These mounds are made up of the dirt, sand and other material the ants must remove as they dig the underground tunnels and chambers in which they nest. In fact, most ant colonies stretch deep underground, some even as deep as 25 feet.
In terms of social organization, ant colonies are typically home to four different types of ants. The queen ant, as her name suggests, is both the founder and leader of the colony. Her primary function is to populate the colony by laying thousands of eggs. The queen's chambers are located deep within the ant colony as a protection against predators.
Queen ants live much longer than the drones and workers who serve her—in some species up to 30 years. They sport wings and are much larger than the average ant encountered outside the colony. Drones are male ants whose only function is to mate with the queen so she can lay her eggs. Drones die as soon as they've fulfilled this function and are rarely encountered outside the colony. Most ants are females, and nearly every ant encountered outside of the nest is a female.
Worker ants are females, but unlike the queen, they don't lay eggs. Instead, they're responsible for building and maintaining the nest, protecting the colony from other ants and, most importantly, feeding the colony. Workers forage for, gather and allocate food, making sure the queen's offspring will grow to fulfill their responsibilities to the colony.
Worker ants are never idle. Depending upon the ant species, workers can live as long as a few weeks or up to a full year. Sometime in the life of every ant colony, the queen lays eggs that hatch into winged males and females known as alates or reproductives.
Once they mature, these ants leave the colony in swarms. All organisms live within ecological communities and have important relationships with other organisms. You can see examples of positive and negative interactions in ants, humans, and many other species.
How would you classify an interaction between a child and a pet? What about a gardener and a vegetable? Or a bee and a flower? How about a human and an ant? We hope you will notice and think about the interactions that occur around you every day, though they are easy to miss. The more we know about interactions between plants, animals, and microorganisms, the better we will be at understanding how individual species and entire ecological communities function and change.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Piotr Naskrecki graciously granted permission to use his photograph as the basis for the original painting, Termite Raid Figure 2.
The interactions of ants with their biotic environment. B Biol. How do species interactions affect evolutionary dynamics across whole communities? The higher classification of the ant subfamily Ponerinae Hymenoptera: Formicidae , with a review of ponerine ecology and behavior. Zootaxa — The evolution of alternative parasitic life histories in large blue butterflies.
Nature — The Leafcutter Ants: Civilization by Instinct. New York, NY: Norton. Share on Facebook. In many dimorphic and polymorphic species, the size of the worker will influence its activities. For example, major workers may only be found in or near their nests while only minor workers forage away from the nest. This cooperation and division of labour, combined with their well-developed communication systems, has allowed ants to utilise their environment in ways approached by few other animals.
AntWiki: The Ants Online. Myrmecia workers tending eggs within their nest. Some species have multiple castes, such as this Pheidole with major and minor workers. Development stages of worker of Monomorium chilense R. Navigation menu Personal tools Log in. Namespaces Page Discussion. Some jobs of the colony include taking care of the eggs and babies, gathering food for the colony and building the anthills or mounds. Find more fun ant facts for kids in addition to ant control at the official NPMA website.
Argentine ants prefer sweet substances but will eat almost anything including meats, eggs, oils and fats. Also, when foraging for food, Argentine ants leave pheromone trails everywhere they go, instead of just from nest to food source. This habit ensures they do not waste time visiting the same area twice. While in other ant species worker ants are primarily responsible for gather food, Argentine queens also assist with foraging for food.
Argentine ant colonies are located in wet environments near a food source. These colonies can grow to monumental size, sometimes covering entire habitats, such as an entire garden or your whole back yard. Argentine ants do not pose a health threat, but they can contaminate food by leaving their bodily waste behind.
Teachers, are you looking for more instructive materials to share with your students? Carpenter ants get their name because they build their nests in wood. These insects can cause significant damage to your house. There are many types of carpenter ants throughout the U.
Each colony is established by a single, fertilized queen. She starts her nest in a cavity in wood, where she raises her first brood of workers. She feeds them saliva and does not leave the nest or feed herself during this time. When they are ready, those workers then get the job of gathering food to feed the next generation. Once mature, this first generation of worker ants work to increase the food supply for the colony.
The colony population grows very rapidly. A colony can eventually produce 2, or more workers. Carpenter ants do not eat the wood they remove during their nest-building activities, but deposit it outside entrances to the colony in small piles.
The diet of carpenter ants includes living and dead insects, meat, fats and sugary foods of all kinds, including honeydew and nectar from plants. Carpenter ants build nests anywhere they can find water and moldy or damp wood, such as tree stumps, firewood or in the plants around your house. These tunnels weaken the wood and potentially damage the wood that keeps the house standing.
This kind of damage can be very expensive to fix. School teachers — are you interested in more ant and insect materials to share with your students? Find additional information on carpenter ants at the official NPMA website. This ant gets its name from the strong, rotten coconut-like smells it gives off when crushed and the fact that they commonly nest in or around houses.
0コメント