In the biblical text Book of Proverbs, King Solomon describes the harvester ant as a model of wisdom and industriousness: “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!”

Almost 3,000 years later, the thriving international parallel market for a distinct species of the ant native to east Africa has been thrust into the global spotlight after a series of convictions in Kenya for ant smuggling.

In the most recent case, Zhang Kequn, a Chinese national, was sentenced to a year in prison and fined 1 million Kenyan shillings (£5,690) on 15 April after his arrest in March at Jomo Kenyatta international airport, where authorities found more than 2,200 live ants in specialised tubes in his luggage that was destined for China.

The insects included 1,948 Messor cephalotes, a prized species commonly known as the giant African harvester ant.

The presiding principal magistrate, Irene Gichobi, said a “deterrent sentence” was needed because of rising cases of ant smuggling in Kenya and the ecological impact of the trade.

Kequn’s case was the third such in less than a year in Kenya, pointing to a growing market for ants as exotic pets in Asia and Europe.

Ant collectors and hobbyists in these regions pay large sums for the insects, which they put in formicariums, or ant farms, to observe and study their colonies and behaviours.

A study released in 2023 on the biological invasion risk of online ant sales in China found that Messor cephalotes was the third most popular species among non-native ants traded in the country over the internet during a six-month period in 2021.

Kequn was charged alongside Charles Mwangi, a Kenyan who allegedly sold him the ants and is out on bail. Prosecutors said Kequn paid 100 Kenyan shillings for each ant.

One giant African harvester queen ant can fetch up to £235 in exotic pet markets in Europe, Asia and North America, according to Pat Stanchev, the general manager of Best Ants UK, an online store. That is 40 times the Kenyan price.

Last year, a court in Nairobi sentenced two Belgian teenagers to one year in prison, with an option of paying a fine of 1m shillings, after they were found with about 5,000 live giant African harvester queen ants packed in tubes.

In a related case, a Vietnamese and a Kenyan received the same sentence after being found in possession of about 400 giant African harvester ants packed in syringes and containers.

Reacting to Zhang’s conviction, the Kenya Wildlife Service said: “The case highlights the growing concern over the illegal trade in invertebrates, which, though often overlooked, is increasingly targeted by traffickers due to rising global demand.”

Last year’s cases prompted conservationists to call on parties to the Cites treaty on endangered plants and animals to recognise the international ant pet trade as a conservation and biosecurity issue of global concern.

Messor cephalotes is a species of harvester ant that is native to east Africa. The ant has vibrant red and black colours; is the largest known species of the harvester ant – workers can grow up to 19 mm and queens up to 25 mm; and exhibit complex behaviour in its foraging and nest building. All these features make it popular among collectors and hobbyists.

“They’re like the tigers of the ant world – just rare and beautiful and interesting,” said Dino Martins, an entomologist.

A queen mates with males then goes on to start a colony of up to hundreds of thousands of her offspring, female workers and soldiers, while continuing to produce eggs her entire life. Colonies can last decades. The ants build and live in large, circular nests and store seeds underground.

Stanchev said giant African harvester ants were a rare and dream species for collectors, who prize them for their “large size, complex colony-building, impressive foraging trails, and polymorphic workers”. He added: “The queen ants are splendid, literally.”

Best Ants UK did not support or engage in wild collection or illegal trade, and all its ants were captive-bred or sourced ethically within UK and EU regulations, said Stanchev.

Martins described giant African harvester ants as a keystone species – one considered essential in holding the ecosystem together – in grasslands and savannahs, playing roles such as collecting the seeds of grasses and dispersing them.

“They’re like the farmers of the grassland, making sure that there’s a lot of diversity of grasses, which is really important [for livestock and wildlife],” he said.

Martins said over-harvesting the ants could cause devastating effects. “We lose the ants, we lose our cattle and we lose our milk and our butter and our cheese and we lose our wildlife and our tourism,” he said.

The places where the ants are moved could be affected, too. The 2023 study said the introduction of ants outside their native ranges could make them invasive “with dire environmental and economic consequences”.

Zhengyang Wang, a conservation biologist and the lead author of the study, said as grain collectors, the giant African harvester ant could impact crop growth in large agricultural fields, such as those in southern Asia or northern US, if introduced because they were non-native.

“In ecological terms, moving species out of their native habitat is almost always a bad idea,” he said.