How many ants are there in the world. How an anthill works: the internal structure, life and interaction of ants. The most dangerous types of ants: names and descriptions

Ants are such numerous insects on our planet that there are several thousand of their species. A single ant does not seem to be a complex and dangerous creature with intelligence. But this impression is deceptive, since ants do not live alone, but in a group and in the system of interaction of these insects one can be amazed at their high organization and clear division of responsibilities. In fact, ants can be compared with people, only we can still learn from their tolerance, diligence and coherence in work. “Plows like an ant,” we say about a hardworking person, imagining a small insect that drags an object several times its weight and size.

These insects live in large families that persist for several years; in fact, all ants in such a colony are biologically related, and from a social point of view, it is a city whose population is strictly divided into castes and rigidly organized. In fact, we can say that a parallel civilization is seething and developing under our feet.

We interact through speech, gestures and facial expressions, and ants communicate through the exchange of food and through smells, each ant has its own unique smell, and each family has its own unique shades of smells, thanks to which insects feel that a stranger has entered their home. Also, their interaction is carried out with the help of pheromones, using which insects inform each other about the location of food or danger.

We know from school how the anthill works and how complicated everything is in it, but myrmecologists are engaged in more serious studies of the ant society.

Anthill device

The anthill looks like an ordinary mountain of branches, blades of grass, pieces of earth, but in fact it is a subtly and well-thought-out dwelling, inside of which everything is much more interesting than outside.

The ant house has the shape of a cone for a reason, thanks to it the rain rolls down the blades of grass and needles almost without getting inside. The anthill rises above the level of the grass, so that the sun's rays penetrate inside, with which the ants warm up, and also warm their larvae and pupae. And the deeper layers of the anthill is a refuge for insects on cold days. Thanks to a cunning project, ants spend summer in a summer cone, and winter in earthen passages.

Parts of an ant dwelling

Looking at the picture, you can see the various parts of the anthill, the following describes what each of them serves for:

1. The top cover, consisting of needles, blades of grass and twigs, protects the ant house from the weather.
2. A chamber heated by the sun's rays - here the ants warm themselves and their offspring.
3. One of the many entrances, guarded by soldiers, in addition to being a door, also serves as a channel for ventilation.
4. Warehouse for garbage and dead ants.
5. A wintering chamber where ants sleepily wait out the cold.
6. Storage room for grains.
7. The queen's chamber, where the queen lives and lays her eggs, which is cared for by worker ants.
8. Chamber for eggs and larvae.
9. Aphid chamber.
10. Pantry for caterpillars and other "meat" prey.

It is interesting! The largest anthill in the world is located in the Tomsk region near the village of Zavarzino. This conclusion was made by Tomsk local historians, who measured this structure. In order to build such an ant house, the ant family, according to scientists, took at least 20 years. The record parameters are 3 meters high and 5 meters in diameter. According to local historians, this anthill is overgrown, but its inhabitants have already started building a new dwelling nearby. It is possible that it will not be inferior in size to the old one.

How is an ant colony organized? Ant life in an anthill

In order to figure out how ants live in an anthill, let's start from birth. Once a year, males and females hatch from eggs, which are ready for procreation, they have wings and scatter in different directions for mating. Males, after fulfilling their main purpose - fertilization, die, and females fly away in search of a place for a new colony. Having found it, the female gnaws off her wings in order to obtain additional nutrients and begins to actively lay eggs.

At first, hungry times await her, she survives only due to the accumulated fat layer, but then, when the first representatives of the offspring hatch, they begin to provide her and the larvae with everything necessary. The ant queen mother mates only once, while her sperm reserve is enough for her entire long (up to 20 years) life to recreate offspring.

These insects are Hymenoptera, males develop from unfertilized eggs and have a single set of chromosomes, and females are endowed with a double set. In this state of affairs, daughters acquire the entire genome from their father, and half from their mother. At the same time, sisters become closer relatives to each other than daughters are to their mother. Despite the fact that the word "ant" is masculine, all female worker ants are the daughters of the queen queen, who cannot mate and remain unfertilized all their lives.

Ants and their larvae

Ant social strata

Ants, like humans, have social relationships and hierarchies. Everyone has a set of qualities: intelligence, aggressiveness, reaction speed, enterprise, ability to communicate with others. Depending on what qualities dominate in each, the ant receives a certain profession:

