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The social structure of ants cannot but amaze: not only are there females, males, and workers among them, but there are also species that contain slaves in their nest, who, being larvae, were taken captive from another anthill. True, these slaves perform the same functions that they would do in their nest, only they take care of the descendants of a foreign species, not their own.
Despite the fact that absolutely all types of ants are predators, they not only catch or pick up prey, but also grow mushrooms, keep livestock, which is aphid, and are the only creatures in the world, with the exception of humans, conducting agricultural activities.
These hardworking insects
Black, red, red ants belong to a family of insects that belongs to the superfamily Antidae from the order Hymenoptera, which also includes wasps, bees, ichneumon wasps, sawflies and gall moths. In total, there are more than 13 thousand species of ants, most of which live in tropical latitudes (for comparison: 1,150 species live in the Palearctic, about three hundred in Russia).
The number of this family, according to various sources, ranges from 10 to 25% of the biomass of all terrestrial creatures. True, their weight is extremely small. For example, in the Amazon forests there are 800 million ants per square kilometer, while in total all forest ants weigh half as much as the rest of the inhabitants of the area.
Red, black and red ants are distributed throughout the world. It is worth noting that not only forest and garden ants, but also ants in the house are a common occurrence. They are not found except in cold Antarctica and several islands located far from the continent.
Interesting facts about raccoons91694.714
Insects build anthills wherever they can, using mainly soil and plants for construction. Their nests can be seen everywhere: on the ground, under stones, in logs, underground; if they happen to settle in a house, they can build an anthill there too. An anthill should never be built in areas with dead insects, as this indicates the presence of disease or other danger.
Such good adaptability is largely due to excellent social organization, the ability to use various resources and maneuverability in their life: if necessary, they will easily change their place of residence.
Character and lifestyle of an ant
The life of ant insects actively influences biogenesis due to their abundance. They are unique in their type of nutrition, lifestyle and influence on organisms, plants and animals.
With their vital activity, the construction and reconstruction of anthills, they loosen the soil and help plants by feeding their roots with moisture and air. Their nests create ideal conditions for the development of bacteria that enrich the soil with useful substances and microelements.
Ant excrement serves as fertilizer. Various herbs grow vigorously near their homes. Forest insects ants contribute to the growth of oaks, pines and other trees.
Ants are hard-working insects and have extreme efficiency. They can lift loads weighing twenty times their own and move great distances. Ants are social insects .
This means that their social structure resembles that of humans. Tropical ants are distinguished by a particularly diverse caste. They have a queen, soldiers, workers and slaves.
Ants and other insects , such as wasps and bees, are unable to live without their community, and die apart from their own kind. An anthill is a single organism, each individual clan of which cannot exist without the others. Each caste in this hierarchy performs a specific function.
A substance secreted by ants, called “ant alcohol,” serves as a component for medicines for many diseases. Among them are bronchial asthma, diabetes mellitus, rheumatism, tuberculosis and many others. This substance is also used to prevent hair loss.
Description
In nature there are yellow, red, black, red ants, and many of them are not monochromatic, and combine these colors in their coloring.
Speaking about the ant, it should be borne in mind that depending on the species, its size can range from 1 to 50 mm and even more.
Red ants from the genus Mohomorium are considered the smallest: the length of working individuals is 1-2 mm, females and males - from 23 to 4 mm. As for the largest representatives, for example, African males of Dorylus can reach 3 cm, and the uterus during the maturation of eggs, due to a greatly enlarged abdomen, reaches five centimeters.
Despite the fact that ants' vision is poorly developed (and some are completely blind), they distinguish vibrations and movement very well. Their vision is successfully replaced by antennae located on the head, which detect chemicals, sense the movement of air masses, and, in addition, with their help, insects transmit and receive signals through touch.
The upper jaws (mandibles) of ants are so strong that they successfully use them to carry food, manipulate various objects, build an anthill and successfully defend themselves. Interestingly, in some species these jaws open 270° and snap shut like traps at speeds of up to 230 km/h.
Why is the ant so strong?
If you observe the behavior of “wild” ants, you can only be amazed at their tirelessness: they constantly loosen the soil, actively process all kinds of organic matter, and destroy small pests. In addition, their coordination and strength can be astonishing. Why are ants so strong even though they are tiny in size?
It's quite simple. In the case of various representatives of the fauna (after all, in living nature, not only ants are strong, for example, the scarab beetle is able to lift an object that exceeds its own weight by 850 times), the following pattern applies: muscles divided by a unit of body mass determine the strength of the individual. Therefore, the ant has muscles that are much stronger than the muscles of first-class athletes.
Lifestyle
An ant family is formed over many years, as a result of which the number of inhabited anthills can be several million (these are already colonies located near each other over vast territories).
