Ants are one of the most highly organized insects on the planet. Their abilities for cooperation and self-sacrifice for the good of the colony, high adaptability, and activity that resembles intelligence in complexity - all this has long attracted the attention of scientists. And today science knows numerous interesting facts about ants, some of which are known only to a narrow circle of specialists, and some of which refute established myths. For example…
Ants are the most numerous insects on Earth
According to estimates by one of the world's most respected myrmecologists, Edward Wilson, there are between 1 and 10 quadrillion individual ants living on Earth today - that is, from 10 to the 15th power to 10 to the 16th power of individual ants.
Incredible, but true - for every living person there are about a million of these creatures, and their total mass is approximately equal to the total mass of all people.
On a note
Myrmecology is the science of ants. Accordingly, a myrmecologist is a scientist primarily engaged in the study of this group of insects. It was thanks to the works of such scientists that very interesting facts about ants became known, expanding the understanding of science about these insects.
On the Pacific island of Christmas there are about 2,200 ants and 10 nest entrances per square meter of soil surface. And, for example, in the savannas of West Africa, for every square kilometer of area there are 2 billion ants and 740,000 nests!
No other group of insects reaches such a population size and density.
Among the ants are the most dangerous insects in the world
Perhaps the inhabitants of equatorial Africa are not as afraid of poisonous snakes, large predators, or spiders as they are - a column of several million insects, whose soldiers are armed with powerful jaws, destroys almost all life in its path. Such trips are the key to the survival of the anthill.
More interesting facts: stray ants are one of the most common. The soldier can reach a length of 3 cm, the uterus - 5 cm.
When the inhabitants of a village learn that such a colony is about to pass through their settlement, they leave their homes, taking all their domestic animals with them. If you forget a goat in a stall, the ants will bite it to death. But they destroy all cockroaches, rats and mice in the villages.
But the bullet ant is considered the most dangerous ant in the world: 30 of its bites per 1 kg of the victim’s body weight are fatal. The pain from their bite exceeds that from the bites of any wasps, and is felt throughout the day.
Among the Indian tribes of South America, to initiate a boy into a man, a sleeve with live ants placed in it is placed on the initiate's arm. After being bitten, the boy's hands become paralyzed and swollen for several days, sometimes shock occurs and the fingers turn black.
Ant eggs are not really eggs
What are commonly called ant eggs are actually developing ant larvae. The ant eggs themselves are very small and are of no practical interest to humans.
But larvae are readily eaten in Africa and Asia - such a dish is rich in protein and fat. In addition, ant larvae are ideal food for the chicks of various ornamental birds.
Ants are a famous delicacy
The most famous ant dish is wood ant sauce, which is used as a condiment in Southeast Asia.
Honey ants are very interesting in this regard. In each anthill there are from several tens to several hundred ants, which are used by the remaining members of the colony as food reservoirs. They are specially fed during the rainy season; their abdomen is filled with a mixture of water and sugars and swells to such a size that the insect cannot move.
During the dry season, other individuals from the anthill lick the secretion constantly secreted by these living barrels and can do without external food sources. Such ants are actively collected where they live - in Mexico and the southern United States - and eaten. They taste like honey.
Another interesting gastronomic fact: in Thailand and Myanmar, ant larvae are consumed as a delicacy and sold by weight in markets. And in Mexico, the larvae of large ants are eaten in the same way as fish eggs in Russia.
Ants and termites are completely different insects
Indeed, ants belong to the order Hymenoptera, and their closest relatives are wasps, bees, sawflies and ichneumon wasps.
Termites are a fairly isolated group of insects close to cockroaches. Some scientists even include them in the cockroach order.
This is interesting
The complex social structure of a termite mound, reminiscent of that of an anthill, is just one example of convergence in the animal kingdom, the development of similar traits in members of different groups facing similar conditions.
It is noteworthy that in equatorial Africa there lives a mammal - the naked mole rat - whose colonies also resemble colonies of ants: in mole rats, only one female reproduces, and the rest of the individuals serve her, feed her and expand their burrows.
The vast majority of ants are females
All worker ants and soldier ants in each anthill are females and are not capable of reproducing. They develop from fertilized eggs, while unfertilized eggs develop into males.
An interesting fact about ants: whether a worker ant or a future queen grows from an egg depends on how the larva feeds. Worker ants can decide for themselves how to feed the brood and how many future queens to feed.
Some do not have a queen as such, but all working females can reproduce. There are also species in whose nests several queens live. A classic example of this is the nests of house ants (pharaoh ants).
Queen ants can live up to 20 years
The usual lifespan of a queen that has managed to establish a colony is 5-6 years, but some live up to 12 or even 20 years! In the world of insects, this is a record: most single insects, even larger ones, live for several months at most. Only in some cicadas and beetles, the full life expectancy, including the larval stage, can reach 6-7 years.
This interesting fact does not mean at all that all queens have such a life expectancy: most fertilized females die after the summer, and a significant part of the established colonies also die out for various reasons in the first year of their existence.
There are slave ants
The connections of different ants with each other are so diverse that even people can sometimes envy them.
