Kind of insects are all about ants. The need for wood ants. The habits of black ants
Ants belong to the Hymenoptera order and are representatives of the insect family of the ant superfamily. There are more than 12 thousand species of these creatures on earth, differing in size and appearance. Many of them are beneficial to a person, while some are very dangerous for his health. The ant is a social insect. The following castes are usually formed: worker ants, male and female individuals. Distinctive characteristic males and females is the presence of wings, which they gnaw off after mating. Worker ants do not have them at all. This article will tell about the features of these unique creatures.
Where live
These tiny workers are distributed on the territory of all continents, the only exception is Antarctica. Insects live in, which they build themselves. The founders of such nests are females (wombs), whose function is not only to continue the genus, but also to select a suitable place. Each colony has only one. All other inhabitants of the anthill feed and protect her. A photo of the anthill where ants live can be seen below.
Interesting!
Male ants die almost immediately after with the female. Worker ants, or as they are also called foragers, take care of the rest of their family members, delivering food to them. Another function of worker ants is to protect the anthill from attack by enemies.
However, not all are clearly divided into castes. So they devote the beginning of their life to caring for eggs and larvae, in the next stage of their life they equip a nest, later their function is to get food. As a result, the anthill contains the largest number of living individuals.
External structure
Ants are insects that are considered one of the most famous and numerous in the world. The size of the ant and vary depending on the species. The body length can be from 1 to 50 mm. And most often they are and . Moreover, females are usually much larger than males. Body color depends on species.
Ant anatomy is quite complex. The body of the murash is covered with a chitinous shell. This kind of skeleton not only supports, but also protects the baby. The description of the appearance of different representatives is almost similar. The head, chest and abdomen are the structure of an ant. A photo of the ant can be seen below.
Head
The head of an ant is usually large in size, in each individual species it differs in a certain structure. It has powerful mandibles. With them, workers carry food, blades of grass and twigs used to build nests. Mandibles also help insects defend themselves.
Eyes
Not everyone can answer the question of how many eyes an ant has. The eyes of an insect are distinguished by a complex faceted structure. In addition to the paired ones, there are 3 more eyes. With them, tiny creatures determine the level of illumination and the plane of polarization of the light flux.
Interesting!
With so many eyes, the vision of ants is not the best. Most insects are myopic. Some representatives of this family are not able to distinguish objects, because they do not see at all. They can only respond to movements. There are also individuals that react to the level of illumination of the space.
Mouth
The mouth apparatus of an ant is of a gnawing type. It includes the jaws, which are also called mandibles or mandibles, the upper lip (labrum) and the lower lip (labium). Mandibles can be large and not very, overly sharp and completely blunt. They are also overlapping and interlocking. Thanks to this feature of ants, mandibles can chew food even with their mouths closed.
Goosebumps taste organ located on the lower lip. Insects still clean their bodies with them.
tendrils
The sensory organ of insects is the cranked antennae. They help ants to identify odors, to capture fluctuations and vibrations in the air. In addition, insects use this organ to receive and transmit signals while communicating with their relatives.
On a note!
An interesting fact is that only ants have antennae of this structure.
Abdomen
The abdomen of ants is stalked (the stalk forms one or two rings). It may have a vertical outgrowth or notches. Some species of ants have a stinger at the end of the abdomen, which serves as a tool for hunting and their protection. Thanks to him, insects secrete acid - a special substance that paralyzes the enemy.
Paws
The ant has 3 pairs of well-developed legs, each of which is located on a separate thoracic segment and ends with a hooked claw. Thanks to this feature, the movement of the ant can occur not only on a horizontal, but also on a vertical surface. A close-up photo of the ant is shown below.
It depends on how they travel. Not all ants move on foot, some species have the ability to jump. There are also gliding insects and runner ants that are able to form bridges over water barriers.
The paws serve the ant not only for moving. So with the front legs, equipped with special brushes, the insect takes care of its antennae. The spurs located on the hind limbs are used for attack and defense. And the presence of small notches available on all legs makes it possible for insects to move even along sheer smooth surfaces. An example of this is that they can quickly run on glass.
Internal structure
are unique in their own way and internal organs ant, which are located in the abdomen. So the esophagus ends not with the stomach, but with the so-called goiter. Its insects use it to collect food. If necessary, to treat his relative, the ant regurgitates part of the food from this hiding place. This is especially true for, which are also called barrels.
Nervous system
The nervous system of an insect includes several interconnected ganglia. So the supraesophageal ganglion, which acts as a brain, is responsible for the thinking and behavior of insects. It is much larger in relation to the body. The working ant has a particularly large brain, in females it is slightly smaller, in males it is the smallest.
circulatory system
The blood of ants is clear liquid- hemolymph. It is driven around the body by the dorsal vessel - the heart. It is a muscular tube that runs along the entire back.
Respiratory system
Respiratory system of tracheal type. The opening of the trachea occurs outward by stigmas (spiracles), which are located on each segment of the abdomen (on the stalk at the base of the scale).
What do ants eat
Another feature of these goosebumps is the ability to adapt to the environment. In this connection, these insects are omnivorous. In the spring and summer, worker ants supply food to the anthill every day. With the advent of cold weather, not all ant families fall into hibernation. As a result, they are forced to stock up on food in advance.
