Mass of ants on the ground. Determination of the population and biomass of a separate family (column) of ants and termites. Where do ants live
Ecology
We all know about the amazing abilities of ants. They live in huge, interconnected colonies, can lift several times their own weight, and coordinate their actions with incredible precision.
But a lot of the things that make ants awesome can also make them formidable enemies. Here are some of the greatest strengths of these insects.
1. Ants are as old as dinosaurs.
In 2006, scientists from Harvard and Florida State University collaborated to conduct a large-scale genetic analysis on ants from 19 of the 20 known subfamilies. According to their findings, ants first arose in the middle of the Cretaceous period, that is, about 110-130 million years ago.
2. Ants have already survived a mass extinction.
It is believed that the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event or, as it is also called, the K-T extinction occurred approximately 65 million years ago after an absolute mass collision. This event is regarded as the extinction of dinosaurs and the emergence of mammals, and the years following the extinction are considered the time of incredibly rapid speciation and the worldwide spread of ants.
3. Ants conquered almost the whole world
The success of ants millions of years ago continues to this day. So entomologist Ted Schultz(Ted Schultz) calls the emergence of the ant "perhaps the greatest success in the history of terrestrial metazoans" (that is, virtually all multicellular animals on Earth, including humans) and rightfully so.
Almost every piece of land, with the exception of Antarctica and the Arctic and a few islands, is home to at least one native ant species.
4. One group of ants conquered six continents
In 2000, biologists recreated the story of the invasion of Argentine ants of the species Linepithema humile. The team of scientists found that in the last century alone, this species has settled in at least 15 countries around the world, including a number of remote oceanic islands, filling six continents.
5. The total population of ants far exceeds the population of the Earth.
Researchers Bert Halldobler(Bert Holldobler) and Edward O. Wilson(Edward O. Wilson) calculated that the population of ants on Earth has more than 10,000,000,000,000,000 living individuals at any given time.
6 Some Ants Are Quite Big
Of course, even with a figure in excess of 10,000 trillion, ants are quite small in size. However, it all depends on what we consider small. The largest ant ever found was a fossil of the species Titanomyrma giganteum, whose length reached about 6 cm, and the wingspan was almost 15 cm. Of course, you will not meet this species anymore, and many ants reach no more than a millimeter in length, but there are species such as Dorylus wilverthi which are up to 5 cm long.
7. Ants have a collective mind
Large, self-organizing ant colonies are often referred to as "superorganisms". By definition, a superorganism is a collection of agents that can act in concert to produce collectively controlled phenomena. When 50 million ants gather to form such a single, coordinated superorganism, you don't think the ants are that small.
8. In some parts of the world, ants make up more than a quarter of animal biomass.
In 2000, scientists found that, on average, ants monopolize 15-20 percent of terrestrial animal biomass, and in tropical regions, where ants are especially abundant, they make up more than 25 percent of the biomass.
9 Ants Collaborate With Other Species
There are more than 200 known species of the so-called mushroom ants. For a long time, scientists believed that the fungi grown by these ants were simply passed from one generation to another within individual species. But in 2000, researchers found that varieties grown by ants are sometimes transferred between species.
10 Ants Practice Slavery
Many species of ants raid neighboring colonies, steal eggs and larvae, and this practice is called "slave". Forcibly acquired young animals are eaten or forced to work. Such species are called slave ants, and they rely on this practice to maintain colonies. In fact, some ant species are unable to feed themselves in the absence of slaves.
There are well-known folk expressions: "Working like an ant" or "Friends like ants." So the image of an ant evoked in a dream, most likely, is these well-known expressions deposited in your dream. Perhaps the image of an ant appears in a dream when in real life you met people who have those wonderful human qualities that the ant personifies: diligence, modesty, thrift, friendliness.
To dream of an ant pulling something into an anthill is a sign that in real life you should think about your future, because circumstances may soon change for the worse and you will really need the savings that you make currently.
Watching ants scurrying through the anthill in a dream is a good omen. Such a dream suggests that in real life, thanks to your hard work, you will achieve good luck and recognition of others.
Crushing ants in a dream means that soon you will commit an act for which you will pay for your whole life.
Watching a friendly string of ants in a dream is evidence that in real life you have a lot of friends who will never let you down in difficult times.
If you dreamed that an ant was crawling on your arm or leg, then such a dream suggests that in reality you are a very thrifty person, and, thanks to this, you will never experience an urgent need for anything.
If you were bitten by an ant, then in real life you should beware of a dirty trick from a person close to you. Perhaps such a dream suggests that you will be let down by work colleagues whom you trusted.