For example, in a whole genus of Amazon ants, worker ants do not know how to feed and care for the nest on their own. But they know how to attack the nests of other, smaller species of ants and steal larvae from them. The ants developing from these larvae will subsequently care for other than their queen and soldiers.
In other species, this behavior has gone so far that the queen simply enters someone else’s anthill, kills the queen living there, and the worker ants recognize her as their own and care for her and her offspring. After this, the anthill itself is doomed: from the eggs of such a female, only females capable of capturing the anthill of another species will develop, and with the death of all the working ants, the colony will be empty.
There are also benign cases of slavery. For example, the queen steals several pupae to found a colony, and the ants developing from them help her at the very initial stage of colony development. Further, the colony develops with the help of the descendants of the queen herself.
Ants can learn
Interesting facts about ants related to the phenomenon of learning attract the close attention of many scientists.
For example, in some species of ants, those individuals that managed to find food teach others to find a place with food. Moreover, if, for example, in bees this information is transmitted during a special dance, then the ant specifically teaches another to follow a specific route.
Video: ants build a living bridge with their bodies
Experiments have also verified that during training, the teacher ant reaches the desired point four times slower than it would reach it on its own.
Ants know how to farm
This interesting feature of ants has been known for a long time - South American ones use the most complex food chain in the animal world:
- some members of the colony bite off a large piece of a tree leaf and bring it to the anthill
- smaller individuals that never leave the colony chew the leaves, mix them with excrement and parts of a special mycelium
- the resulting mass is stored in special areas of the anthill - real beds - where mushrooms develop on it, providing the ants with protein food.
The interesting thing about ants is that they do not eat the fruiting bodies themselves - they feed on special growths of the mycelium. Some members of the colony constantly bite off the emerging fruiting bodies, preventing the mycelium from wasting nutrients on useless stems and caps.
This is interesting
When a fertilized young female leaves the nest, she carries away a tiny piece of mycelium in a special pocket on her head. It is precisely this reserve that is the basis for the well-being of the future colony.
Apart from ants, only humans and termites have learned to cultivate other living organisms for their own benefit.
Relationship between ants and aphids
The herding tendencies of ants are known to many: some anthills are so dependent on swarms of aphids that when the latter die out, they also die. Scientists believe that the release of secretion at one time was a protective reaction of aphids from attack by enemies, only the secretion itself was sharp-smelling and toxic.
But one day, natural selection suggested to pests that ants could not be scared away, but rather lured and forced to protect themselves. This is how a unique example of symbiosis of two completely different groups of insects arose: aphids share sweet, healthy and satisfying secretions with ants, and the ants protect them.
The secretions of aphids that attract ants are called honeydew. In addition to aphids, scale insects, scale insects and some cicadas share it with ants.
Interestingly, many insects have learned to secrete a secret that is attractive to ants in order to penetrate their nests. Some beetles, caterpillars and butterflies feed on the reserves of the ants themselves in the anthill, while the ants do not touch them precisely because of their ability to share honeydew. Some such guests in anthills simply devour ant larvae, and the ants themselves are ready to forgive their treachery for a drop of sweet secretion.
The above are just some interesting facts about ants. In the biology of each species of these insects you can find something unique and original.
It is thanks to this uniqueness and abundance of specific adaptive features that they managed to become one of the most numerous and advanced groups of arthropods in general.
Interesting video: a battle between two ant colonies
Today we will tell you interesting facts about ants that will allow you to get to know these insects better. Surely you don’t know how much one ant weighs. What do they do during the winter months? And only a few people know that these little creatures can be useful.
External structure
The ant family has a fairly large number of species, but they are all united by their body structure. As you know, there are worker ants that constantly leave the nest and scurry around in search of food. These individuals are wingless, regardless of sex, and only females have them during the mating flight. After this, the females bite off their wings and become the same as other worker ants.
The body of these insects is covered with a chitinous shell and has the following structure:
- head;
- prothorax;
- abdomen.
Each individual species of ant has its own head structure, on which mandibles are located, designed to carry food, building material and, of course, for protection.
The eyes of these insects are compounded - they consist of several lenses. But not all types of ants are sighted. For example, the Dracula ant has no eyes at all and is completely blind. And those species that have eyes are not able to distinguish objects, but can only recognize movements. Some of the species also respond to the degree of illumination of the space and the polarization of light.
The antennae play the role of sensory organs - with their help, the ant recognizes odors, picks up vibrations and vibrations in the air, receives and transmits signals in direct contact with other individuals.
On a note! It is characteristic that only ants have such antennae. Other insects lack them.
Some species are “armed” with a sting, which is located at the end of the abdomen. It serves the ants both for protection and for hunting.
Let's look at the paws
With the help of legs, an ant can not only move, but in fact they are intended for various functions:
- the first pair of legs is equipped with peculiar brushes, with the help of which insects clean their antennae and other legs;
- the hind legs are equipped with spurs, which are most often used for defense and attack when fighting with other ants;
- all the legs have small serrations that allow these insects to move along absolutely smooth and at the same time vertical surfaces;
On a note! Pharaoh ants move on glass with ease, which, for example, black cockroaches are not capable of.
- some species use their paws to swim across water obstacles. For example, a bulldog ant can overcome a puddle 15 cm wide.