Goosebumps distribute food as follows:
- The uterus feeds exclusively on protein. Very often, the food intended for the queen is supplied by the worker ants already chewed.
- Worker ants have a carbohydrate diet. This includes the soft parts of berries and fruits, plant juices, their roots and seeds. With particular pleasure they eat honeydew, which is released by the plant during a sharp change. temperature regime. Another favorite delicacy of goosebumps is the sugar milk of aphids (pad). She makes up the majority of her diet. Such food is more nutritious and easy to digest.
- The larvae emerging from the pupa prefer the protein food contained in the remains. small insects, as well as in the eggs of various pests. For example, domestic ants are not averse to eating even household products: cottage cheese, meat, cheese or eggs. The growing ant generation will not refuse from domestic cockroaches of the Prussians.
Lifespan
Tiny creatures depend on them functional duties. Worker ants live 1-3 years, with larger insect species living longer than tiny ants. The life expectancy of representatives of this family living in tropical areas is much shorter than that of those who live in cold regions.
Interesting!
Depends on its position in the ant community. The uterus has the longest sleep.
Ant males live quite a bit - only a few weeks. Individuals that have participated in mating can be destroyed by stronger tribesmen, predatory insects, or any small animal.
The biggest long-liver of an ant colony is the queen queen, whose lifespan can reach up to 20 years. Soldier ants live longer than worker ants. Ants live even longer, spending most of their lives in an anthill.
The ant family is by far the most evolutionarily advanced. They live in colonies in which self-organization and division of labor are clearly traced. Ant individuals have a special "language", which allows them to convey complex information, as well as a smell that allows them to determine the belonging of individual individuals to a particular family. In nature, they maintain a symbiotic balance with other insect species, plants, bacteria, and fungi.
Today, science knows more than 14 thousand varieties of ants, 300 of which live in Russia. Not all of them are harmless to humans, and their population is increasing every year, so it is recommended to know as much as possible about them, especially when ants are constantly trying to take root in a house or apartment.
What are ants and what is their role in nature
Despite the beneficial ecological and agricultural features of ants, they can still harm humans by settling in human habitation. From a large number varieties of ants should be aware of the most dangerous to humans that live in nature and whose poisonous bites can be fatal to sensitive people.
ant family
Despite different kinds ants, all of them do not live as separate individuals, but build common Home- an anthill, within which they multiply their population. In each of these ant settlements, ants are divided into groups that perform a specific task.
The colonial way of life of these insects contributes to the subsequent division of one anthill into several others. They often build their dwellings deep in the soil, in rotten wood, under small rocky rocks, and can also settle in the foundation of a house, under floors, in the outer cracks of walls.
The most dangerous ants
Dangerous ants are often referred to as killers. Killer ants are not fiction, but scientific proof the existence of such insects, which can lead to a fatal outcome of a person, allergy sufferers are more at risk. But this does not mean that other people may not suffer from their bites.
Poisonous ant populations include the following varieties:
There are legends among people that cannibal ants are the most dangerous. However, this is just a myth. Ants don't eat people. Their dangerous species can bite a person, due to the many bites and a large amount of ant poison, he can die. Small children are at risk of being bitten by hordes of ants.
The biggest ants in the world
People are afraid not only poisonous properties ants, but also their size. Not all types of ants in nature are small insects. The most gigantic of them are represented by the following types:
The smallest ants
The smallest individuals from the family of ant insects are house ants that settle in people's houses and apartments: pharaoh ants and small red ants (they are also called brown ants). They are attracted to any food waste. Often they settle near the trash. The size of their bodies is 2-4 mm, males are winged. They are big problem for residents, because they can settle in furniture, floors, foundations and even household appliances. It is very difficult to fight him, one apartment can be one big anthill with many hidden passages and nests.
Pharaoh ants can enter an apartment from neighboring housing, from the street through windows, with things or products brought. House ants are large colonial hordes, the neighborhood with which is not something pleasant.
At home, ants with wings can also start. Flying individuals are not some special kind of ants, they are just flying females and males, which have a so-called mating season. Flying ant specimens signify that somewhere in human habitation the development of an anthill is soon planned. The wing is food for the female after she has laid her eggs. But the males die after the fertilization of the females. 
Pharaoh ants and redheads can annoy residents for years, the only effective method to combat them - the use of toxic agents - sprays, powders, mixtures, gels, aerosols, boric acid. The process of struggle is quite long, because the effectiveness of the methods of struggle depends on the rate of death of the queen of the anthill.
Ant populations are very large, some species interbreed with others, and sometimes it is very difficult to determine which species they belong to.
- In nature, a spider was recently discovered exactly similar to an ant. But the fact that this is not an ant is indicated by eight legs instead of six. Such spiders make their way into anthills as scouts. An excellent disguise of such a spider is not distinguished even by ants.
- Not all ants build their homes in tree trunks and in the ground. Ants, called weavers, make their homes on the branches of trees, stitching the leaves with cobwebs that the larvae secrete into a large cocoon. The weight of such an ant nest can reach three to five kilograms.
Ants against termites
In nature, there are both small red ants, medium and large red and black, brown, and a white wingless "ant". This is what termites look like. What is most interesting, they have nothing to do with ants, although they are similar in appearance to them, they are direct relatives of cockroaches. Termites are a treat for ants.
