A closer look at ants What is an ant? An ant is an insect. It has two antennae, a segmented body and six legs. Can you spot them on this picture? Not all ants will have sting because ants differ on how they defend themselves. Answer: What do ants do? https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/inside-an-ant- colony/z4crkmn Watch the video to find out what goes on in a colony. Ants live together in big groups called colonies. Some colonies have millions of ants. Each colony has a Queen ant. Her job is to lay eggs which keeps the colony thriving. The other ants all have their own special jobs to keep the colony running properly. There are soldier ants to defend the queen and the colony. These ants also gather food. There are worker ants. These ants look after the queen, the eggs and the larvae. Some cool ant facts! Ants can life 20 times their own weight. That means if a year 2 child was an ant, they would be strong enough to lift up a car! Ants do not have ears. The ‘hear’ by feeling vibrations in the ground through their feet so ants listen with their feet! When soldier ants fight, it is usually to the death! Ants that look for food leave an trail that other ants can sense. This means that lots of ants from the colony can find their way to the food source. Queen ants have wings. When they start a new colony they will lose their wings. Where do ants live? Ant colonies are usually underground. Ants live all over the world, there are more than 20 000 species of ant. The ants will look different depending on where they live. Meet the black garden ant Black garden ants are found in our gardens and countryside. Sometimes they will sneak into your house in the spring time. They cannot sting. The soldier ants use their mandibles (strong jaws) to defend their colonies. Size: Less than 1cm These ants build the nests underground. They like to Location: These ants live in the burrow into dry, slightly sandy soil. soil so they will live all over the world. You may have seen them in your garden. Meet the carpenter ant Carpenter ants build their nests in wood. They prefer damp, mouldy wood. They enter through small cracks and dig out more tunnels as the colony grows in size. All the wood they dig out in piled outside the nest. Size: About one and half They like to eat insects, fats, meat and sugary food. centimetres. They especially like nectar from plants. Location: Carpenter ants lives in forests all over the world. They do not like dry environments. Meet the weaver ants These ants have adapted to live above the ground. These ants use a special type of silk to join leaves in the trees together to create their colony. Size: About 1cm They can also live in roofs or along telegraph poles. Location: These ants are usually found in Australia and south east Asia. Meet the honeypot ant Honeypot ants have incredible abdomens! They are living honey jars. Some of the ants in these colonies will stuff themselves with food for the colony. They look after the food for when it is needed in the colony. Honeypot ants love to eat nectar from flowers. Size: About 1cm but much larger when full of nectar! In some places in the world, honeypot ants are eaten by people. They are a delicacy and taste like sweets! Location: Australia, Mexico, Western America, South Africa and New Guinea. Meet the ghost ant Ghost ants are teeny tiny and coloured black with white abdomens. Ghost ants are so small that no one really knows where they come from or how they have spread across the world because they are so difficult to Size: About 2mm see. Location: USA, Africa, Asia, South America and the Ghost ants will eat very similar foods to black Caribbean…maybe even more because they are so hard to garden ants. spot! Ghost ant colonies have more than one queen. Why are all these ants so different? Ants have to survive in lots of different places all over the world. Ants have adapted to the places they live so they can survive there and keep building their colonies. Adapted means that their bodies have changed over time so they can live in different places. Some ants need to have access to food when they can’t find it easily. Flowers only make nectar during the spring and summer so the honeypot ants have stretchy abdomens to store extra food. Some ants will need to survive in busy forests where lots of animals already live (like the weaver ants) so they need to find new places to build their colonies. Some ants need to survive extreme heat. The Saharan Silver ant has special body armour to protect it in the desert and it is the fastest ant on the planet. It’s over to you… Today you will be thinking of your own ant adaptation and drawing it to show how it is different from an everyday ant you might find in your garden . Remember your ants are still insects so they will all need to have: - 2 antennae - A segmented body (head, thorax and abdomen) - 6 legs Before you begin: Think of where your ant will live. What will the ant need to survive there? Draw your ant and label it with its adaptations. Here is an example of an ant design. I have decided that it will live in the Arctic which is a very cold place. I have added some things to my ant which I think will help it to survive..