Features of reproduction
Now we should consider how ants reproduce. This process is extremely effective. The fact is that offspring are produced by one female, which is called the uterus. She is constantly in the nest, laying eggs and caring for them. Besides her, there are males around the future offspring. Some of them are labor force, which from time to time leaves the nest to find food; the second part simply “looks after” the eggs, protecting them from enemies. In addition to the queen, there are other females in the anthill, but they are not able to reproduce and are the same labor force as the males.
Once a year, young females and males emerge from the pupae and can mate. During the mating flight they are winged, but immediately after fertilization the females leave the nest and try to find a new place to create their anthill. To provide herself with food, the newly-made queen gnaws off her wings.
House ants behave somewhat differently. Young queens do not organize new nests, but create peculiar “colonies”. At the same time, they spread to new territories only after the “native” anthill becomes too crowded. After “settlement,” a strong connection is constantly maintained between the main and daughter nests. You can learn more about the structure of an anthill in the article.
Important! For this reason, it becomes quite difficult to remove domestic ants. After all, it is necessary to detect all anthills in order to completely destroy the insect colony.
In the nests of domestic ants there are both working individuals and scouts, who treat the former “not with the deepest respect”, but rather perceive them as containers with seed material. As long as the area of the anthill allows it to accommodate all those present, the queens in it do not show hostility towards each other. Although males can even destroy some of them, most often those who lay few eggs.
Ant weight
How much does an ant weigh? The answer to this question will depend solely on the type of insect:
- our “native” red and black ants weigh from 5 to 7 mg;
- the house pharaoh ant is the lightest - 1-2 mg;
- bullet ant is the heaviest and weighs about 90 mg;
- and the weight of the uterus of the African wandering ant can reach 10 g.
But what is most surprising is that the total mass of all ants living on the planet is equal to the mass of all humanity, and this is no less than 1,000,000,000 tons! And if you believe the calculations of scientists, then there are 10,000,000 ants per person.
Ant wintering
What do you think ants do in winter? Sleeping - many will answer. No, you're wrong. Their life continues to boil. A few species enter a state of diapause, when the internal organs of insects reduce their work, but do not completely stop it.
Ants spend the winter months in the same anthills in which they are active. And to prevent frosty air from penetrating inside, insects carefully seal the entrances with dry leaves. Sometimes they are lowered into the lower “compartment” of the nest, where a warmer temperature is maintained.
During wintering, ants are inactive and do not feed as often. But if there are larvae in the nest, then the adults remain fully active and feed the offspring. In addition, due to temperature fluctuations, the upper layers of the anthill periodically get wet and the ants are constantly forced to transfer food supplies to dry compartments.
On a note! Under harsh climatic conditions, for example, in northern regions, ants are able to tolerate especially low temperatures. Thus, the body temperature of -58°C was recorded in larvae wintering in Kolyma. This figure is the lowest for insects in general.
Some species of ants that do not have diapause are forced to remain active throughout the winter. To survive, they stock up on food during the autumn months, which should last until the thaw. At this time, the workforce is repairing the nest and trying to maintain the microclimate.
The larvae of these types of ants require protein food to grow, which is impossible to obtain in winter conditions. Before the arrival of cold weather, they develop to the state of adults and then go to winter. And with the onset of spring, when access to protein food opens, the queen begins to produce new offspring.
The benefits of small insects
Do you know how ants are useful? In fact, these tiny insects perform many difficult ecological functions and are capable of providing invaluable services to humans.
For nature
- They take an active part in regulating the number of harmful insects, simply by eating their larvae.
Interesting fact! In just one season, thanks to one anthill, from 100,000 to 1,000,000 pests are destroyed.
- Promotes the spread of plants. As you know, ants constantly carry food for the queen and most often plant seeds play this role. But the workers are not able to drag all the “catch” to the nest. And the lost part simply germinates.
- Helps flowers with pollination. Ants are sweet tooths that love to enjoy nectar, and as a result, they carry pollen from one flower to another on their legs.
- Increases soil fertility. By making underground passages, insects loosen the soil, saturate it with oxygen and enrich it with organic compounds and minerals.
Now you understand why ants are considered forest orderlies.
ANTS
(Formicidae), a family of stalked-bellied insects of the order Hymenoptera (Hymenoptera), which also includes wasps, bees, sawflies, ichneumon wasps and gall moths. It is divided into 12 living and extinct subfamilies, comprising 297 genera with approximately 8800 species. The difficulty of classifying ants is associated with two phenomena - the presence of twin species and hybrids. Myrmecologists (zoologists specializing in the study of ants) know that the first, i.e. There are quite a lot of species among ants that are practically indistinguishable in appearance. As a result, a species described by anatomical (morphological) characteristics of a small number of individuals often has to be divided into two or more independent ones - reproductively isolated from each other. They can be distinguished from each other on the basis of statistical analysis of measurements of very large numbers (large samples) of individuals, based on chromosomal (genetic) or biochemical (enzyme) characteristics. On the contrary, two closely related species of ants, which are easily distinguishable by external characteristics, often interbreed in places where they live together and give rise to hybrid forms. If these hybrids are fertile, then we are not talking about independent species, but only about different races of the same thing (by definition, the offspring from crossing different species are infertile.)