Ants are one of the most numerous and well-known insects. They are extremely complex public organization, biology and behavior. There are 12,000 species of ants in the world. Along with their closest relatives, the wasps, these insects are included in the Hymenoptera order, but at the same time they are so peculiar that they are distinguished into a separate superfamily.
The body of an ant is divided into three sections: a large head, a relatively small chest and a voluminous abdomen.
The paws are relatively thin, but they are armed with tenacious claws. Distinctive feature of these insects is a thin interception between the chest and abdomen and various glands that secrete odorous substances (each species has its own), which to a certain extent replace the tongue of these insects. With the help of odorous marks, ants signal danger, distinguish their own from strangers, notify about the beginning of the breeding season, the availability of food, and even ... about the need to take out the trash. In odorous woodworm ants, the smell is so strong that a person can easily feel it, and these insects smell like geraniums. In addition, the glands can secrete formic acid or poison (some species have a small sting for this purpose). However, the main organ of defense in ants is the mandibles. They are quite large, sharp and capable of snapping at a phenomenal speed - 120-230 km/h! Therefore, the bite of even a tiny ant is very sensitive and can scare away a relatively large predator.
The brain of an ant in relation to body weight is one of the largest animals in the world, but the idea of \u200b\u200bthe extraordinary mind of these creatures is greatly exaggerated. In fact, ants do not have high intelligence, since all their reactions are exclusively innate. But the complexity and diversity of these instincts have no analogues in nature and, indeed, amaze the imagination.
As with all social insects, individuals of the same species in ants are divided into three castes: females that lay eggs (queens or queens), males and sterile females (workers). Caste is genetically determined and cannot be changed under any circumstances. Queens are the largest in size, at the beginning of their life they are winged, but after the mating season they bite off their wings. Males are the smallest in the colony and are also winged. Worker ants are always wingless, they are larger than males, but much smaller than the queen. Only in the most primitive species do all worker ants look the same, but most often within this caste there are morphological varieties of their own. This division is due to the "professional" specialization of worker ants. In general, the color of these insects is inconspicuous: black, red, brown. The smallest dacetin ants are no more than 1 mm long, while the largest species, giant dinoponera and giant camponotus, reach 3 cm!
Giant camponotus (Camponotus gigas).
Ants inhabit all continents, climatic zones and natural areas. You will not find them only in the polar regions and in the center of vast deserts. Ants are active in the tropics all year round, in the temperate zone they hibernate in a numb state. Almost everywhere the density of ant settlements is very high. Even in the temperate zone, several dozen species of these insects live on several square kilometers, totaling 10-20% of the biomass. In the tropics, the share of ants in the total biomass of living creatures can reach up to 30%, up to 2 billion ants can live there per 1 km2 of territory! Such success is explained by the complex organization of ant communities.
Tiny colonies of primitive ant species can fit their nest in a nutshell or an empty acorn.
All species of these insects are colonial. In the most primitive species, a colony can be as small as a few dozen worker ants, and the largest families can include up to 22 million individuals. Most species are sedentary; they create special nests for housing - anthills. Usually the main part of the anthill is immersed in the soil, where it forms a branched system of passages, sometimes reaching a depth of 4 m. Here is the queen, eggs and larvae. The appearance of the outer part of the anthill can vary from a simple hole in the ground to a huge pile of twigs and needles.
Anthills of red forest ants (Formica rufa) are the largest in the world, their height can reach 2 m!
The nests of cave ants from Australia look unusual. They are located in the ground, and the ants surround the entrance to the nest with a rather high barrier of dry leaves and twigs.
Nest of cave ants (Polyrhachis macropa) surrounded by leaves of veinless acacia (Acacia aneura).
The so-called spiral ants build real labyrinths of dried clay around the entrance.
Nest of spiral ants.
But the most amazing ant nests are above the surface. Red-breasted carpenter ants behave like real bark beetles. They gnaw out passages in rotten wood and arrange their nests in the trunks of old trees.
Cellular nest of odorous carpenter ants (Lasius fuliginosus).
The odorous carpenter ants related to them do not gnaw out passages, but build cardboard nests in hollows.
The nest of sharp-bellied ants can be confused with a tinder fungus.
Finally, sharp-bellied ants build real paper nests in the crowns, similar to wasp ones. The pinnacle of building art can be considered the dwellings of tailor ants or weaver ants. They create nests from the leaves of trees, and do this without tearing them off the branches. During the construction process, worker ants grab the edge of one leaf with their paws, and hold the edge of another with their mandibles, while their counterparts bring their own larvae to the edges of the leaves, secreting sticky threads.
Green weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) building a nest.
The arrangement of insect groups depends on the configuration of the leaves and does not change until the process of stitching the nest is completed.
And this is the result of the work of weaver ants. The basis of the nest was made up of live (green) leaves from several branches. Where there was not enough material, the ants skillfully patched up the holes with fallen (brown) leaves.
Some species of ants do not have permanent nests and wander all the time. But the movement of the column cannot last forever, insects are forced to periodically stop for reproduction. In this case, they create a temporary nest from own bodies. A lot of ants are woven into openwork nets, from which a huge ball is formed. In its very center is the queen laying her eggs.