Ant society is divided into three castes: females, males and workers. Taking into account the class, a division of labor occurs, and everyone is required to perform their functions at the proper level - from the queen to the worker (if they fail to cope with their duties, the queen is removed, the worker is killed).
It is not difficult to distinguish representatives of the three castes by external characteristics: while females and males have wings, workers (females with an underdeveloped reproductive system) do not. True, after fertilization, the queen’s wings usually either fall off, or she chews them off for herself, but even in this case, she can be distinguished by her enormous size.
While queens and workers emerge primarily from fertilized eggs, which contain the two sets of chromosomes they received from the egg and sperm, males emerge from unfertilized ones. Before turning into an adult, the red, red, black ant goes through the stages of egg, larva and pupa.
Uterus
One nest can contain from one to several females capable of producing offspring (queen). These individuals are externally distinguished by their larger size and have wings before fertilization.
The female mates only once in her entire life, taking off after the male when a certain moment approaches (this process is called mating flight). There are species that mate with only one male, and others with several dozen. As a result, the uterus receives a supply of sperm in an amount that it consumes throughout its life, and it lives from twelve to twenty years.
After fertilization, the queen either leaves and forms her own family, or remains in the old anthill. If she leaves, she must find a new place for the nest, create the first “room”, and some time later begin to lay eggs in it.
At the same time, in some species, the queen, in anticipation of the first offspring, leaves the anthill in search of food, in others, she sits incessantly on eggs and larvae, maintaining her existence with the help of fat reserves. The queen feeds the larvae with “food” eggs or with the help of the salivary secretion she secretes.
Due to the fact that no one helps her look after the first cubs, the first individuals turn out to be very small, one might even say dwarf.
It will be interesting to know about the queen ant that, contrary to popular belief, she is not the center of the family: the more queens in the nest, the less respectful they are treated. For example, they can give it to another anthill where there is no queen, and even kill it if fertility has decreased, after raising a new queen.
Males
Almost all males, with a few exceptions, emerge from unfertilized eggs, and therefore are carriers of only one set of chromosomes, the maternal one. Almost all of them have wings, and they fight so fiercely among themselves for young females that they often die. In fact, their entire role is reduced to fertilizing young queens, so after mating they die.
Workers
The overwhelming number of individuals are workers, females with an underdeveloped reproductive system, whose main task is to take care of the family living in the anthill. They do not have wings, they are not as large as females, they have smaller eyes, and in some species they are completely absent. The roles between workers are distributed largely depending on the characteristics of their body:
- Soldiers are large workers with disproportionately large heads and strong jaws (mandibles) that they can use effectively during combat. While there is no fighting, they perform the same functions as other working red or black ants;
- Nurses, as a rule, are young insects who look after the larvae, who tell them whether a red or black ant of what social status will appear. If necessary, they destroy excess female larvae (this is done to control the number of individuals capable of creating offspring) or change their feeding regime, creating a working individual;
- Foragers - scour in search of food and, having found it, inform the rest of the ants, laying marks to the nest using pheromones.
Among the ants there are builders (monitor the condition of the nest, dig tunnels, repair it), cleaners (clean the anthill and carry dead insects beyond its boundaries), honey barrels (keep reserves of liquid carbohydrate food), shepherds (graze livestock on the leaves, whose role is played by aphids) and representatives of other “professions”.
If it turns out that a worker is not engaged in his duties and copes poorly with them, he changes his profession, for example, a forager turns into a nanny. Insects and old ants do not abandon in trouble: they become watchmen, food keepers or observers. An equally interesting fact is that they care for the wounded and dying: they bring them food, for example, feed them the juice that aphids secrete until they are able to consume it.
How does an anthill work? Life of ants
The lifestyle of ants is very similar to human society: ants, like people, have their own professions.
Look at the structure of the anthill:
- Builder ants and engineers arrange their homes, build tunnels and communications.
- The military, or soldiers, protect the anthill from enemies and seize territory.
- Doctors treat relatives, isolate sick individuals, and, if necessary, perform surgical operations - chewing off damaged paws.
- Nurses look after the larvae.
- Foragers collect food and put it in rooms in the anthill specially designed for this.
- Farmers or livestock breeders are engaged in breeding aphids, cicadas, copperheads, and scale insects. They herd their “animals” and then milk them for delicious honeydew (the sweet secretion of these insects).
- Leaf-cutter ants collect and curl plant leaves, and then grow colonies of fungi from them, which serve as food for the ants. There are also fungus-farming ants, which use pieces of insects or feces to grow mushrooms.
- Harvester ants collect plant seeds.
- Carpenter ants collect the gum that plants secrete.
- Gravedigger ants deliver their deceased ants to the cemetery.
- These interesting insects have other equally interesting professions.