Abundance. Ants are social insects that live on the ground and trees all over the world, except Antarctica, Iceland, Greenland and some islands remote from the continents. Thanks to this cosmopolitan distribution, abundance and their clearly visible colonies, ants are known everywhere. Ants are the most evolutionarily advanced family of insects in terms of behavior, ecology and physiology. Their colonies are complex social formations with a division of labor and communication systems that allow individuals to coordinate their actions in performing tasks that are beyond the capabilities of one individual. In addition, many ant species maintain highly developed symbiotic relationships with other insects and plants. The advantages given to ants by cooperation have led to the fact that today they are the dominant group of arthropods in terms of numbers. Thus, on 1 acre (0.4 ha) of savannah in Cote d'Ivoire (Africa) there are 8 million ants, forming approximately 3,000 colonies. Together with termites (another large group of social insects), ants make up a third of the total biomass of terrestrial animals in the Amazon rainforest. In other words, with an average population density of 3.25 million ants and 0.4 million termites per acre, they collectively weigh only half as much as all other land animals in the rainforest. climate, there are fewer of them, but the numbers are still impressive: 76 species of ants from 30 genera were found in an area of 8 sq. km in Florida, and 87 species of ants from 23 genera were found in an area of 5.5 sq. km in Michigan.
THREE ANTS COMMON IN THE USA:
a - Pennsylvania carpenter ant, which gnaws its nests in wood, but does not feed on it; b - red forest ant, living almost throughout the planet; c - the queen of the Argentine ant, who has just shed her wings.
Environmental and economic significance. Such numerous and, moreover, colonial animals cannot but change, and in a significant way, the environment they inhabit. In temperate forests they move and aerate soil no less, and in tropical forests - more than earthworms. In tropical rainforests, 99.9% of nutrients would remain in the top 5 cm of soil if they were not transported deeper by animals. Leaf-cutter ants of the genus Atta carry plant material there to a depth of 6 m. Seed-eating ants contribute to the dispersal of many plants. In the southwestern United States, harvester ants of the genus Pogonomyrmex are the main granivores and successfully compete with mammals for food. Many ants are important links in food chains as predators of invertebrates (other insects, etc.), and some species are specifically used by humans to control agricultural pests. However, the life activity of ants sometimes contradicts the interests of people. Thus, leaf-cutting ants from the genera Acromyrmex and Atta are the most harmful pests of cultivated plants in Central and South America. The species Solenopsis richteri and S. invicta, introduced accidentally into the United States from South America around 1918 and 1940, respectively, have now colonized ca. 105 million hectares of agricultural area in nine southeastern states. They not only harm crops, but can also painfully bite humans and livestock, kill wild animals, damage roads by making passages under their surfaces, and electrical equipment, for example, in traffic lights (for unknown reasons, they are attracted to electric fields.)
Species S. geminata, originally from the southeastern United States and northern South America, penetrated with commercial cargo to India, Taiwan, the Malay Archipelago, Polynesia and several areas of Africa. Such species, called aliens, often settle in new regions in habitats that have been heavily modified by humans, such as cities. One of them, the pharaoh ant (Monomorium pharaonis), became a cosmopolitan, inhabiting spaces inside the walls of buildings. It causes significant harm by penetrating and contaminating the sterile areas of hospitals. The Argentine ant (Iridomyrmex humulis) is another well-known alien species that was an agricultural pest in the southeastern United States until its numbers there declined for unknown reasons. The species Wasmannia auropunctata, introduced to the Galapagos Islands, has become a threat to the unique fauna of this archipelago.
Evolution. Ants are close relatives of wasps, and some researchers even consider them to be a kind of highly specialized wasp. Both winged ants (male and queen) and wingless wasps (female Germans) are known. However, in general, ants differ in appearance from wasps by the presence in front of the abdomen of a clearly visible stalk of one or two knotty widened segments, where there is often a protrusion sticking up. Their other distinctive feature is the paired metapleural gland, located immediately in front of the stalk in the posterior corners of the mesosoma (the part of the body between the head and abdomen, which in most insects is called the thorax) and is often noticeable there by swellings - “bulls”. Although the anatomical and behavioral similarities of ants to wasps had long led to the latter being considered their ancestors, this point of view was scientifically confirmed only in 1967, when two fossil specimens were found in amber from New Jersey that corresponded, so to speak, to “wasp ants.” ", i.e. transitional form between the two groups. It was named Sphecomyrma freyi. This species dates back to the end of the Cretaceous period (approximately 80 million years ago) and is almost ideally suited to the role of link connecting ants with solitary wasps of the superfamily Vespoidea. Its anatomy mosaically combines ant and wasp characteristics, but taxonomically the species belongs to ants, since it has metapleural glands. Since then, many other fossil specimens have been discovered, placed in the genera Sphecomyrma and Cretomyrma, which are combined into the subfamily Sphecomyrminae. Judging by these finds, in the Middle - Late Cretaceous, several species of primitive ants were widespread throughout Laurasia, a supercontinent that later divided into Eurasia and North America. At least 65 million years ago, they began to diverge evolutionarily, adapting to different habitats (ecological niches). At the same time, there was a divergence of angiosperms, or flowering plants, which became dominant in communities, and most likely at the same time their symbiotic relationships with ants began to develop.
NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION OF ANTS
Insects that form large aggregations are not necessarily eusocial, i.e. truly public. Sociobiologists distinguish several levels of organization of group life. Insects are called communal if individuals of one generation occupy one compound nest, but each one cares only about its own offspring. In semisocial species, there is a reproductive division of labor between the sexual caste and sterile workers, but they all belong to the same generation. In the nests of eusocial taxa, in addition to various castes, there are several working generations: the older ones take care of their younger brothers and sisters. Eusociality is known only in two orders of insects - termites (Isoptera) and hymenoptera (Hymenoptera). All ants are eusocial, while bees and wasps exhibit different levels of social organization. Ants in a colony are divided into four main categories: 1) males and virgin females awaiting mating summer (which does not always occur for them); 2) fertile queen, or uterus (in some cases there are several of them); 3) workers, sometimes comprising several subcastes; 4) brood (eggs, larvae and pupae).
Males. The ant community consists mainly of females. The few males, with rare exceptions, do not take part in the life of the colony. They remain in the nest until the mating summer, and after it they find themselves homeless and unable to take care of themselves. Basically, their only function is mating, and once they have completed it, they quickly die. With few exceptions, males develop from unfertilized eggs, i.e. genetically haploid - they have only one set of chromosomes, inherited from the mother's egg.
Females. Non-breeding workers, like fertile queens, are female by genotype, but their reproductive system is usually underdeveloped. Both of them develop from fertilized eggs, i.e. are diploid - they have two sets of chromosomes, derived from the sperm and the egg. This seemingly universal system is complicated by the presence of thelytoky, i.e. the development of females from unfertilized eggs, for example in Pristomyrmex pungens, the presence of diploid males, in particular in S. invicta and Formica exsecta, and the laying of viable eggs by workers in some species. Although all fertilized eggs are genetically capable of developing into queens, in most species the bulk of them produce workers. The physiological mechanisms that determine whether an egg will be fertilized and a representative of which caste will be obtained if it is fertilized have not been fully elucidated. It is only clear that, unlike honey bees, this is determined by workers who do not feed the larvae. At the same time, the development of the queen depends on the feeding habits and temperature conditions. It is also known that in the genera Solenopsis, Monomorium and Myrmica, a certain threshold proportion of virgin females in the nest suppresses their further emergence.
Workers. The worker caste is usually divided into three subcastes of varying sizes - small, medium and large individuals. In most species, the transition between them is gradual, and this division is partly arbitrary, but in some cases there are two clearly defined groups - small and large workers. The first ones in a number of species mainly or completely perform protective functions and are called soldiers. In granivorous forms, they are often also involved in grinding, i.e. cleaning the seeds from the shells and grinding their nutritious part, the endosperm. Small and medium-sized workers perform a variety of tasks that change with age. At first they work as nannies, feeding and cleaning the brood, then they become builders, expanding and repairing the nest, and the oldest (and most often dying) perform the dangerous role of foragers, i.e. collect and bring food to the anthill. The amount of labor available for each specific task is optimized - it is set and maintained within the most efficient limits by regulating the life span during which individuals perform a particular function.
Brood. The development cycle of ants, like that of all Hymenoptera, includes complete metamorphosis (holometaboly). The egg hatches into a larva, the only growing stage of the insect. Her cuticle, i.e. The outer cover stretches only within certain limits, so during growth it changes several times - molting occurs. Accordingly, several age stages of the larva are distinguished: the first - from hatching to the first molt, the second - until the second moult, etc. Ants typically have four larval stages that culminate in pupation, although some species have three or five. Before turning into a pupa, the larva stops feeding, regurgitates meconium (the contents of its intestines) and, in most ants, surrounds itself with a silk cocoon (it is these cocoons that are popularly called ant eggs). Inside the pupa, a radical restructuring of the insect's body occurs - the legless, sac-like larva turns into a morphologically complex adult (imago). All previous stages of the ant life cycle are combined under the name “brood”.
ANANT AND ITS BREED: in the background is a sac-like larva, which, during metamorphosis, including the pupa stage (in front), turns into an adult insect (imago).
OPERATION OF THE COLONY
YELLOW GARDEN LESS builds earthen mounds in the fields and digs tunnels to the roots of the corn. Ants collect aphids from surrounding plants and transfer them to these roots. Aphids feed on corn sap, and lasia feed on honeydew (honeydew) secreted by aphids.
SPECIALIZED LIFE STRATEGIES
Many ants, in the course of evolution, have developed forms of behavior that are very similar in appearance to some of the activities of civilized humans.