A giant living nest consisting of nomad ants, or Eciton Burchell (Eciton burchellii).
The relationships of ants in the family are extremely complex and diverse. Only in the most primitive species can the queen leave the nest and participate in foraging. In most cases, the uterus is engaged only in laying eggs, and all other types of work are performed by worker ants. But this does not mean that their caste is in an oppressed position. After all, it is the worker ants that often determine the fate of the queen: if she lays few eggs, she can be replaced with a more prolific queen, and the unwanted one is killed. In turn, the well-being of the queen depends on how plentifully she will be fed, and hence on the number of working individuals. If the worker ants die, the neglected queen, eggs, and larvae also die. Therefore, the young uterus primarily takes care of increasing the number of its “subjects”.
An ant-slave owner carries a larva. The jaws of these insects are adapted for capturing and holding prey.
The professional duties of worker ants are determined by the needs of the species. In all types of ants, young workers begin their “career” in the anthill with work as “nannies” and “nurses”: they transfer eggs and pupae from one chamber of the anthill to another, protect them from being stolen, and help the new generation to hatch. Their duties also include work on expanding the passages, cleaning the nest, removing the corpses of dead relatives. Over time, they begin to move farther and farther away from the nest and move on to collecting food. Interestingly, "career growth" directly depends on the success of the first trips. Individuals that bring little food remain “nannies” for the rest of their lives, and those who are especially lucky in search of food pass to the rank of foragers very quickly.
The profession of a forager is the most common in the ant family, but not the only one. Since worker ants are attacked by predators and sometimes by their own brethren, many species have worker soldiers to protect them. They are larger than ordinary individuals and are armed with powerful mandibles. The behavior of the soldiers is different: in wandering ants, they move at the head and along the edges of the column; at reaper ants they line up as an honor guard on the side of the path followed by foragers; in leaf-cutting ants, soldiers ride on bits of leaves carried by foragers and guard them from attack from above; in the European cork-headed ant, the soldiers have a bluntly cut head, with which they plug the passages in the anthill and let only individuals that have “their own” smell into it.
Eciton Burchell's worker-soldier is armed with huge mandibles.
Among the ant professions there are quite exotic ones. For example, Australian honey ants prepare food ... in the bodies of their own relatives! To do this, they have special workers that never leave the nest. They spend their whole lives clinging to the ceiling of the chamber with their paws, their main duty is to absorb food brought by foragers. From constant feeding, these ants swell incredibly and become huge, if such an individual accidentally breaks from the ceiling, its abdomen bursts and it dies. When the need for food arises, other members of the family come to these "living barrels" and beg for food from them. However, the ability to feed family members is characteristic of all species of ants, it is called trophallaxis. Thanks to it, a well-fed ant is able to quickly transfer part of the accumulated energy to hungry and weakening individuals, while the survival of the family as a whole increases.
"Live barrels" of Australian honey ants hang from the ceiling of an anthill.
The smell is the main marker that determines the behavior of an individual and the attitude of its fellows towards it. An ant from someone else's nest (even if it belongs to the same species) will not be allowed into the anthill. By smell, ants determine where and what kind of food was found: they follow the odorous marks left by the lucky one to the food source. That is why you can often see these insects moving in a chain one after another. Concerted effort allows ants to carry prey and Construction Materials many times their size. The wounded ant also begins to secrete special substances that literally call on his fellow ants to come to his aid. Dead ants release oleic acid, which induces workers to carry the corpse out of the nest. In addition to smell, antennal contacts can be used, in some species chirping and tapping with the abdomen. Thus, primitive instincts in various combinations form a very complex types behavior.
Thanks to tenacious paws, ants move with equal ease along horizontal and vertical surfaces. Runner ants (phaeton ants) that live in the deserts of Africa run especially fast. Rapid running helps them to prepare food at noon, without burning themselves on hot ground. Wood ants can glide by changing direction of flight, some species are able to jump. Thanks to mutual assistance, ants are not afraid of even insurmountable obstacles for singles.
The ants formed a living bridge across the crevice between the stones. None of them could have covered such a distance on their own.
Fire ants form rafts of their own bodies during floods, and these floating swarms are able to navigate rivers.
White eggs and larvae are visible on the surface of a living raft, which fire ants especially carefully protected from getting wet.
Among ants there are herbivorous, predatory and omnivorous species.
European, or steppe reaper ant(Messor structor) prepares forage.
Herbivorous reaper ants, during the flowering of cereals in deserts and steppes, harvest seeds at an accelerated pace, the reserves of which are enough for them for the whole year. Carpenter ants eat dead wood and gum trees.
Leaf-cutting ants with the same diligence gnaw off pieces of leaves and carry them to the anthill. True, they do not eat the leaves themselves, but only chew and store this wet mass in underground chambers. There, in dampness and darkness, mushrooms begin to grow on this "silo", which the ants eat.
A worker ant-leaf cutter carries a piece of a cut leaf on which a soldier sits.
Omnivorous species collect the corpses of invertebrates, sweet secretions of aphids and other herbivorous insects.
The ant milks the hunchback, which gets rid of the annoying "shepherd" with a drop of sweet liquid.
