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Ants Ants have lived on Earth for over one million years. They have been called one of the most successful groups of insects in the animal kingdom. Ant colonies can have up to one million ants. These colonies are very organized communities where every ant has a job and works together. Ants are very social animals and are capable of communicating with each other in many ways.
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| Animal Communication |
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Without a voice or ears, ants
are capable of sending at least fifty messages through
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| Physical Characteristics |
 Ants have three main parts of the
body: the head, thorax,
and the abdomen. Ants touch things with their two long, thin
antennae attached to their head. Ants use these to detect flavors,
sounds and odors. Ants also use their antennae to communicate with
each other.
On the other side of an ant’s mouth are special jaws called mandibles which work like tongs or pinchers. Ants use their mandibles to pick up pieces of food, to dig nests, and as weapons for fighting. The thorax contains the three pairs of legs. Each leg has two tiny legs on the end which helps the ant crawl upside down. Ants have a very skinny waist which allows them to crawl through tiny spaces in their nests. Ants have two stomachs which are located in their abdomen. The largest stomach is called the crop or “community” stomach. This helps the ant share its food with other ants in the colony. When a fellow ant is hungry, the food-gathering ant will share its stored food with the hungry ant through a process called trophallaxis (tro-fa-lax-es). The back of the ants’ abdomen contains a poison sack. Many ants have stingers which are used to defend themselves against predators.
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| Habitat |
Ants are found in every corner of the earth except for
the Artic and Antarctic. They
build many types of homes.
Most ants built simple mounds out of dirt or sand. These little
hills surround the entrances to the ants’ underground nests.
Harvester ants build hills that can be two feet tall and are hard
packed. In Africa, the hills formed by the nests of some ants can
grow to be over twenty feet tall! Beneath the ant hills are many
rooms and tunnel systems. Each room has its own special use with
one being reserved just for the queen. Other rooms serve as rooms
for the eggs, storerooms for food, or resting places for the working
ants.
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| Food |
 Ant colonies need food in order to grow and be
successful. The goal of the foraging ant is to spend the least
amount of energy to deliver the greatest amount of food to the colony.
Ants eat a variety of foods. Depending on the time of the year, the
colony may need protein or carbohydrates. Most ants are
omnivorous. They eat anything from other insects to grass and
seeds. One species of ant grows a type of fungus in their nests
which is used as food for the colony. Other species eat a sweet
liquid, called honeydew, that is made by aphids. These ants have
been known to keep and protect the aphids inside their nests.
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| Growth & Reproduction |
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Most ants mate in one of two ways. The first type usually happens after rainfall. Males and unfertilized queens suddenly take flight. This swarm of flying ants rising off the ground is called nuptial flight. The queen is fertilized in mid-air and then flies off where she breaks off her wings and digs a hole in the ground which becomes her nest. She lays her eggs and stays with them until they hatch. The second type of mating occurs when the queen releases chemicals called pheromones, which attract the male ants. This is called the female-calling syndrome. Metamorphosis Metamorphosis is a series of four complete changes in form every ant goes through. These four stages are the egg, larvae, pupa, and finally adult. It usually takes about three months for an ant to go through this process. As a queen’s eggs grow, she takes care of them by licking them constantly. In about twenty days, the young hatch from their eggs and become worm-like grubs called larvae. The larvae do not take care of themselves. They are fed through a process called trophallaxis, where the queen regurgitates her food, and feeds it to the larvae. It is during this stage that it is determined what role the ants will serve in the colony when they are adults. After a month, the larvae shed their skins and become pupa. In this stage, the young do not eat. They lie on their backs with their legs curled up. A cocoon forms around them and in twenty more days, the young ants emerge as small, pale colored ants. They are the first workers of a new colony and will darken with age. |
| Other Interesting Facts |
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| Activities |
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How to Make an Ant Farm
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| Citations |
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Online Resources "All About
Ants." Life Studies.
7, January 2006. <http://www.infowest.com/life/aants.htm “Ant.” OneLang.com. 7, January 2006. <http://www.onelang.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Ants>. “Ant.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 7, January 2006. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant>. “Ant.” World Almanac for
Kids.
7, January 2006. <http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com/explore/animals/ant.html>. “Ant Anatomy.”
Life Studies.
7, January 2006. <http://www.infowest.com/life/antbody.htm “The Behavior of Ants.” 7,
January 2006. <http://biology.Arizona.adu/sciconn/lessons2/shindelman/background.html>. “How Do Ants Communicate With Each Other?” 7, January 2006. <http://www.antnest.co.uk/Comms.html>. “The Tiny World Of Ants.”
Pitara.com. 7, January 2006. <http://www.para.com/discover/earth/online.asp?story=18&page=2>. Images Close-up photograph of black ants is in the public domain because it is a work of the United States federal Government. Photograph from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page>. Permission to use photographs of ant mound and ants on board is granted under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page>. Photograph
of leaf cutting ants has been (or is hereby) released into the public
domain by its creator, Arpingstone.
This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible, Copyrighted images
of the working ant from "Microsoft
Office Online" <http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/default.aspx?lc=en-us&cag=1>
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body
language and pheromones. Ants have been called “little
chemical factories” because they continuously produce chemicals
which serve as the ant’s language. Through pheromones, ants
organize the behavior of the members of their huge colonies.
They organize actions such as tending to the young, grooming the
queen, and marking their territory. They can communicate the
presence of danger and the location of food by the production of
pheromones.