"Cattle breeding". Ants from the evolutionarily advanced subfamilies Formicinae, Myrmicinae and Dolichoderinae “graze” insects from the order Homoptera - aphids, leafhoppers and scale insects. This type of symbiosis is called trophobiosis and is a species-specific mutualism. Homoptera protected by ants secrete the so-called. honeydew, or honeydew, is a saturated solution of sugars, also containing amino acids, proteins, vitamins and minerals. By collecting honeydew, ants protect symbionts from predators, and sometimes even transfer them to fresh shoots of the host plant. The latter, in turn, can also benefit from this: some “cattle breeder” ants attack phytophagous insects that are much more harmful than aphids. Trophobiosis reaches its extreme expression in nomadic ants, which, moving themselves, drive aphids to new “pastures” and “herds.” This symbiosis is obligatory - partners cannot live without each other. Basically, honeydew does not contain all the nutrients ants need, so they are forced to diversify their diet. It is believed that nomadic "herder" ants (and perhaps other species when necessary) eat some of their aphids. Trophobiotic aphids are morphologically and behaviorally adapted to "grazing" - sometimes they even lose the ability to jump. Some of their species apparently signal their presence to ants through special postures, touches, and allomones they secrete.
"Slavery". To varying degrees, a pronounced dependence on the labor of “slaves” is characteristic of many species of ants. In its simplest form, slavery is an unnecessary by-product of territorial conflicts or raids on small colonies for food. Dead and wounded rivals are eaten by the victors, and the surviving workers and brood can be “driven into slavery”: for the rest of their lives they will serve the nest of owners belonging to a different or the same species. However, it is logical to talk about true slavery only in the latter case, and in the former, the analogy with the use of pack animals by humans is more suitable. For Amazon ants (Polyergus), slavery is the only way to exist. These large ants are born warriors, highly skilled paratroopers armed with powerful mandibles. They can neither build nor gather food. Their only job is to attack the nests of ants of other species and take them into slavery. Slaves feed and clean their masters, raise their brood and build a nest for them - in the image and likeness of their own.
Tailor ants. These tree ants are so named because they build nests from leaves joined by silk fibers, the green leaves and stems thus “sewn together” making a frame, and some walls and galleries are entirely silk. The source of threads is larvae with large spinning glands. Unlike ants, which live in chambers provided for them by host plants, tailor ants determine the size and location of their nests. Since they are not limited by space, a colony can unite more than 500,000 individuals (and the workers are quite large) and occupy several trees. In fact, they are the most numerous social insects of the Old World. Weaver ants are active predators, and since they nest almost anywhere there are trees, they were once used (and even sold) to control pests of citrus and cocoa.
Mushroom farming. The mushrooms are farmed and eaten by approximately 190 species of mostly New World tropical ants. The more primitive of them use pieces of insects and feces as a substrate for mycelium, and the two most evolutionarily advanced genera, leaf-cutter ants Atta and Acromyrmex, use parts of leaves cut from living plants. They carry pieces of leaves into the nest, as if covering themselves with them, which is why they are sometimes called umbrella ants. In the nest, the leaves are further crushed and chewed into a pulp, which is “filled” with droplets of clear liquid secreted by the ants from the anus and containing enzymes. Some of them are synthesized by fungi - they pass through the ant's body without being destroyed, and help them digest food, since leaf cutters lack their own digestive enzymes. The finished substrate is placed in a special chamber (“mushroom garden”), and a piece of mycelium (mycelium) is transferred to it. Ants continuously take care of their plantations, renewing and sowing the “beds,” “weeding” them and treating them with antibiotics and growth hormones. The tops of the growing mushroom fibers (hyphae) expand into oval bodies called gongylids, which are eaten by ants. However, the nutrition of leaf cutters is not so simple. The larvae apparently have enough mushrooms, the workers only diversify their main diet of plant sap with them, and the queen eats mainly the food eggs laid by the workers. The fungi provide the ants with digestive enzymes and break down the cellulose of leaves into soluble sugars that feed the mushroom growers.
Stray ants. American and African wandering ants (subfamilies Ecitoninae and Dorylinae, respectively) are predators that go out hunting in large numbers and spend their lives on the road with short rests. The colonies of some of their species are huge, and the consequences of raids are often catastrophic. Stray ants live mainly in the tropics, but the species Neivamyrmex, Nomamyrmex and Labidus are found in the United States. The largest colonies are known for Dorylus wilverthi - they contain up to 22 million individuals. Ants are large, with powerful cutting mandibles, capable of killing even small vertebrates. However, the marches of these insects do not cause much horror - the speed of the column is only approx. 20 m per hour. The migration lasts several days, the stay lasts from a week to three months. During the sedentary phase, ants live in nests underground, from which foraging troops emerge daily. Queen ants D. wilverthi are the largest ants in the world: their length is more than 5 cm. This species is very abundant in places in Africa; its maximum population density is approximately three colonies per hectare. In the wandering ants of the New World, belonging to the genus Eciton, sedentary and nomadic phases alternate cyclically; each lasts two to three weeks. Their replacement is determined by the reproductive cycle. When the column stops, the queen's ovaries begin to fill with eggs. In a few days in the middle of the sedentary phase, 100,000-300,000 eggs are laid, from which larvae hatch towards the end of the phase, and after a few days, young adults emerge from the cocoons of the previous reproductive cycle. Having been replenished with thousands of new adult members, the colony sharply intensifies daily foraging and goes on a campaign. Migration continues until all the larvae have been fed. When they pupate, movement slows and the colony enters a sedentary phase. When migrating, these ants move during daylight hours, covering 100-300 m per hour in a column consisting of a “head” 10-15 m wide and 1-2 m long and a tapering tail, which sometimes stretches 45 m. The soldiers concentrate on the periphery columns, and smaller workers - in its interior. The former protect their relatives, and the latter carry brood in their mandibles, catch and drag prey, and choose a place to rest. The food consists of invertebrates; these ants can kill reptiles and birds nesting on the ground, but lack the cutting mandibles characteristic of African Dorylidae, and therefore are not able to cut up and eat large victims. At night the column stops. Between 150,000 and 700,000 workers interlock with their claws to form a living nest that grows layer by layer like a snowball, becoming a cylindrical or ovoid mass up to one meter in diameter. In the center of the nest there is a single queen and brood. During the dry season, thousands of winged males fly away in search of “brides” and only a few wingless females appear. Mating occurs within the colony. For rest stops, places are usually chosen between the plank-shaped roots of forest trees and under fallen trunks.