• invader warriors - the main task is to capture new territories and attack other anthills in order to steal larvae and cocoons in order to later turn them into slaves working for the benefit of someone else's anthill;
• builders - diligently maintain the structure and condition of the anthill, create new tunnels and communications as the number of residents grows, every day hundreds of builder ants drag needles and twigs from above into the deep layers of the anthill, and from the lower floors to the top. Thus, a stable humidity regime is maintained and that is why the dome of the anthill does not rot and does not grow moldy;
• orderlies - isolate sick ants from society, if the patient's limb is damaged, they amputate it, biting it off with their powerful jaws;
• nannies-nurses - take care of the offspring and are engaged in education;
• getters - get and store food;
• guards - protect the entrances to the anthill from strangers and ensure the safety of the queen with the larvae;
• shepherds or milkers - ants have their own pets. Aphids eat vegetation and secrete droplets of a sweet liquid called honeydew. Mutually beneficial cooperation has been established between insects. Ants tickle aphids and get honeydew - for them this is a delicious and nutritious food, which is the main source of carbohydrates. And in the form of a reciprocal service, they graze and protect their dairy cows from the attack of predators;
• transporters - transfer the pad to the anthill;
• workers of the maternity hospital - carry eggs in specially designated compartments and are responsible for maintaining the required temperature regime;
• nectar keepers - necessary in the anthill in case there are suddenly hungry times in it, and the ants-producers will not be able to find food. Then the products that thrifty keepers always have come in handy;
• scouts - looking for new places where you can get food.

Depending on how many ants are in the anthill, there is a division of labor. In a small ant family, all its members can engage in different activities, observing the principle of interchangeability. But in a large community, specializations appear and individual ants are assigned their own roles.

Ants, just like people, are not born equal, with different genetic predispositions, and the main task of the community is the effective use of the potential of each family member. So, for example, those who become guards and warriors initially show an aggressive disposition and, without reasoning, rush into battle, they are slightly larger than the rest of their relatives and have strong tentacles. The same story with the intellectual elite of the ant community - scouts. Smart ants have the ability to remember the sequence of turns on their way to a new food site and relay this information to the foragers.

The question of the prestige of the profession

At a young age, ants can change their profession and look for themselves in different types of activities, for those who are not determined with specialization, the role of laborers is prepared. No matter how hard they try, newcomers cope with their duties worse than older and more experienced fellow tribesmen. According to scientists in the world of ants there is such a thing as the prestige of the profession. For example, the lower caste - slaves, ants do not allow the larvae to be dragged and even in case of danger they take them away and carry them themselves. For them, it's a matter of prestige! Slaves are assigned the role of builders, apparently, this profession is not quoted among ants.

Self-affirmation: “suitcase pose”

In order to secure their place under the sun, insects are forced to show their tough temper. They sometimes behave aggressively towards their fellow tribesmen: they run into each other, rise above the enemy, demonstratively walk on high and tense legs, and bite painfully. The winner in the dispute can grab the loser and force him to crouch in the “suitcase position”, then drag him off the battlefield, he can carry him to the anthill and throw him there so that he does not interfere with his career and no longer approaches the winner.

It is amazing that ants live so harmoniously and work as a single mechanism for the benefit of their family, while not having one “think tank”. Moreover, the anatomical features of one ant will not allow it to be the sole manager - the capabilities of its nervous system are too small for such a large amount of programs and information that are necessary to control the life of an entire anthill.

The life of ants in an anthill is unique, very interesting and requires a long study to comprehend the new secrets of these tiny but strong insects.

Ants are gregarious insects. There are no solitary or hermit ants. All varieties of these small workers live in colonies. Each inhabitant of the anthill has its own specific responsibilities, but all efforts are aimed at only one thing - protection, strengthening and prosperity of their large family.

Ant "table of ranks"

Communication and mutual contact between fellow tribesmen is carried out using channels (signal and food). The colony is conditionally divided into "detachments":

Workers.

Soldiers.

females.

Males.

At the head of this legion is the uterus, she is the queen. The uterus is the largest. This is a real conveyor for the production of eggs. The working detachment of ants is obliged to look after eggs, pupae, look for and prepare food, repair and strengthen the anthill. A detachment of guard ants, the so-called soldiers, perform protective functions, guard the entrances and deal with strangers. For females and males, the role of participants in the process of reproduction of offspring is prepared.

The anthill protectors are a subspecies of the worker ant, but with slightly larger dimensions. Separate ant species have insects - soldiers unable to feed on their own. The workers have to feed them.

The main function of a soldier is protective. He guards the anthill, food stocks and forager ants. A secondary task is to help with the dismemberment of large prey into parts if the worker ant is not able to carry it away entirely.

Worker Ants

This is the largest group of inhabitants of the anthill. The first to appear after the queen lays the first chamber of the future anthill is the builder ant. He expands and strengthens the future underground kingdom, looks after future offspring.

Worker ants are divided into several subgroups in their group.. To whom what duties to perform depends on the individual qualities of each insect. For example, individuals with initiative inclinations and reaction go to hunters or scouts. More sedate ones graze and carry aphids through the plants, collect its sweet honeydew. Only the age when the old ant is no longer suitable for reconnaissance or hunting, or the sudden death of most of the colony, can affect the change of activity.

Young specimens work underground, inside the anthill. They build new cells, dig passages, care for larvae and females.

