大象传媒

A team of scientists has estimated there are around 2.5 million ants for every person in the world. That means a total ant population of 20 million billion.

Dr Patrick Schultheiss is the co lead of the study and tells Newshour that this data gathering first is the "work of thousands of researchers all over the world... it's the first time we've collected a truly global set for any group of insects."

There are over 12,000 species of ant, and they fulfil a multitude of ecological roles. The study has shown that "their collective biomass is about 20% of human biomass...larger than all the wild mammals and birds combined...gives you a feeling of how important ants are globally."

(Photo: Two ants (Formicidae) head to head on tree trunk, close-up. Credit: Darren Robb via Getty Images)