Download Ant Anatomy

The Ant
CONSERVATION CONCERNS
45 species are at risk due to habitat destruction
RANGE AND HABITAT
Almost all parts of the world; most abundant in the tropics
FEEDING HABITS
Most ants are omnivores; they eat plant juices, seeds, fruits, other insects,
and honeydew, a sugary liquid secreted by aphids.
OFFSPRING
Only queen ants lay eggs. Ants pass through egg, larva, pupa, and adult
stages.
LIFE SPAN
Less than six months on average; some worker and queen ants live for
several years
"Ant Quick Facts," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2000. © 19931999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
The ANT
• Go to the ant … consider her ways, and
be wise – Proverbs 6:6
• Contrary to the sluggar, the ant works
itself to death; often carrying 50 times
their body weight.
• An umbrella ant carrying a leaf is like a
man carrying 1,000 pounds.
In both large and small colonies, ants divide up work
tasks within the colony, such as digging tunnels, rearing the
brood, collecting food, and laying eggs. This division of labor
means that each ant is a specialist, performing some but not
all of the various tasks needed for colony life. While different
ant species use varied ways to divide up the tasks performed
by workers in a colony, one crucial division of labor is common
to all ant species: Only queens lay eggs, while workers raise
the young. In species that have single queens and large
colonies, the reproductive output of queens is astounding. A
fire ant queen may lay 100 eggs per hour, around the clock,
and an African driver ant queen lays 3 million to 4 million
eggs per month. Worker ants typically do not reproduce.
Some workers may have small ovaries and may release eggs,
but no workers have a sperm-storage organ, so they never
produce fertilized eggs.
"Ant," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2000. © 1993-1999
Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Ant Anatomy
Work Structure
• Queen ants lay eggs
• Male ants mate then die
• Worker ants are architects, protectors,
foragers.
• Without a ruler, they know what to do –
Proverbs 6:7-8
Army Ants Marching
The Work
• Harvester ants store seeds, biting off
the germ to prevent them from sprouting
in the dark, damp nest.
• Umbrella ants bring pieces of leaves
into their nests and chew them into a
mulch on which they grow “gardens” of
fungi similar to mushrooms.
Forager Ant
The Work
• Some worker ants I’ll call the “drinkers”
drink so much fluids from plants their
stomach swells to the size of a marble.
Then as the juices ooze from their
bodies, the other ants lick it up!!
Ant Communication
• Ants use sophisticated communication to coordinate
their specialized tasks. A key form of ant
communication is the chemical signal called a
pheromone. Many species emit alarm pheromones to
alert nestmates to danger and attract them to the site
of a disturbance. Some ants spread streaks of so-called
trail pheromones on the ground to guide nestmates to
food, areas needing defense, or new nest sites. The
long lines of ants sometimes seen streaming from a
nest are following these signals.
– "Ant," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2000. © 19931999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Magnified Ant Head
Ant Communication
• The queen emits a large number of pheromones, which
serve various purposes in the colony. Some of a queen’s
pheromones attract workers to groom and feed her.
Many pheromones given off by a queen affect the
physiology, rather than the behavior, of other ants. For
example, certain pheromones released from a queen
prevent the ovaries of adult workers from maturing, and
other pheromones from queen ants may determine the
caste of the developing larvae.
– "Ant," Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2000. © 19931999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.