Collier's Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .
As one of the oldest species living on Earth, the ant family has been a valuable research subject for entomologists for many years. Which is not surprising! These tiny creatures have characteristics that are reflected in modern intelligent human society.
This is definitely worth learning more about. So now the most interesting facts about ants will be listed. Both for 3rd grade elementary school and for adults who want to learn more about this topic, they will be useful information.
Spreading
The degree of prevalence and numerous species of ants is amazing: insects live in almost all parts of the planet, with the exception of the eternally snow-covered Antarctica, and the number of species, according to various estimates, reaches from 13,500 to 14,000. Most of them live in the tropics.
An interesting fact about ants: about 290 species of these creatures live in Russia. The largest populations are found in the southern part of Latin America, the Amazon jungle, South and Central Africa. Ants living in the tropics and African savannas are especially aggressive.
Anatomy and food preferences
These insects vary both in size and in feeding preferences. But what they have in common is their anatomy.
Whether it is the world's most common black ant, which is better adapted to life with humans and has a modest size, or Dinoponera gigantea, the world's largest member of the family, living in South America and reaching 30 mm in length, all ants have approximately the same anatomy . It is expressed in the following structure: head with antennae, prothorax, abdomen, 6 legs.
The difference in anatomy is manifested only in color, the presence of chitinous formations on the heads of representatives of some species, as well as in the size of the grasping mandibles. Some species have quite toxic poison that can cause severe discomfort, itching and even an allergic reaction.
They feed depending on their habitat. Mainly household waste (crumbs, microparticles of food), if they are yellow, red or black house ants. In nature, they can eat aphids and plant sap. Some harmful species feed on wood. Aggressive, large, poisonous African ants are carnivores and can eat carrion or dying animals.
During the fattening period of the larvae, representatives of all species switch to a diet consisting of other insects. The harvester ant prefers microfungal organisms and seeds. Most species do not deny themselves the pleasure of tasting sweet fruits.
Progressive Insect Society
The main similarity between ant and human societies is the high dependence of their representatives and the inability to live in isolation. An interesting fact about ants: they, like people, are capable of cooperation and are inclined to share responsibilities, on the basis of which they form strata by type of activity. Their survival as a species over the years has depended not on evolution, but on their commitment to collectivism. This gave entomologists the basis to call multimillion-dollar ant colonies universal “superorganisms.”
Any species is characterized by hierarchy, structuring, caste society and sacrifice. Listing interesting facts from the life of ants for children, I would like to note that the castes of the society of these insects include “workers” and “scouts” (females deprived of reproductive function) who search for and obtain food, as well as soldiers (large individuals with strong mandibles) protecting the colony.
Distribution of roles
Males, whose main task is fertilization, are born less frequently than females and serve as inseminators. Their lifespan does not exceed several weeks. Females are more valuable and versatile. Since even infertile workers are capable of degenerating into full-fledged insects with normal reproductive function.
The queen ant is the largest female and lives 10-20 years. Its main task is to lay larvae. Some colonies may have multiple queens. In cases where the queen does not lay enough eggs, the ants are able to expel her and choose a new queen.
Another feature of these insects as a developed society is their ability to analyze the activities of their relatives. They recognize parasitism and exterminate idle ants. On the other hand, they are able to show care for wounded relatives. When one ant loses a limb and is unable to feed itself, others bring it food and give it the opportunity to get stronger instead of getting rid of the patient.
They are the only insects that practice stealing pupae of ants of other species, which subsequently perform the same functions in the new anthill as native insects. This practice even has a name! It is customary to call this “ant slavery.”
Features of the anthill structure
They are also worth noting, telling interesting facts about ants for children. Few people know, but these insects are huge owners and do not allow uninvited guests to stay on their territory.
The “soldiers” are serving regularly. They protect the common house from attacks not only by insects, but also from other types of ants. The structure of the anthill itself is also interesting, which is a huge residential complex divided into sectors. The length of some of these “dwellings” is tens of kilometers.
It’s amazing how detailed and thoughtfully ants organize their life. The labor productivity of these insects is amazing. No other living being is capable of performing its duties without interruption from day to day. The constant search for food, the processes of accumulation, preparation for wintering, reproduction, disposal of waste - all this must be taken into account when building an anthill.
