eggs. The first group of eggs to hatch become worker ants. The queen’s only job after that is to lay more eggs. The worker ants take over the job of caring for the nest. Males come from some of the eggs, queens and more workers come from other eggs.
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