Ants love these sugary secretions so much that they carefully protect aphids and take care of them in every possible way: they transfer them to healthy plants, hide at night in an anthill, graze and protect from attacks by predators, such as ladybugs.
Camponotus ants and the accumulation of aphids they care for.
Predatory and, partially, omnivorous species attack living insects and their larvae. Nomadic ants living in South America are famous for their particular ruthlessness. These are large and very aggressive insects, fearlessly attacking all living things in their path. Their bites and abundance can put people to flight, and even such formidable animals as jaguars. If escape is impossible (for example, the animal is tied), then the ants, biting, bring it to a painful shock and death, and then eat the victim with common efforts. Not a single animal in the jungle tries to resist them, but immediately runs away when it sees a moving column.
The ants surrounded the egg of the Morpho Peleides butterfly (Morpho peleides) without waiting for the mother to fly away.
All types of ants breed at a strictly defined time 1-2 times a year. The simplest method of reproduction is the so-called budding. At the same time, a young queen is born in the mother colony, which moves with some of the workers to a separate anthill. But more often, ants make a mating season, during which young males and females rise into the sky. Here, individuals from different anthills mix with each other and form pairs. Young queens with one or more males sit on the ground and start building a nest. Shortly after fertilization, the males die, and the females lay eggs, from which workers will subsequently hatch. Until the working individuals begin to forage, the queen does not eat anything. This period can sometimes last up to a year, and wings help the female survive hunger. After the mating flight, she gnaws them off, and the remaining muscles dissolve in her body, released nutrients go to the formation of eggs and the maintenance of the life of the uterus.
Ant eggs form a sticky mass that makes them easier to carry by workers. Under the abdomen of an adult, legless larvae are visible - they differ from eggs in a dark head, weak segmentation and crumbled villi.
In all species of ants, females (workers or young queens) are born from fertilized eggs, and males from unfertilized ones. Thus, the composition of the family is self-regulating: the fewer males, the higher the probability of their birth. A surprising exception is the small fire ant, in which everything happens exactly the opposite. From unfertilized eggs, only female queens are born from him, from fertilized - working individuals. In some eggs, paternal genes lead to the destruction of maternal chromosomes, and then males are born from them. Thus, females of this species always inherit only maternal genes, and males only paternal genes, that is, both sexes reproduce essentially independently of each other by cloning.
Despite their tiny size, ants live a very long time: working individuals - 1-3 years, and queens - up to 20 years! And only the age of males usually does not exceed a few weeks.
A worker ant watches the queen, exhausted from her nuptial flight.
Ants have many natural enemies. Adults are eaten by various birds, toads, frogs, lizards, shrews, predatory wasps, and spiders. In search of eggs and pupae, anthills are ruined by wild boars and bears. Anteaters, aardvarks, Moloch lizards, ant lions feed exclusively on these insects. When attacking an anthill, instinct prompts the ants not to hide, but to attack the enemy together. Thus, the colony survives at the expense of the death of individual individuals. In cylindrical camponotus, the instinct of self-sacrifice is so developed that in the event of an attack, they literally make themselves hara-kiri. A sticky liquid pours out of the ripped abdomen, gluing the enemy together.
Ants provide an invaluable service to various forest flowers. It is difficult for these plants to spread their seeds as they are small and there is no wind in the forest. Therefore, in the blueberry, violet, maryannik, hoof, celandine, kandyk, the seeds have a tiny juicy appendage that attracts ants. Having plucked the seed, the ant drags it into the nest and feasts on the juicy appendage, while the seed itself is thrown away. Thus, these insects annually spread billions of seeds throughout the forest. In the tropics, some plants attract ants to protect their leaves from being eaten by other insects. To do this, they provide their guardians with free housing. For example, African acacias have hollow thorns, and myrmecodia have thick tubers with many passages and cavities. In these ready-made anthills, their guards settle.
Tuberous myrmecodia (Myrmecodia tuberosa) on a tree branch. On the section of the tuber, cavities and passages for ants are visible.
People use ants in a variety of ways. In Mexico and Thailand, large, nutritious eggs of some species are harvested and used in cooking as a substitute for caviar. Large ants are fried, and prehensile weaver ants are used to suture field conditions. To do this, the ant is brought to the edges of the wound and allowed to grab onto the skin, after which the body is torn off, and the head is left. The mandibles of the ant act like a stapler, firmly sewing the edges together for several days until the wound is completely scarred. In the middle lane, ants are sometimes attracted to protect forests and gardens, but it must be borne in mind that the habit of these insects to breed aphids can be harmful. In the tropics, leaf-cutting ants cause great harm to fruit plantations. Aggressive fire ants are extremely dangerous. When they bite, they release poison into the body of the victim. Although not fatal, it causes severe pain, similar to a burn, and in some cases a dangerous allergic reaction.
The benefits of ants far exceed the harm they can cause, so these insects have long been loved by people. They are a model of diligence and mutual assistance. At the same time, a number of endemic species are threatened with extinction. Now 146 species of ants are included in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The ant belongs to the type of arthropods, the class of insects, the family of ants, the order Hymenoptera (in Latin Formicidae). According to their organization, they can be attributed to the group of social insects with a certain division into 3 different castes: males, females and working individuals.
