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Ąnts Are Tiny-But-Tough Insects That Show up for Work Almost Anytime

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Ąnts Are Tiny-But-Tough Insects That Show up for Work Almost Anytime A scientist who studies ants is called a myrmecologist (mur-muh-KAH-luh- jist). Myrmex is the AnTs RULE! Greek word for “ant.” by Ellen Lambeth HEAD eye antennas for feeling, smelling, communicating petiole (waist) Ąnts are tiny-but-tough insects that show up legs for work almost anytime, anywhere! ABDOMEN mandibles (jaws) for cutting, holding, You might think an ant is just digging, biting a common, everyday creepy- crawly. What you might not THORAX where all six legs know is that there are about are attached 12,000 different species of ants that scientists already know about. And there could be that many more still waiting to be discovered! Ants live all over the globe except in Antarctica and on cer- tain far-off islands. More kinds winged ant live in tropical places than any- Trapped in Time where else. But no matter where Ants have been around for about 120 million years. they live, you can be sure they You can see some of these long-ago ants in fossils. are hard at work—doing what Sometimes an ant would accidentally crawl or fly into some oozing tree sap and get stuck. (Ants have wings ants do. Find out what that is on only when it’s time to fly off and find mates.) The hunk the following pages. of sap with the ant inside slowly hardens. Eventually it turns into this golden, glassy fossil called amber. FRANCISCO JAVIER TORRENT ANDRES/V&W/SEAPICS.COM (6TL) >; PIOTR NASKRECKI (6-7); JOHN DOWNER/NPL/MINDEN PICTURES (7BR); 6 ART BY SCOTT NEELY claws 7 Most insects are solitary, which means they THE SECRET LIVES live alone. But, like some of their bee and wasp All Sewed Up relatives, ants are social insects. That means This group of weaver ants lines up at the they live and work together in groups called edge of a leaf, grabs another leaf edge, pulls OF ANTS colonies. A single colony may have anywhere the edges together, and holds them in place. from dozens to millions of members! Another weaver will grab a larva (young ant) that produces silk. Holding and moving the larva back and forth, the weaver uses a thread of sticky silk to “sew” the leaf edges in place to make a nest. All in the Family All the ants in a colony have special jobs to do. The large one in this fire ant colony is the queen. Her job is to lay Chit-Chat eggs. The smaller ants are Ants “talk” to each other with scents workers. They clean and take called pheromones (FAIR-uh-mohnz). care of the queen, the eggs, They use their antennas to smell the and the young ants. They scents given off by other ants. They also protect the colony’s also communicate by touching each nest and constantly keep it other with their antennas. The big > clean and repaired. MARK MOFFETT/MINDEN PICTURES (8T, 9T) ; MARK JONES/ROVING TORTOISE NATURE PHOTOS (8B) queen carpenter ant on the right taps the worker ant with her antennas to Ants in Plants say she’s hungry. The worker ant then Different kinds of ants build their nests in different places. You’re passes food to her, mouth to mouth. probably used to seeing ants that burrow underground. But other kinds may tunnel under tree bark or inside branches, flowers, or seeds such as acorns. These acacia ants make their home inside the PIOTR NASKRECKI (9M); KIM TAYLOR/WARREN PHOTOGRAPHIC (9B) > swollen base of a thorn on an acacia (uh-KAY-shuh) tree. For food, they eat the sweet nectar that oozes from the tree’s leaves. On Guard If anything threatens a colony, ants won’t take it lying down! Swarms of them come out in force to bite or sting their enemies. Many kinds of ants have powerful jaws or can inject painful chemicals through stingers on their back ends. Some even shoot out burning, irritating chemicals such as formic acid from their rear ends, as these wood ants are doing. While digging tunnels, ants turn over tons of soil to let in air, water, and nutrients. This helps plants grow. 8 9 Hunting Herding You don’t want to be in the way when thousands Some kinds of ants—such as these red ants— honeydew and thousands of army ants are on a raid. With keep insects called aphids as “livestock.” They sharp, powerful jaws, they can kill, chop up, and take care of the aphids and keep them safe eat or carry away just about any creature caught from aphid-eaters. Why? Because the aphids aphid in their path. The workers form a quick-moving poop out sweet droplets called honeydew, left swarm. Meanwhile, larger soldiers guard them over from juices they suck out of plants. Ants from enemies along the edges. may even rub their antennas on the aphids to “milk” them for this treat. ; KIM TAYLOR/WARREN < worker Storing You never know when food might be in short supply. So it’s always good to put some away soldier for later. And honeypot ants have a strange way of doing that. Some of the ants fill up with liquid food and hang upside down from the ceil- ; AUSCAPE/ARDEA (11M); JACEK IWANICKI/V&W/SEAPICS.COM (11B) ing of their nest. When food is needed—such > as during the dry season—they spit some up for workers to share with the rest of the colony. It takes a lot of work and cooperation to MARTIN HARVEY/DRK PHOTO (10T); BENCE MATE/NATUREPL.COM (10B) feed a colony. But ants are up to the task! PHOTOGRAPHIC (11TR) Family Feast Here are some of the ways they do it. Gardening Like army ants, leafcutter ants march across the forest hitchhiking ant in long columns. But they’re not hunting prey. Instead, they’re gathering bits of leaves and carrying them back to the colony. They won’t eat the leaf bits, though. ANT-EATERS They use them to grow fungus There’s no shortage of ant-eating animals, in underground “farms.” The including other insects, lizards, and birds. fungus is then harvested to Some animals are even specially built feed the whole colony. for it. The baby-toting giant anteater at right, for example, has a great sense of smell for finding ants, strong claws for digging into their nests, a tube-like snout for poking down in there, and a long and An ant can carry up to sticky tongue for slurping up the ants. 50 times its own weight! Good thing there are plenty of ants in the world to go around! = 10 11.
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