The Australian bulldog ants are among the biggest and most basal of ants. [190], The successful techniques used by ant colonies have been studied in computer science and robotics to produce distributed and fault-tolerant systems for solving problems, for example Ant colony optimization and Ant robotics. “So I got the idea of a basic, widespread architectural unit that might be fundamental to many ant nests.”. [42] Weaver ants, for example, have a distinct bimodal size distribution. Tschinkel, 62, rests a moment, then picks up a trowel and pokes sand away from one wall of the pit. A few sketches had appeared in scientific journals but rarely to scale and with little detail. [85], Suicidal defences by workers are also noted in a Brazilian ant, Forelius pusillus, where a small group of ants leaves the security of the nest after sealing the entrance from the outside each evening. Some species are valued in their role as biological pest control agents. It is believed that many ant species that engage in indirect herbivory rely on specialized symbiosis with their gut microbes [102] to upgrade the nutritional value of the food they collect [103] and allow them to survive in nitrogen poor regions, such as rainforest canopies. Their long co-evolution with other species has led to mimetic, commensal, parasitic, and mutualistic relationships. He published a five volume work from 1921 to 1923 that examined ant biology and society. All ants go through the same process to reach adult hood, this is known as the ant life cycle. Myrmecologist Walter Tschinkel of the University of Florida holds up a partial zinc cast of a seven-foot-deep Florida harvester-ant nest. With the Florida harvester-ant nest, for instance, the largest chambers are near the surface and closely spaced, becoming smaller and farther apart deeper in the ground. The forms of inactivity are varied and some temperate species have larvae going into the inactive state (diapause), while in others, the adults alone pass the winter in a state of reduced activity. In the Quran, Sulayman is said to have heard and understood an ant warning other ants to return home to avoid being accidentally crushed by Sulayman and his marching army. Such factors appear to organize the workforce the way a factory floor plan organizes personnel. [73] This allows other ants to detect what task group (e.g., foraging or nest maintenance) other colony members belong to. [86], In addition to defence against predators, ants need to protect their colonies from pathogens. She then graduates to digging and other nest work, and later to defending the nest and foraging. This sting is given the highest rating on the Schmidt sting pain index. Ergates specialise in related tasks according to their sizes. “They were obviously organized, regular, predictable—so interesting. [119] There are several species of gliding ant including Cephalotes atratus; this may be a common trait among arboreal ants with small colonies. The materials used for construction include soil and plant matter,[68] and ants carefully select their nest sites; Temnothorax albipennis will avoid sites with dead ants, as these may indicate the presence of pests or disease. [157] The tropical wasp Mischocyttarus drewseni coats the pedicel of its nest with an ant-repellent chemical. The sting of some species of Pseudomyrmex is claimed to give fever relief. The plot in French entomologist and writer Bernard Werber's Les Fourmis science-fiction trilogy is divided between the worlds of ants and humans; ants and their behaviour is described using contemporary scientific knowledge. [72] Pheromones are produced by a wide range of structures including Dufour's glands, poison glands and glands on the hindgut, pygidium, rectum, sternum, and hind tibia. But nests differ in shape, number, size of chambers, and how they’re connected, depending on the species. “What is that set of rules? There are 50 ground-nesting ant species in the area alone, and roughly 5,000 worldwide, each with its own unique way of life and shape of nest. Although newly mated fire-ant queens usually found new colonies alone, sometimes they do it in cooperation with other newly mated queens that arrive on the scene simultaneously. The life cycle of the ant has four stages, including egg, larva, pupa, and adult, and spans a period of 8 to 10 weeks. “I cleaned them up, and they sat on my lab bench for three or four years,” he says. He’s crouched in the bottom of an eight-foot-deep hole in the ground, in a hot, dry, open field between the Tallahassee, Florida, airport and a sewage-treatment plant. [195] Aesop did the same in his fable The Ant and the Grasshopper.
In some parts of the world (mainly Africa and South America), large ants, especially army ants, are used as surgical sutures. [12] Sphecomyrma was possibly a ground forager, while Haidomyrmex and Haidomyrmodes, related genera in subfamily Sphecomyrminae, are reconstructed as active arboreal predators. [162] Strepsipteran parasites also manipulate their ant host to climb grass stems, to help the parasite find mates. [201] The French neuroanatomist, psychiatrist and eugenicist Auguste Forel believed that ant societies were models for human society.
Several ant species even use "propaganda pheromones" to confuse enemy ants and make them fight among themselves. What could they reveal about ants and how they structured their lives? Tschinkel has spent this fine April morning mixing dental plaster to the consistency of eggnog, adding glass fibers, propping a cupped leaf against the nest’s entrance as a funnel, pouring the plaster, and letting it set. [31] The relative ease with which ants may be sampled and studied in ecosystems has made them useful as indicator species in biodiversity studies. [97], Weaver ant (Oecophylla spp.) “Assembling it seemed daunting.” But Tschinkel, a hobby woodworker whose house is filled with elegant handmade furniture of his own design, devised a method of gluing the broken casting together with epoxy and mounting the cast in front of a tall plywood backboard, supporting it with projecting steel welding rods so that it would hang in space in the same orientation it occupied in the ground. [98], Formica polyctena, among other ant species, constructs nests that maintain a relatively constant interior temperature that aids in the development of larvae. [184] Weaver ant eggs and larvae, as well as the ants, may be used in a Thai salad, yam (Thai: ยำ), in a dish called yam khai mot daeng (Thai: ยำไข่มดแดง) or red ant egg salad, a dish that comes from the Issan or north-eastern region of Thailand. Some caterpillars produce vibrations and sounds that are perceived by the ants.
