Facts about Ant
The caterpillars have a gland that secretes honeydew when the ants massage them.
An Australian bulldog ant has only a single pair of chromosomes and males have just one chromosome as they are haploid.
The Japanese word for ant, ari, is represented by an ideograph formed of the character for insect combined with the character signifying moral rectitude, propriety (giri).
Like other insects, ants smell with their antennae, which are long and thin.
Any ant that enters a colony with a different scent than that of the colony will be attacked (Henderson 2005).
Ants living in seasonal climates survive the winter by going into a state of dormancy or inactivity.
Pest control with regard to ants is more a matter of controlling local populations than eliminating an entire colony.
Ants are one of the world's most successful and diverse animal families, with more than 12,000 species.
Some ants produce sounds by their the gaster segments or mandibles coming together.
A particularly notable species is Jerdon's jumping ant, Harpegnathos saltator.
In 1966 Edward O. Wilson, who is considered to be one of the world's leading experts and researchers on ants, obtained the first amber fossil remains of an ant (Sphecomyrma freyi) from the Cretaceous era.
The larva will then be taken into the ants' nest where it can feed on the ant larvae.
Ants can detect sound vibrations that travel through the ground or other surfaces, but it is not certain if they can hear sounds that travel through the air.
Food is given to the larvae by a process called trophallaxis in which an ant regurgitates food previously held in its crop for communal storage.
Many species of ants have poison glands and stingers used for subduing prey and defending their nests.
reflects on the harmony of nature, and ants' unique and often fascinating behaviors adds to the human wonder of nature.
Most queens and male ants have wings, which they drop after the nuptial flight.
The ants became dominant in an adaptive radiation at the beginning of the Tertiary Period.
Polystyrene is a rigid, brittle plastic that is now used to make plastic model kits, disposable eating utensils, and similar knickknacks.
Leafcutter ants (Atta and Acromyrmex) feed exclusively on a special fungus that lives only within their colonies.
Like all ants they are social, but their social behavior is poorly developed compared to more advanced species.
The antennae are special organs that help ants detect chemicals, including those used in communication, as well as a sense of touch.
Attempts to control ant populations of any kind are temporary solutions.
The ants grow the fungus because it produces special structures called gongylidia, which are eaten by the ants.
Velvet ants, although resembling large ants, are wingless female wasps.
Several fossils from the Cretaceous are intermediate in form between wasps and ants, establishing further evidence for wasp ancestry.
Like other Hymenoptera, the genetic system found in ants is haplodiploidy (Grimbaldi 2000; Moreau 2007; Wilson 2005).
Of the species extant in the Cretaceous and Eocene eras, only one of about ten genera is now extinct.
Some ants pollinate flowers as they feed on their nectar, and uneaten seeds left underground by ants are in an ideal situation to spout and grow.
Some modern authors have used the example of the ants to comment on the relationship between society and the individual.
The use of weaver ants in citrus cultivation in southern China is one of the oldest known uses of biological control (Holldobler 1990).
Due to the adaptive nature of ant colonies, eliminating them is nearly impossible.
Returning home, they reinforce the same trail, which in turn attracts more ants until the food is exhausted, after which the trail scent slowly dissipates.
Ants attack others and defend themselves by biting, and in many species by stinging, often injecting chemicals like formic acid.
Ant bodies, like those of other insects, have an exoskeleton, meaning their bodies are externally covered in a protective casing, as opposed to the internal skeletal framework of humans and other vertebrates.
Weaver ants (Oecophylla) build nests in trees by attaching leaves together, first pulling them together with bridges of workers and then sewing them together by pressing silk-producing larvae against them in alternation.
The Australian Burning Mountain was originally believed to be a volcano, but the smoke and ash comes from a coal fire that may have been burning for 5,000 years.
The three main divisions of the ant body are the head, the thorax, and the metasoma or gaster.
Leaf cutter ants are sensitive enough to adapt to the fungi's reaction to different plant material, apparently detecting chemical signals from the fungus.
The only places lacking indigenous ant species are Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland, parts of Polynesia, the Hawaiian Islands, and some other remote islands.
Aphids secrete a sweet liquid called honeydew, which they exude in the process of feeding from plants.
Some Native American religions, such as Hopi mythology, recognize ants as the very first animals.
Some ants, such as the Amazon ants (Polyergus species), are incapable of feeding themselves, and must rely on captured worker ants to care for them.
The ants in turn keep predators away and will move the aphids around to better feeding locations.
Humans have contributed to ant problems by spreading some species from their natural habitats to other continents and to islands.
The metasoma (the "abdomen") of the ant houses many of the important internal organs.
Some species of ants sometimes form chains to bridge gaps, whether that be over water, underground, or through spaces in arboreal paths.
Carpenter ants, Camponotus species, burrow into dead wood and sometimes damage wooden buildings.
Beyond these ecological, nutritional, and economic values, plants also touch upon the human inner nature through the aspect of beauty.
The sugars can provide a high-energy food source, which many ant species collect.
To confuse their enemies, several ant species even employ "propaganda pheromones," which cause their enemies to fight among themselves (Wilson 1971).
Some species of ants are known for attacking and taking over the colonies of other ant species.
Some ants of the genus Odontomachus are equipped with mandibles called trap-jaws.
Larvae and pupae need to be kept at fairly constant temperatures to ensure proper development, and so are often moved around the various brood chambers within the colony.
The bullhorn acacia of Central America, Acacia cornigera, has hollow thorns that serve to house colonies of Aztec ants, Pseudomyrmex ferruginea, which defend the tree against other insects, browsing mammals, and epiphytic vines.
