I trip out on ants sometimes. I'll be sitting in the woods, chilling out nicely, when I'll see an ant colony. Central America has all kinds of fucked up ants. They have these ants that will wait until they're all over your leg, or even all over your body if you're asleep, then they'll all bite you at the same time. WTF? They can't talk. It's pheremones.
The coolest ant of all, possibly the coolest insect of all, is the leafcutter. They're very common, even in cities - you'll see neat rows of them carrying the multicolored petals of ornamental plants, rather than green leaves, across the graffitied sidewalk. And it doesn't matter what kind of tourist you've got in tow - sullen teens, zipper-pantsed retirees, sex tourists, missionary groups - the first time they see leafcutter ants, they use up all the memory and batteries in their cameras, which makes the subsequent monkey encounter a little bittersweet.
They are amazing, though. There are all different kinds - soldiers, workers, and the gals who maintain the line, sort of running back and forth to keep anyone from falling of the branch. I've seen them carry a leaf for a particular worker ant for a while, then give it back to her before running back on the line. They have these HUGE ant hills. And they are so "smart." For instance, when you see the ant hill, guaranteed that the queen will be in a tiny hill ten feet away, what you're looking at is farmland. (They're farmers, not scavengers - they mulch the leaves to grow fungus underground.) And they won't eat a leaves of trees near their home, they go on expeditions of several city blocks in all directions.