Pheromones in the life of insects
An important role in the life of insects is played by glands that secrete various substances; with the help of some, for example, pheromones, they communicate. For example, foragers fix the food they discover with the help of pheromones, and mark the road until all the food ends up in the anthill (as soon as this happens, they stop marking the road with pheromones, and the smell dissipates).
This method allows the ants to cope with unexpected obstacles: if an obstacle suddenly appears on the way, the foragers begin their work. Having found a new path, they mark the road to the anthill, and its relatives begin their journey along the laid route.
Another interesting fact about the ant is its ability, with the help of pheromones, to communicate about the family during the exchange of food (what it currently needs, for example, what kind of food or the need for work in the nest).
Also speaking about the ant, it should be borne in mind that each of them has glands that they use for defense and attack (they are poisonous and almost all species have a sting). For example, some glands produce an acidic secretion, while many of the poisons they produce are characterized by the presence of complex compounds in combination with allergenic proteins. If a black worker ant finds itself in trouble, in order to protect the nest, it commits suicide: as a result of a specific muscle contraction, its abdomen ruptures and the secretion of the gland, which contains substances that glue the enemy, is sprayed out in all directions.
Physical signals
Naturally, insects can communicate with each other not only with the help of pheromones, but also with sounds (some species chirp using abdominal segments), as well as touches (for example, begging for food). There are two opposing opinions: some scientists are convinced that they are absolutely deaf, others categorically disagree with this.
However, it is known for sure that insects sense the vibration of solid bodies very well, and some species definitely make sounds while at the pupal stage. For example, a black ant that has not yet been born communicates its social status to working nannies.
Fighting methods
The fight against pharaoh ants is complicated by the fact that they build nests in secluded corners, and only foragers go outside the anthill. You can kill these working individuals as much as you like, but this will not solve the problem. Therefore, using traps and sticky tapes, you can only slightly reduce the number of insects, which will recover very quickly. The nest must be destroyed along with the queens.
You can find an anthill by following where the insects take their prey. Having discovered one nest, you cannot calm down, since most often there are several more nearby.
In case of severe infection of the apartment, the best way would be to contact specialized services. They will help get rid of pests in a short time.
Chemicals
If pharaoh ants have just appeared in the apartment and you managed to find a nest, then you can use aerosols. Most likely, they have not yet had time to settle, so the problem is solved quickly. You need to choose products against crawling insects. Well proven:
- Battalion commander,
- Raptor,
- Dichlorvos.
Powder preparations or crayons are applied in places along the paths used by ants. The poison sticks to the pests' legs and gets into the nest. The following tools will help solve the problem:
- Fas-Double,
- Absolute,
- Mashenka.
Mashenka
Poisonous baits guarantee the destruction of entire colonies. Insects, taking food into the anthill, will not only die themselves, but will also poison the larvae and the queen. Experts advise using the following medications:
- Bros.
- A great warrior.
Folk remedies
You can try to remove pests using traditional methods:
- A remedy such as boric acid helps get rid of ants. It is either scattered in powder form at places where pests move, or used for poisonous baits. To do this, prepare a mixture of yolk, sugar and boric acid. The poison is placed in places where insects appear.
- Strong odors prevent ants from finding their usual paths, which means getting to food. Therefore, you can wipe all accessible surfaces with water with the addition of vinegar, garlic juice or herbal decoctions of wormwood, cloves, and elderberry.
- Honey mixed with borax is placed in small containers in places where insects have been spotted. The pests will soon disappear.
Nutrition
It can be said about ants that almost all of them are predators, scavengers, and also feed on plant foods (adults eat carbohydrate foods, larvae eat protein foods). They find food not only on the ground, but also an ant on a tree in search of food is a common occurrence. For protein food, they eat invertebrates, mainly insects: they pick up corpses, hunt and even raise livestock (aphids).
They get carbohydrate food from honeydew: it is given to them in abundance by their cattle and aphids (except that aphids secrete a special liquid, which red, red and black ants eat with pleasure, and the aphids themselves act as meat). They also feed on seeds, plant sap, nectar, and mushrooms (they often grow the mushrooms they need on their own).
They take all the prey to the anthill, where they distribute it among themselves (they never eat on the side). There are species that have a process in the esophagus, nicknamed the “social stomach”: in it, insects store food during transportation, and, having delivered it to the place, remove it, and then distribute it among the ants.
Where do ants live?
These insects can be observed on all continents, in all natural areas and climatic zones. They are absent only in the harsh climate of the Arctic and Antarctica, on the cold islands of Greenland and Iceland, as well as in sultry deserts. In areas with temperate and cold climates, ants hibernate in winter.
Basically, these insects build anthills for themselves in rotten or rotten wood, in the soil and under small stones. Some species of ants invade other people's nests or live near humans.