If in a dream ants climbed into the jam, you should overcome great difficulties in order to achieve everything you want in life.
Destroying an anthill in a dream is a sign that you will get involved in a dubious event that will end badly for you. Perhaps such a dream suggests that because of your shyness you will not be able to refuse a bad deed, which you will later regret very much.
Interpretation of dreams from the Ancient dream bookSubscribe to the channel Dream Interpretation!
Dream Interpretation - Ants
To meet hardworking people.
Catch an ant in a dream - money will arrive in the near future, and with them - honor and respect.
Many ants in a dream - to the hardships of the monotony of life.
Many running ants - to the road, an anthill - to render you great honor.
Crush the ant - destroy your success.
An ant climbs into the ear or mouth - means danger to life.
To see red ants in a dream - to a severe hangover.
Interpretation of dreams fromMaybe you remember how in childhood you stumbled upon an anthill and watched with interest the actions of its inhabitants? It boils its own little life, everyone is running somewhere, busy with something ...
1) Ants have complex compound eyes made up of many tiny lenses. They distinguish movement well, but do not have high resolution.
2) The antennae on the head serve to detect air currents and vibrations, as well as to receive and transmit signals through touch. Basically it is a sense organ.
3) Ants evolved from wasps in the middle of the Cretaceous period between 110 - 130 million years ago. This means that they outlived the dinosaurs.
4) Antquarium, a special container for ants, was developed by NASA to study the behavior of insects.
5) Queen ants can live up to 30 years, and worker ants can live no more than one year.
6) Termites are often called ants, but they are much closer to cockroaches.
7) Leaf cutter ants use the most complex food chain in the world. Some members of the colony bring the leaves of the tree to the anthill, smaller individuals, never leaving the colony, chew the leaves.
The resulting mass is formed in special areas of the anthill, where fungi develop from it, providing ants with protein food. In fact, ants are engaged in agriculture.
8) The sting of a black bulldog ant can be fatal to humans.
9) Bullet ant. The pain from his bite can last for days.
10) Some types of ants can navigate in space using the Earth's magnetic field.
11) The ant is considered the smartest insect. It has about 250,000 brain cells in its tiny head.
12) There is a concept - Nomad Ant Syndrome. Entire columns of ants travel long distances, sometimes making stops.
13) If an ant were the size of a person, then its speed of movement would be about 55 kilometers per hour.
14) Ants are unusually strong. They can lift several thousand times their own weight.
15) Throughout life, one queen gives offspring for an entire colony.
16) Each ant colony has a distinctive smell. This is how they find strangers.
17) There are about 12,000 species of ants on earth.
18) Ants have slavery.
19) The size of a colony can vary from a few dozen to trillions of individuals.
20) Ants have colonized the entire planet except for Antarctica, the Arctic and a handful of islands.
The statement is known that if you weigh all the ants living in the world, then their weight will be equal to the total weight of all people living in the world.
For the first time this assumption was made in the book "The Way to the Ants" by the American entomologist Edward Wilson and the German biologist Bert Helldobler, published in 1994.
“If we consider that ants make up only 1% of this total number of insects, then their population is 10 thousand trillion individuals,” Wilson and Helldobler wrote in their book. “On average, the weight of a worker ant, depending on the species, is 1-5 mg If you add them all together, it turns out that all the ants of the world weigh about the same as all of humanity.
This calculation is based on the notion that the average human weighs a million times the average ant. Is it really? The average human weight is 62 kg, which means that the average ant should weigh about 62 mg.
Average Ant
"Indeed, there are ants that weigh about 60 mg, but these are rare species," says entomologist Francis Ratnieks from the University of Sussex. "Regular ants living in British gardens weigh 1-2 mg."
In fact, no one really knows what the total number of ants in the world is. Even Wilson and Helldobler's calculations are inaccurate. There are currently 7.2 billion people in the world. If you take only adults over 15 years old, their total weight will be about 332 billion kg. If we agree that there are 10,000 trillion ants in the world, each of which weighs about 4 mg, then their total weight will be only 40 billion kg.
But Professor Rantnieks believes that the calculations of Wilson and Helldobler, although incorrect today, reflected reality not so long ago.
"Only 2,000 years ago, ants overtook mankind in weight, but approximately from the end of the 18th century, from the moment America gained independence, mankind began to grow rapidly and surpassed ants in weight."
"It should also be remembered that not only are there more and more people, but that they are getting fatter, so it's not surprising that we left the ants behind," said the British entomologist.