Here they come, here they come, ants on the green grass
First come the students, cheerful students
Second come the dads and moms follow them
Third are the orderlies to keep the line in order
And at the end of the line comes the old grandpa...
Ants (lat. Formicidae) are part of a family of insects that live in large organizational communities and belong to the order Hymenoptera. It is believed that ants have existed on Earth for over 100 million years. It is estimated that there are more than 20,000 different species, and interestingly, according to some sources, the total weight of all ants in the world is approximately equal to the total weight of all humans.
ANT COLONIES AND THEIR LIFE
As you know, you will rarely see an ant alone. If you do see one, know that it has strayed somewhere and has distanced itself from its “family.” Ants are known for living in groups and collectively creating one extremely organized community.
To cope with life’s challenges, ants are forced to work together, and for this reason, each ant has its role: the ant that founds the colony, the ant that builds the home, the ant that finds food, the ant that protects the community from enemies. Teamwork is essential for all of this.
The army of ants is extremely numerous wherever it goes. Since they cannot rely on sight, ants at the front of the line secrete a chemical substance called pheromone, as a clear trail for their comrades to follow. To decipher the chemical code, ants require a highly developed sense of smell.
Ants form colonies that mainly consist of sterile, wingless females that form the castes of “workers,” “soldiers,” or other specialized groups. Almost all ant colonies also contain several fertile males called “drones,” and one or more fertile females known as "queens." Colonies have been described as superorganisms because it seems that ants act as a united entity, collectively working to maintain the colony.
ANT DIET
These insects have more than four hundred smell receptors ‒ five times more than any other species of insects. Thanks to this, thousands of ants quickly arrive to successfully hunt together. The hunters have jaws as sharp as razors that can quickly cut through their prey.
In just one year, an ant colony catches, kills, and eats ten million animals. Worker ants cut leaves with their jaws. Then others carry it back to the colony.
Underground, ants chew leaves to produce a thick paste. This is then used as compost to grow a special type of fungus that ants can eat. They have been doing this for fifty million years, making them the world’s earliest farmers.
An ant colony (which can number around 20 million ants) can have one (monogynous) or several (polygynous) queens. All ants from one ant hill create a closely connected community, recognizing each other by smell. Most species of ants are hostile towards ants from other ant hills.
DISTRIBUTION AND TYPES OF ANTS
Ants have colonized almost every area of the Earth. The only places that are not natural habitats for ants are Antarctica and a few remote or inhospitable islands.
The most well-known species include: the forest ant (Formica rufa), the carpenter ant (Camponotus herculeanus), the black garden ant (Lasius fuliginosus), the yellow meadow ant (Lasius flavus), and the red amazon ant (Polyergus rufescens).
In the summer, winged sexual individuals emerge from ant hills in swarms and mate in flight. After that, the males die, and the females shed their wings, which are then carried back to the ant hills by workers to lay eggs, or they establish new ant hills with part of the "workers." During mating, females store the male's sperm cells in a special part of their reproductive system, which are used to fertilize eggs throughout their lives. Female ants can live up to 15 years.
Ants in Europe are preyed upon by birds (especially the great spotted woodpecker, green woodpecker, black woodpecker), lizards, small snakes, amphibians, insects (e.g., ant lions), arachnids, and even wild boars, while anteaters (which live in Central and South America) primarily feed on ants along with termites.
Ants and their larvae are eaten in various parts of the world. The eggs of two species of ants are used in Mexican escamoles. They are considered a form of insect caviar and can be sold at a relatively high price, as they are seasonal and hard to find. In the Colombian department of Santander, hormigas culonas (translated as “big-bottomed ants”) Atta laevigata are fried alive and eaten.