All about ants: ant structure, characteristics, description
In the structure of the body of this insect, three main components are determined: the abdomen and the chest and head connected to each other by a thin waist. The eyes, which consist of a large number of lenses, make it possible to distinguish movement, but they do not give a clear image. On top of the head are three more simple eyes. Ants move with the help of 6 legs, which are armed with claws, making it possible for the insect to climb up. Segmental antennae, which are located on the head, are the organs of touch and make it possible to capture the vibration of the soil, air currents and smells.
In the life of ants smell plays an important role: with the help of smell, they distinguish members of their community from other insects, give a call or alarm signal for assistance, and learn about the location of food. They defend themselves from enemies using poison or formic acid produced by special glands.
The structural features and size of ants will depend on the species, as well as on the status that it occupies in the colony, and can vary between 1-30 mm. In certain species, the females are the largest individuals; in some, the size of the females is no larger than the working individuals. Females have wings that fall off after the mating season. You can also say about ants that their color is completely different, ranging from yellow, red, brown, black and ending with bluish and green colors.
Names and types
To date, more than 15,000 species of ants have been studied, of which approximately 400 live on our territory. These insects are difficult to classify. This is due to the fact that there are numerous hybrids and twin species that are difficult to differ in appearance.
The most interesting are the following types:
red myrmica- a species of ants that is common in the Urals, in Europe, on Far East and Siberia. Reddish females can grow up to 6 mm in length, black males, up to 5 mm in size. Insects build their dwellings under fallen trees, stones and in the ground.- black garden- the most common species, its representatives are found in abundance in the UK, Portugal, in the middle zone of our country. Working individuals can have a body size of up to 4.6 mm, females grow from 8 to 10 mm, males up to 5.6 mm. Dark brown or black body covered with small hairs. These insects nest in rotten wood, under rocks and in the ground. The main food is sweet honeydew, which is excreted by aphids, so with this, the insects cause significant damage to agricultural land, guarding and breeding the main food source, aphids. The species is characterized by a record longevity of the uterus, reaching almost 35 years.
, which eventually settled on all continents. Working individuals grow no more than 2.5 mm in length, do not have wings, and are yellow in color. Males 3.2-3.6 mm long, almost black, winged. Females up to 4.6 mm in size, yellow-brown, winged initially, but worker ants bite off their wings after mating. This species lives in humid dark places, making anthills in the foundation, piers, interior decoration, baseboards and even in household appliances and wardrobes.- Forest the small ant lives in temperate climatic forests throughout Northern Eurasia - from Germany, Belgium and Spain to Sweden, Finland and Russia. This species has a body size of 8-15 mm, a black belly, rufous cheeks and a red-brown color. Their anthill is up to 2.5 meters high and consists of needles and branches. This species of ants is listed in the Red Books of most European countries, and in certain regions it is classified as a group of rare animals.
tailor can be found in the subtropical and tropical zones in the territories of Vietnam, Australia, South India, Bangladesh and Thailand. Representatives of this species of ants have a red-orange abdomen with beige limbs, painted in bright green. The size of working individuals is not more than 9 mm, the uterus grows up to 14 mm, males up to 11 mm. They build their dwellings on trees, fixing the larvae to the foliage with cobweb secretions, for this they have the name “tailors”. The colony, which can accommodate up to half a million individuals, is located simultaneously on a dozen trees. Ant pupae and larvae are used as poultry feed, in folk and traditional medicine, and in the cuisine of Thailand and India.- Dinoponera giant- This is the world's largest ant, which can grow up to 36 mm in length and has a black body. The giant ant lives only in the savannahs of South America and humid forests. A distinctive characteristic of the species is the complete absence of queens and winged males. The role of queens is played by working individuals - females that are capable of fertilization. Dwellings are underground, at a depth of up to half a meter, and can accommodate the entire small family, which consists of 25-40 individuals.
distributed widely in central Russia, in Europe, found in Mongolia and China. Workers reach a size of up to 9 mm and have an orange head with a black body. The uterus can reach up to 11 mm and is different orange color chest and red head. Summer nests are located under stones, in the ground and in half-decayed stumps; in winter, the family moves to another nest, which is located near the base of the trees.- Eastern Liometopum- is a resident of the Far Eastern regions of Russia, is in the Red Book as an endangered species. Working individuals are 4-6 mm long, dark brown in color. Females and males are completely black and measure 10-12 mm. Nests are found in the wood of fir, Korean pine, birch, linden and Mongolian oak.
- Legion Ants- a subgroup of nomadic ants that live only in the subtropical zone and the tropics. This species is especially common in South and Central America, it can be found in Africa. They live in large colonies main part constitute workers. Despite the approximate size of 2.5-4.5 mm, this type of ant “takes” with its large numbers, destroying crops of cultivated plants during invasions.
– a view that is quite different large sizes: females can reach almost a centimeter length, males are a little more modest - 6.5-8 mm, "soldiers" are even smaller and rarely grow more than 4-6 mm. "Soldiers" and females have yellow-red shades, the body is usually covered with black hairs. Males are black, antennae and limbs are brown. The species lives in the west of Siberia, in the western regions of Asia, in the countries of Europe. The insect prefers to live in humid forests, picking up edges and clearings to build an anthill.