Nests may be destroyed by tracing the ants' trails back to the nest, then pouring boiling water into it to kill the queen.
Ants play a tremendously important role in the earth's natural ecosystems.
Some caterpillars have evolved from being ant-loving to ant-eating and these myrmecophagous caterpillars secrete a pheromone which makes the ants think that the caterpillar's larva is one of their own.
Ants also appear in comic strips such as Johnny Hart's B. C. and animated movies such as Antz and A Bug's Life, where they serve to make fun of human society.
Pheromones are also exchanged as compounds mixed with food and passed in trophallaxis, giving the ants information about one another's health and nutrition.
Ants are holometabolous and develop by complete metamorphosis, passing through larval and pupal stages (with the pupae being exarate) before they become adults.
The Invasive Species Specialist Group lists 16 ant species as harmful invasive species.
Apart from defense against larger threats, ants also need to defend their colonies against disease organisms.
Jack jumper ants, Myrmecia pilosula, found in Australia have stings that cause fatality to a small number of people in the population, and cause hospitalizations each year (Clarke 1986).
During the Cretaceous era, representatives of only a few species of primitive ants ranged widely on what was the super-continent Laurasia (the northern hemisphere).
All ants, along with termites and some bees and wasps, are eusocial animals.
Often the larger ants will have disproportionately larger heads, and correspondingly stronger mandibles.
Ants release pheromones to communicate with each other and the antennae pick up these chemical signals.
Some caterpillars are known to produce vibrations and sounds that are sensed by the ants.
Some anthropologists believe that the earliest intelligent modern humans practiced something that we would recognize today as prayer.
Ants are highly selective of the nest site; Temnothorax albipennis will avoid sites with dead ants as these may be indicators of pests or disease.
By digging their nests they loosen the soil and bring organic material underground, which enriches the soil and promotes the growth of plants.
Oleic acid is identified as one compound released by dead ants that triggers undertaking behavior in Atta mexicana (Lуpez-riquelme 2006).
Some species of mammals, such as anteaters, pangolins and several marsupial species in Australia, have special adaptations for living on a primary diet of ants.
Some beetles, as well as other insects, are social parasites, which in effect infiltrate ant society by tricking the ants into protecting them and giving them food.
Ants identify kin and nestmates through their scents, a hydrocarbon-laced secretion that coats their exoskeletons.
Numerous species of ant continue to be added in present times and taxonomic studies continue to resolve the classification and systematics of ants.
Cretaceous ants shared both wasp-like and modern ant-like characteristics (Wilson 1967).
Ant communication is accomplished primarily through chemicals called pheromones.
Typical ants that are classified as pests include pavement ants (otherwise known as the sugar ant), Pharaoh ants, carpenter ants, Argentine ants, and the red imported fire ant.
The brown bear, Ursus arctos, one of the largest land mammals, often gets a significant portion of its nutrition by eating ants.
Ants with this ability are able to direct the direction of their descent while falling (Yanoviak 2005).
Ants have been used as the inspiration for science fiction races, as in Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers and Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game.
Myrmecophilous (ant-loving) caterpillars of the family Lycaenidae (e.g., blues, coppers, or hairstreaks) are herded by the ants, led to feeding areas in the daytime, and brought inside the ants' nest at night.
The pavement ant, Tetramorium caespitum, is famous for its urge to increase its territory.
Bullet ants (the genus Paraponera), found in Central and South America, are considered to have the most painful sting among insects.
Army ants and driver ants, from South America and Africa respectively, do not form permanent nests.
One theory of why this occurs is because foraging has a high death rate, so ants only participate in it when they are older and closer to death anyway.
Ant eyes include the compound eyes, similar to fly eyes: numerous tiny lenses attached together, which enables them to see movement very well.
Ant colonies sometimes are described as superorganisms because the colony appears to operate as a unified entity.
Most queens and male ants have wings, which they drop after the nuptial flight.
A crushed ant, for example, will emit an alarm pheromone, which in high concentration sends nearby ants into an attack frenzy; and in lower concentration, merely attracts them.
At this time, all breeding ants, excluding the queen, are carried outside where other colonies of the same species are doing the same.
Worker ants generally do not grow wings and reproductive females remove theirs after their mating flights in order to begin their colonies.
One of the strangest is the mite Macrocheles rettenmeyeri which lives on the foot of the army ant Euiton dulcius.
Termites, sometimes called white ants, are not closely related to ants, although they have similar social structures.
Humans benefit greatly from the ants' role in helping to maintain the balance of nature.
The larva will then be taken into the ants' nest where it can feed on the ant larvae.
One study in the United States estimated that ants add one inch (1.5 cm) to the topsoil every 250 years (Wilson 1971).
Some ants, called honeypot ants, have special workers called repletes who simply store food for the rest of the colony, generally becoming immobile with greatly enlarged abdomens.
Insect tending species, such as the Argentine ant (Linepithema humile), which has spread to North America and Europe with human help, and the fungus cultivating leafcutter ants can be especially damaging to crops.
The ant in defensive attitude seizes the edges in its mandibles and locks in place.
Phylogenetic analysis indicates that ants evolved from vespoids in the mid-Cretaceous period about 120 to 170 million years ago.
Nearly all ant colonies also have some fertile males called "drones" (aner) and one or more fertile females called "queens" (gynes). The colonies are described as superorganisms because the ants appear to operate as a unified entity, collectively working together to support the colony.
Ants are social insects, which means they live in a group, or colony. Colonies live inside nests that can be built in trees, underground, or even inside special ant plants. Ant colonies are highly organized, usually ruled by a single queen, and each ant has specific jobs to do. Most ants in a colony are female workers.