Ants in the Ant-Man movie, with biological notes Elidiomar R. Da-Silva* & Thiago R. M. de Campos Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. *Email:
[email protected] Belonging to the family Formicidae (order passion for ants, which are well characterized in Hymenoptera), ants are cosmopolitan insects, his paintings. Ants are likewise prominent in inhabiting all kinds of terrestrial environments, cartoons, such as Atom Ant (Hanna-Barbera except the arctic, with nearly 10,000 known Productions, 1965–1968) and The Ant and The species. Ants are also social animals, interacting Aardvark (United Artists, 1969–1971), and inside their nests within each caste and each films, like A Bug’s Life (Pixar Animation Studios, role. These worldwide animals are abundant 1998) and Antz (DreamWorks Pictures, 1998). and dominant in each habitat and niche More importantly for us, ants are featured even (Hölldobler & Wilson, 1990), being responsible in superhero comics and films. for a huge nectar consumption (amongst other In the present article1, we list all the ant substances acquired from plants), decomposing species shown in the Ant-Man movie (Marvel organic matter (hence helping with the Studios, 2015) and present notes on their ecological recycling of nutrients), as well as biology and distribution. In order to do so, the gathering and transporting seeds (thus helping Blu-ray version of the movie was meticulously plant dispersion) (Levey & Byrne, 1993). watched, observing features such as Artificial systems, such as urban centers, can be morphology and behavior, which were then colonized and exploited by a variety of ant compared to scientific records.