Where do they live?
These insects can be seen on all continents, in all climatic zones and regions. They are absent only in the hot deserts, on the cold islands of Iceland and Greenland, as well as in the harsh climate of Antarctica and the Arctic. In regions with cold and temperate climate Insects hibernate in winter.
As a rule, these insects build anthills for themselves in rotten or rotten wood, under small stones or in the ground. Certain species live near humans or take over other people's nests.
What do they eat?
The food is varied and will depend on the species. The daily menu of many species consists of animal and vegetable food, with each individual eating several times a day.
- The basis of the carbohydrate diet is honeydew and honeydew - sweet secretions of insects, especially aphids. Ants - grow aphids for themselves, graze it, protect it from other ants.
- The source of protein is the remains of animals, dead insects, trophic eggs that the uterus lays during a surplus of food, semi-digested food of adult ants, and eggs of insect pests. The larvae of domestic insects are content with the remains of egg dishes, gelatin and dairy products. The nutrition of the uterus also consists of protein products, which are chewed by specially caring ants for her.
- In winter, insects hibernate, during which they starve. At the same time, many species lead an active lifestyle in an airtight anthill in winter, feeding on various supplies.
- Reaper ants consume cereals, dried fruits, and dried plant seeds. They can store a kilogram of raw materials, this allows the whole colony to feed in the winter. Leaf-cutting ants bring leaf particles to the anthill, chew and leave for storage in greenhouse chambers. After a while, mushrooms grow in storage from these pieces, which are the main food. Centromyrmex ants eat only termites. The Dracula ant consumes the juice that the larvae secrete, and insect feeding is used for the larvae. Domestic ants are completely omnivorous.
- Additional food components can be tree sap, nuts, roots and seeds of plants.
reproduction
All reproduction is carried out in several ways and occurs twice a year.
- During the first method, the uterus with a certain number of workers separates from society and creates a new anthill.
- Another option is a mating flight, in which a female from someone else's anthill is fertilized by several males. Then she lays eggs, from which worker ants are born. Males die after a certain time. Until the workers appear, the female feeds on the remains of the musculature of the wings. Females and worker ants are born from fertilized eggs, and males from unfertilized eggs.
These insects are completely harmless, of course, when they do not look after human housing for their place of residence. Therefore, they simply do not need to be exterminated: nevertheless, the ant is an important link in the ecological chain.
The lifestyle of these insects greatly resembles human society: like people, ants have their own professions:
There are also amazing facts about ants:
- Uterus, which is the founder of the colony, as a rule, lives 6-7 years. But there have been cases when she lived to be 15 years old - this is a record among insects.
- Ant "eggs" residents of Asian countries and Africa are happy to include in their menu. It is believed that this delicacy increases potency and is rich in proteins. Mexicans use this dish on holidays, spreading eggs on corn tortillas.
- bullet ant, which lives in the tropics, has a strong poison, which, when bitten by the victim, causes sensations that are much greater than the pain from a wasp or bee sting. Certain Indian tribes use this ant poison during the rite of initiation for boys: a bag filled with this type of ant is put on the hand, due to bites, the hand swells and hurts a lot. Probably, in this way, the leaders are trying to cultivate stamina in boys.
The above are just some of the amazing facts about ants. In the biology of any kind of these insects, you can find something original and unique. It is due to this uniqueness and the abundance of various adaptive characteristics that they were able to become one of the most advanced and numerous groups of arthropods in general.
There are more than 12,000 species of ants on Earth. They inhabit a variety of natural landscapes, adapt to almost any conditions of existence and manage to become the dominant group of insects almost everywhere. Of course, ants of each individual species have many features, and this is not so much about appearance how much about the specifics of behavior and lifestyle in general. And here even our closest neighbors (from the nearest forest) can be more interesting than the inhabitants of the exotic tropics described in the books.
This is interesting
Among the ants there are both champions in heat resistance and walrus insects. For example, representatives of the family of runners live in deserts and normally withstand air temperatures up to 50 ° C, feeding on insects that quickly die in such heat. And the Kamchatka ant, on the contrary, survives wintering, cooling down to -52 ° C, but remaining alive at the same time.
The photo below shows a bullet ant that can withstand temperatures that are lethal to other insects:
pharaoh ant
The pharaoh ant is one of the most famous to man. Especially - a resident of an apartment or a private house. These ants are the very tiny pests that run in orderly lines along the baseboards, occupy the trash cans and drag crumbs from the table and sugar from the nightstands.
In the photo below - ants of this species in the apartment:
This is interesting
The mixture of acids secreted by pharaoh ants is deadly to bed bugs. Therefore, in an apartment heavily infested with pharaoh ants, bugs almost always die out.
Here are some more photos of pharaoh ants:
The pharaoh ant is known for its difficulty in breeding - not only the extermination of individual foragers in the room, but even the destruction of their individual anthill does not at all mean the removal of ants from the house. The reason for this is the ability of this species to create peculiar dispersed nests, in each of which she or several breeding females and several hundred worker ants live.
These nests are interconnected and form a huge colony that can take up several floors in an apartment building. And until the last such nest is, the ants themselves will safely "please" the owner of the premises with their presence.
red forest ant
redheads forest ants- one of the most famous in Russia. It is this species that builds huge anthills up to two meters high in coniferous forests, each of which is home to several hundred thousand inhabitants.