Usually this structure looks like this: an elevated dome-shaped pile of twigs, blades of grass and forest litter with earth plays the role of an upper, heated sector, through which ventilation and sunlight access systems are laid. On the lower levels there are storage areas for food, wintering chambers, a separate spacious room for the queen, a compartment for storing inorganic waste and building materials, storage areas for eggs and aphids, as well as an ant cemetery where dead insects are stored.
And here’s another interesting fact about ants: these creatures are characterized by high cleanliness and a penchant for order, so researchers have repeatedly observed not only the transportation of food and building materials inside the anthill, but also its cleaning by workers.
Wintering
It does not correspond to traditional understandings of the meaning of this process. The “hibernation” characteristic of mammals is not familiar to all ants. Only some species fall into a state of suspended animation. In most cases, anthills are full of life even in winter.
To ensure comfortable well-being during the cold season, insects carefully seal all openings and transport food to moisture-protected areas of the anthill. The processes of reproduction of offspring during this period are suspended, due to considerations of saving provisions.
Few people know this interesting fact about ants: insects that winter in particularly harsh climatic conditions are able to survive extreme drops in ambient temperature. In some cases, the larvae recorded a temperature of -50 degrees, after which they successfully came to life when the thaw set in.
The role of ants in nature
When telling interesting facts about ants for children, it is worth mentioning: there are species in their kingdom that make their home in the trunks of dead trees. Thus, they catalyze the process of wood decomposition.
Ants also actively interact with flora. They help spread plant seeds.
In gardening, their role is also quite important. Involuntarily, in the course of their daily work, ants transport a huge amount of nutrients and minerals into the soil, and the waste products of ants perform the function of organic fertilizer.
Relationships with other insects
This topic should also be noted with attention, considering the most interesting facts about ants. Most of these creatures are quite hostile towards other insects. Due to the peculiarities of their set of instincts, they perceive any other creature as potential prey.
For an ant, there is no such thing as a “too big” or “overwhelming” animal. When spiders, caterpillars, crickets or other insects are in close proximity, they will attack without hesitation and literally dismantle them for “spare parts.” Therefore, ants do not get along well with other representatives of the insect world, and with small animals too.
At the same time, being progressive and highly organized representatives of the fauna, these creatures mastered “cattle breeding.” Corn ants have learned to contain aphids and feed on their secretions. The shepherd ant is independently capable of controlling the feeding process of a group of aphids. In some cases, anthills have special rooms where aphids live. Ants regularly deliver food there. By the same principle, representatives of the red species are able to graze the Cicada Nymph and feed on its nectar.
They wage a war of extermination with insects of another species. Perceiving black ants as competitors, red ants push them out of their territory.
Good to know
Continuing to list interesting facts about ants, it is worth noting a number of interesting nuances:
In fact, you can still list many interesting facts from the life of ants. But the ones above are considered the most entertaining. However, even after getting acquainted with them, many are surprised - such small creatures, but they are of such great interest.
A message about ants for children will tell you a lot of useful information about these hard-working, little insects.
About ants for children
Ant: description for children
You will never confuse an ant with other insects. They are very active, wingless, fussy and constantly on the move. In nature, you rarely see a single ant, even when they are away from home. Such insects are called workers. In one nest their number can range from a thousand to a million individuals. An ant family may have one queen or several. The queen is constantly in the nest and does not leave it, since her wings are too weak to fly. She makes only one flight - mating, and then on a warm, windless day.
After fertilization, the males die, and the females sink to the ground and shed their wings. They are looking for a secluded place where they can breed. However, worker ants often discover their hiding place and drag them into their nest. Thus, there can be several queens in one nest.
Where do ants live?
These insects live in nests or anthills. Ant nests are usually connected to the ground. They can be in the form of mounds of soil or made from the remains of vegetation. Such nests are most common. Some insects live without mounds, just in the soil, or they settle under stones or in wood.
How do ants live? Insect feeding
Mostly all ants are predators, feeding their larvae with insects and other animal food. The basis of their diet: caterpillars and larvae. Worker ants also consume flowering vegetation and milk aphids.
Children about an ant: how do they communicate?
To communicate with each other, they use a variety of signals: touching another ant with their feet, antennae or head. They also use chemical signals. If disturbed, the insects take a defensive position: they rise on their hind legs and slightly tilt their abdomen forward. The ant releases a special liquid, which consists of an alarm substance and formic acid.
Ants that live in the same nest have the same smell. In this way, they recognize each other and do not allow other insects into their home.
- Ants are the oldest insects: they are more than 100 million years old. Today they can be found everywhere except Greenland, Iceland and Antarctica.
- The main occupation of the insect is preparing food reserves for winter.
- They only move in formation.
- Some ants are very poisonous. For example, if you are bitten by a Paraponera clavata ant, the pain will last for more than a day.
- Ants are the smartest insects. The brain consists of 250 thousand cells.
- In Mexico, ant eggs are eaten. The dish is called "escamoles".
We hope that the essay about ants helped you prepare for the lesson. And you can leave your little story about ants using the comment form below.