Parts of an Ant – Head, Mesosoma, Petiole and Gaster

All 14 parts on the diagram

Show the list

A worker ant 10

Head The head carries the antennae, the eyes and the jaws.
Antennae Ant antennae bend like an elbow. They touch, taste and smell.
Compound eyes A compound eye is made of many small lenses.
Mandibles The mandibles are jaws. An ant holds, carries, cuts and digs with them.
Legs An ant has six legs. All of them join the mesosoma.
Mesosoma The mesosoma is the middle body. It is packed with muscles for the legs.
Petiole The petiole is the waist. It lets the gaster bend forward.
Gaster The gaster is the rear section. It holds the heart and the gut.
Stinger Some ants have a stinger. It injects venom.
Claw Each leg ends in a hooked claw. It grips when the ant climbs.

Queen, male and worker 4

Queen The queen lays the eggs. She is usually much bigger than a worker.
Wings Queens and males have wings. A queen sheds hers after her mating flight.
Male A male has wings, a small head and big eyes.
Worker Workers are females with no wings. They do the work of the colony.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-10-01 against (1) Arizona State University, Ask A Biologist, Ant Anatomy, https://askabiologist.asu.edu/explore/ant-anatomy (head, mesosoma, petiole at the narrow waist, gaster, three pairs of legs each ending in a hooked claw, antennae bent like an elbow, compound eyes, mandibles, a sting on some ants; workers, queens with a large gaster, males with wings, smaller heads, bigger eyes and straighter antennae); (2) Wikipedia, text only: Ant, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant (head, mesosoma, petiole forming the narrow waist with one or two nodes, gaster, elbowed antennae, compound eyes, mandibles, six legs ending in a hooked claw, stings, wingless workers, winged males and queens, queens shedding their wings after the mating flight); (3) University of Minnesota Extension, Ants, https://extension.umn.edu/insects-infest-homes/ants (elbowed antennae, the petiole with one or two nodes, workers without wings, winged queens and males). Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-01 from plain geometry; nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

The parts of an ant are a head, a middle section called the mesosoma, a narrow waist called the petiole, and a rear section called the gaster. The second drawing sets a queen, a male and a worker side by side.

Read the full guide

A worker first, then the three kinds of ant

Numbers 1 to 4 are on the head: the head itself, an antenna, a compound eye and the mandibles. Numbers 5 to 10 run back along the body: the legs, the mesosoma they join, the petiole, the gaster, the stinger at its tip and a claw at the end of the front leg. Numbers 11 to 14 are on the second drawing: the queen, her wings, the male and the worker.

Bent antennae and a pinched waist mean an ant, not a termite.
Nearly every ant you see on the ground is a worker, and every worker is female.

Questions and answers

What are the main body parts of an ant?

From the side an ant shows a head, a mesosoma, a petiole and a gaster. Like every insect it has a head, thorax and abdomen, but its thorax is fused to the front of the abdomen, so those two are hard to pick out.

What is the petiole of an ant?

The narrow waist joining mesosoma and gaster. It carries one or two bumps called nodes, and it lets the ant curl its gaster forward to sting or spray.

How many legs does an ant have?

Six, in three pairs, all joined to the mesosoma. Each leg ends in a hooked claw that the ant uses to climb and hang on.

Do ants have wings?

Workers do not. Queens and males have wings and fly out of the nest to mate. A queen sheds her wings after that flight.