It is the red forest ants that are depicted in the pictures in school textbooks. The main diet of the red ant is the excretion of aphids, larvae and adults of various forest pests.
In the photo - a red forest ant drags a caterpillar into an anthill.
The red wood ant is an endangered species whose numbers are constantly declining. Part of the blame for this lies with the person destroying young anthills and catching the ants themselves for the preparation of traditional medicine.
Harvester ants - steppe workers
Reaper ants are famous for their huge food supply in anthills. For the winter, they can collect up to a kilogram of seeds and dead insects in the nest, which is enough for a family of several thousand ants to safely winter under conditions of reduced activity.
Pictures of Reaper Ants:
This is interesting
In harvester ants, years occur in the spring, while in other species this event is timed to coincide with the summer months. Due to this evolutionary shift, the fertilized female has the opportunity to establish a new anthill in still moist soil.
A feature of harvester ants is that they feed their larvae with ground plant grains - in most other ants, the larvae feed exclusively on animal food. At the same time, in the anthill of the reapers, the soldiers grind the largest grains with their powerful jaws, and the ants of a smaller caste gnaw the resulting pieces, and those individuals that feed the larvae grind the remaining flour into a kind of gruel.
In the picture - the reaper ant carries seeds to the anthill:
Bulldog Ants: Giants of the Ant World
But bulldog ants are already representatives of the tropical fauna. They are distributed almost exclusively in Australia and are considered one of the most primitive ants, having much in common with wasps. In the photo - an adult bulldog ant:
On a note
Ants-buldogs - one of the most in the world. The length of the worker ant can reach 3 cm. At the same time, the difference in size between the worker ant and the uterus is not as noticeable in them as in other ants.
Bulldog ants got their name for their huge jaws, with the help of which they get food and ... jump. It is with force pushing off the ground with its jaws that the ant can jump to a distance of up to 30 cm. In the photographs below, you can clearly see these powerful jaws:
In addition, bulldog ants are good swimmers. Their larvae feed on their own food, which is brought to the anthill by worker ants.
Bulldog ants are dangerous. Every year in Australia and Tasmania, several people die from their bites - these insects have a sting, and their poison causes a severe allergic reaction and can lead to anaphylactic shock.
Army ants: the fear of all the tropics
Army ants are one of the best known. They are also called killer ants because during their movements they destroy all arthropods, small rodents and reptiles in the territories in which they find themselves.
Photos of army ants:
The main feature of nomadic ants is their lack of an anthill - a colony of several hundred thousand individuals either forms a temporary shelter in the form of a ball of grappled workers, or finds a hole or cavity under stones in which the queen will lay eggs for several weeks. After growing a certain number of young ants and the depletion of food supplies, the colony is removed from its place and moved to another, more fodder site.
This is interesting
The uterus of the nomad ant is striking in its fecundity: in Asian species, it lays up to 130 thousand eggs per day - about three eggs every two seconds. No other insect has such fertility.
Carpenter Ants
Among the carpenter ants, there are many species familiar to us - these are the same ants that run along tree trunks and collect honeydew from the leaves. They are called tree borers because they often arrange their nests in stumps or under the bark of living trees, carefully gnawing passages and chambers in the wood. Because of their activities, they can cause damage to forestry.
Photo of carpenter ants:
Amazon ants and their slaves
Amazon ants are a very specific group of ant species that generally do not breed workers. Their offspring are either future queens or soldiers. To search for food and care for their larvae, either the Amazon mother herself, or a detachment of her soldiers, attacks anthills of more peaceful ant species and steals larvae and pupae from there. The worker ants that have emerged from them perceive the invaders as parents, and in the Amazon anthill they perform all the routine work.
Photo of Amazon ants:
This is interesting
Some types of Amazon ants are very highly specialized: they can steal the larvae and pupae of only one donor species. Of course, the ants attacked by the Amazons defend their brood, and the mortality among the Amazons themselves is very high.
In the photo - an Amazon ant carries a stolen larva to its anthill:
Among the Amazons there are species that live in Russia.
Leaf cutter ants are human competitors
Leaf cutter ants are one of the few creatures in the world that are engaged in agriculture, and at a very high technological level. Worker ants of these species gnaw pieces of leaves, take them to the anthill, where these leaves are chewed by other ants, mixed with saliva and infect with spores of a special fungus.
Photos of leaf cutter ants:
This is interesting
In a colony of leaf-cutting ants, there are 7 castes of individuals that differ in appearance and behavior. The difference in size between the smallest worker ant and a soldier can be up to 200 times. At the same time, in general, all ants of the family perform up to 29 different unique operations in the preparation of food.
In the picture below - a string of leaf-cutting ants:
In habitats, large colonies can destroy deciduous cover on large trees, so they are actively fought near plantations and gardens.
They are very similar to ants both externally and in their character. social structure termites. However, these insects should not be confused: termites are systematically closer to cockroaches, and ants are closer to wasps and bees. However, by the ability to build imposing structures and various features biology between these insects have a lot in common.
Interesting video: the battle between ants and wasps for prey
Spider vs Ant
