Ant

For the ant that morphed into Cassie, see Ant-Cassie

Marco morphing into an ant

"They are not whole. They are only parts, like cells. Just pieces. What kind of foul creatures are these?" [...]
"They are social insects. Part of a colony. A hive. I should have guessed. I should have known. Ax is right. Each of us is only a part. Like a single cell within a human body."

―Ax and Cassie

The ant is a colonial insect native to Earth, descended from the Nesk. They are notable for being the worst morphing experience that Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Marco and Ax endured.

History

Some time after the Nesk left Earth during 65,000,000 B.C., they returned and eventually devolved into Earth's modern-day ants.

Acquiring

"We had already acquired some ants earlier, at Cassie's barn. [...] When I'd held the ant in my hand it had just been this tiny little dot. You could see that it had a sectioned body and legs, but that was about it."

―Marco

In The Predator, set in 1997, Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Marco and Ax acquired black garden ants from a colony located at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic.

Usage

Rachel morphed as a black garden ant

"Ants. That was Cassie's brilliant idea. Ants. See, ants could get into Chapman's basement. And ants could carry away the small transponder. Ants. This was what my life had come to. We ended up spending a couple of hours debating whether we should be red ants or black ants. I finally left in disgust. I didn't want to be an ant, red, black, or any other color."

―Marco

In 1997, Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Marco and Ax went to the backyard of a house next to the Chapman Residence and morphed into black garden ants. They struggled with having lost their sense of self and individuality while in the morph, but were able to eventually regain themselves. While heading into Chapman's backyard, they smelled the markings of enemy ants, as they were in enemy ant territory, but were able to make their way to Chapman's house, where they entered a crack in the foundation and successfully emerged in his secret basement office. Upon retrieving a Z-Space transponder, which they placed next to the crack, they remorphed into ants and pushed the transponder back into the backyard. However, they were then swarmed and ambushed by the native ant colony, to whom they were intruders, who stung them with poison and ripped out their limbs while using their mandibles to bite their waists in order to bisect them. Realizing they were about to be swiftly killed, the Animorphs were forced to demorph while still underground, causing them to burst out of the ground as they emerged into the backyard.

A short while later, Jake was infested by the Yeerk Temrash 114, although the other Animorphs learned of his infestation and detained him. In an attempt to escape, Temrash morphed into the ant, but only made it three feet before forty ants attacked him for entering their territory and ripped out his ant limbs, forcing Temrash to quickly demorph. Months later, while inside the Yeerk pool, Rachel morphed into an ant for safety and was able to survive due to being in an air bubble.

In 2000, three years after he had last used the ant morph, Marco partially morphed into an ant while revealing his morphing powers to his father.

Traumatic Aftermath

"We'd had some really bad experiences morphing. But morphing ants was the worst. We ended up being the wrong species and tribe of ants in the middle of enemy ant territory. You would not believe the nightmares that came out of that one. The tunnels pressing in all around, and then hundreds of vicious ant soldiers exploded all around us, attacking [...] I saw the huge, metallic-looking heads of the enemy ants as they crashed through sand walls and locked their massive pincers on me and tried to slice me into pieces. Do you know what it's like to think that you're going to die, and never even get back to human form? To believe that you're going to die as an ant, trapped in a hell that no human had ever been to?"

―Cassie

This section requires expansion

To be added

Appearances

• The Visitor (mentioned)
• The Encounter (mentioned)
• The Predator (black garden ants; acquired and morphed by Jake, Rachel, Marco, Cassie and Ax)
• The Capture (morphed by Temrash 114 using Jake's body)
• The Stranger (mentioned)
• The Andalite's Gift (mentioned)
• The Secret
• The Android (mentioned)
• The Forgotten (mentioned; wild Amazonian ants)
• The Reaction (possible accidental morph, by Rachel)
• The Change (mentioned)
• The Unknown (mentioned)
• The Escape (mentioned)
• The Warning (mentioned)
• The Underground (morphed by Rachel)
• In the Time of Dinosaurs (mentioned)
• The Departure (mentioned)
• The Discovery (mentioned)
• The Threat (mentioned)
• The Pretender (mentioned)
• The Suspicion (mentioned)
• The Attack (mentioned)
• The Exposed (mentioned)
• Elfangor's Secret (mentioned)
• The Separation (mentioned)
• The Illusion (mentioned)
• The Proposal (mentioned)
• The Other (mentioned)
• The Journey (mentioned)
• The Test (mentioned)
• The Revelation (partially morphed by Marco/cover morph)
• The Resistance (mentioned)
• The Diversion

Known Morphers

• Jake
• Rachel
• Cassie
• Marco
• Ax
• Temrash 114 (using Jake's body)

Gallery

"Someone took a picture of me? Not cool. Do you see what I'm wearing? I'm Spandex-boy. Totally not cool." The image gallery for Ant may be viewed here