Ants evolved as a statement of fact   I was wondering if we could have some references inserted after the second sentence of this article Ants evolved from wasplike ancestors in the midCretaceous period between  and  million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants Also perhaps this statement should begin with the words Many experts believe or Evidence suggests etc etc rather than making a statement of fact since this is not an established fact  Preceding unsigned comment added by      This brings up a good point that many things are stated as fact when it comes to science  I think that people are only careful to state things the way you describe for things that havent been statistically proven which points out several flaws in the statement  Evolution is well enough established as well as ants evolving from wasps but them first appearing the the midCretaceous period is hard to statistically prove  I suppose this should be changed if Im right but I may not be  The Cretaceous period is not a short duration even on an evolutionary scale The sentence might appear precise if used with some small unit of time but putting it at somewhere between  to  million years is not exactly being very precise nor does it appear to be an arrogant statement of the available evidence    Very true    ants   where do ants mate how long do they live do they have sex  Preceding unsigned comment added by      heh viable question  This spawned me to look over the reproduction part of the page and I did some rewriting  It should be doublechecked for good measure  The article answers these well enough  Ants live varied amounts of time depending on many things  Some workers only live a few months while some queens have been recorded to live more that  years    Common ants varieties   There is almost no mention of Little Black Ants or Red Ants in this article I see these ants everywhere and think that there should be more mention of them Im not sure where you are but if its Europe then those guys are probably Lasius niger and Myrmica rubra They arent common everywhere UserSeanhoyland