[154] Many ant-dispersed seeds have special external structures, elaiosomes, that are sought after by ants as food. Ants develop by complete metamorphosis with the larva stages passing through a pupal stage before emerging as an adult. [66] During the species-specific breeding period, winged females and winged males, known to entomologists as alates, leave the colony in what is called a nuptial flight. The worker subsequently dies.
[118], The female worker ants do not have wings and reproductive females lose their wings after their mating flights in order to begin their colonies. [156], Most ants are predatory and some prey on and obtain food from other social insects including other ants. Save up to 70% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine. Symbiotic bacteria on the exterior surface of the ants produce antibiotics that kill bacteria introduced into the nest that may harm the fungi. But if there are more, they might dig chambers too,” Tschinkel says. Since they lack gills, they go to trapped pockets of air in the submerged nests to breathe. [123], Not all ants have the same kind of societies. Males then use visual cues to find a common mating ground, for example, a landmark such as a pine tree to which other males in the area converge. The specimen, trapped in amber dating back to around 92 million years ago, has features found in some wasps, but not found in modern ants. [203], Ants also are quite popular inspiration for many science-fiction insectoids, such as the Formics of Ender's Game, the Bugs of Starship Troopers, the giant ants in the films Them! Workers with the ability to reproduce are called "gamergates" and colonies that lack queens are then called gamergate colonies; colonies with queens are said to be queen-right. These inquilines may bear a close resemblance to ants. Some species also form floating rafts that help them survive floods. The body is then cut off and the head and mandibles remain in place to close the wound. Other species use pheromones to confuse the host ants or to trick them into carrying the parasitic queen into the nest. Ant bites are often said to have curative properties. Fire-ant nests are shallow; most of the chambers are linked closely to the core near the surface and come out of the ground pretty much intact. They also have three small ocelli (simple eyes) on the top of the head that detect light levels and polarization. Males will mount females in the air, but the actual mating process usually takes place on the ground.
Once the plaster hardened, the cast came out of the ground—in 180 pieces. [134] In some cases, the aphids secrete the honeydew in response to ants tapping them with their antennae.
Like other insects, ants perceive smells with their long, thin, and mobile antennae. It has been hypothesised that a Proto-Indo-European word *morwi- was used, cf. Workers are by far the most numerous individuals in the nest. Contrary to popular belief, some ant nests have multiple queens, while others may exist without queens. The eggs of two species of ants are used in Mexican escamoles. Some species or genera commonly categorized as pests include the Argentine ant, pavement ant, yellow crazy ant, banded sugar ant, pharaoh ant, red ant, carpenter ant, odorous house ant, red imported fire ant, and European fire ant. [89], Nests may be protected from physical threats such as flooding and overheating by elaborate nest architecture. [152][151] Often, seed-dispersing ants perform directed dispersal, depositing the seeds in locations that increase the likelihood of seed survival to reproduction. Ants evolved from a lineage within the stinging wasps, and a 2013 study suggests that they are a sister group of the Apoidea. [50][51], The life of an ant starts from an egg; if the egg is fertilised, the progeny will be female diploid, if not, it will be male haploid. The larva is largely immobile and is fed and cared for by workers. The paired antennae provide information about the direction and intensity of scents. Within a month, the adult workers sort themselves by age, with the oldest workers taking on tasks specific to the upper nest and the younger ones doing the deeper work. The life cycle process can take any where from a few weeks to up to a year to complete. [160], Fungi in the genera Cordyceps and Ophiocordyceps infect ants. If you are a Zinio, Nook, Kindle, Apple, or Google Play subscriber, you can enter your website access code to gain subscriber access. [121] These rafts may also have a role in allowing ants to colonise islands. If an ant is separated from its original colony, it will eventually lose the colony scent. [150], Many plant species have seeds that are adapted for dispersal by ants. When migrating to a new area, many colonies will take the aphids with them, to ensure a continued supply of honeydew. Ants have colonised almost every landmass on Earth. Tschinkel had completed groundbreaking studies revealing “the behavioral rules governing the flow of food” in their colonies. The ants were also observed to use their jaws as a catapult to eject intruders or fling themselves backward to escape a threat.
[9][10], The family Formicidae belongs to the order Hymenoptera, which also includes sawflies, bees, and wasps. Finally, he pours in the molten zinc.
[93], Many animals can learn behaviours by imitation, but ants may be the only group apart from mammals where interactive teaching has been observed. The ant life cycle is a form of metamorphosis, it is the same process a caterpillar uses to change into a butterfly. [43][44] Some other species show continuous variation in the size of workers.
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