They say about some people: "Works like an ant." And it does not mean that the result of his work is microscopic. On the contrary, it is a praise denoting a gigantic work done alone. The comparison with insects is not accidental. Few people in the animal kingdom can boast of such strength and endurance. A small ant is able to lift and carry weight, 50 times more than himself! And if several insects combine their efforts, then the figure increases to 70-80! This is because the ant's body structure is dominated by muscle tissue. Given the size of the anthill and the number of “freeloaders” that the worker ant provides with food, it is clear that he is not at all superfluous in strength. A stubborn insect, if unable to lift and carry large prey, will drag it along the ground behind it until help arrives.

It is surprising that when an obstacle arises on the way, the ants interlock with their paws and form living bridges up to several meters long.. Usually this is necessary to overcome a stream, a cleft, any places where it is not possible to walk on the ground. So, such a bridge is able to withstand a load of several kg.

Who is in charge?

The formation of a new colony begins with the uterus. This is the queen of the colony. It does not perform any functions (harvesting, protection, construction), except for one - to increase and maintain the size of the ant family. The uterus is formed from an ordinary female, which was fertilized by a male, and she was able to organize her own “kingdom”. The queen is the only one with wings, which she will bite off herself after nursing the first litter.

The life expectancy of an ant queen reaches two decades or more. As long as the queen is alive, the colony has every chance to rise from the ashes after any, the most crushing losses.. For the entire biological cycle, she lays half a million eggs.

The queen mother is followed in status by workers, the most numerous livestock of the colony. Then come the guard troops. And the chain is closed by males and females, among which, of course, there are individuals who, upon successful fertilization, will themselves become queens and form their own ant kingdom.

Video "The first steps of the soldier ant"

The ant belongs to the class of insects, phylum Arthropoda, order Hymenoptera, family ants (Formicidae). By organization, ants belong to a group of social insects with a clear division into three castes: working individuals, females and males.

• Blood Red Ant (Slaver)(Formica sanguinea)

widely distributed in Europe, central Russia, found in China and Mongolia. Workers are up to 8 mm long and have a black body with an orange head. The uterus of an ant grows up to 10 mm and is distinguished by a red head and an orange breast. Ants build summer nests in half-decayed stumps, in the ground and under stones; in winter, the family moves to another nest located at the base of the trees. A typical way of life of this species of ants is predatory raids on anthills of brown forest, agile and other ants. Captured pupae are brought to the nest and raised as "slaves".

• Yellow Amazon Ant ( Polyergus rufescens)

a species of ants that is quite large in size: females reach almost a centimeter in length, males are somewhat more modest - 6-7.5 mm, "soldiers" are even smaller and rarely grow more than 5-7 mm. Females and "soldiers" are painted in yellow-reddish tones, the body is usually covered with black hairs. Male ants are black, limbs and antennae are brown. The species lives in Europe, in the western regions of Asia, in the west of Siberia. The Amazon ant prefers to settle in humid forests, choosing clearings and edges for the construction of an anthill. Amazons lead a slave-owning lifestyle, kidnap other ants in the pupal stage, and then use them as slaves, labor.

• Ants-legionnaires or ants-nomads (dorilins, wandering ants) ( Dorylinae)

a subfamily of nomadic ants that live exclusively in the tropics and subtropics. Legionnaire ants are especially common in Central and South America, they are found in Africa. They live in huge colonies, most of which are working individuals. Ants nomads destroy everything that is suitable for food in their path. Despite the average size of 2-4 mm, this species of ants “takes” its numbers, destroying the crops of cultivated plants during invasions and feeding on their juices.

Where do ants live?

These insects can be observed on all continents, in all natural areas and climatic zones. They are absent only in the harsh climate of the Arctic and Antarctica, on the cold islands of Greenland and Iceland, as well as in the hot deserts. In areas with a temperate and cold climate, ants hibernate in winter.

Basically, these insects build their anthill dwellings in rotten or rotten wood, in the soil and under small stones. Some types of ants take over other people's nests or live next to a person.

The food of ants is varied and depends on the species. The diet of most species consists of plant and animal food, and each individual feeds several times a day.

The source of protein necessary for the growth and development of ant larvae in nature is dead insects, animal remains, trophic eggs laid by the uterus with an excess of food, insect pest eggs and half-digested food of adult ants. Domestic ant larvae are content with dairy products, gelatin, and leftover egg dishes. The nutrition of the uterus of ants also consists of protein food, which is specially chewed by the ants caring for it.

The basis of the carbohydrate menu of most ants is honeydew (sugar-containing leaf juices released during temperature changes) and honeydew - sweet secretions of insects, especially aphids.

Ants - dairy farmers grow aphids for themselves, herd them, nurse them and protect their offspring from other ants. These shepherds milk their pets and feed on their milk.

Additional components of the food of ants in nature can be seeds and roots of plants, nuts, tree sap.

Some ants grow colonies of mushrooms in anthills as food, and also feed on insects.

Reaper ants consume dry plant seeds, dry fruits and crops. They are able to store 1 kg of raw materials, which makes it possible to feed an entire colony of ants in winter. Leaf-cutting ants bring pieces of leaves to the anthill, chew and store in a kind of greenhouse chambers. Over time, mushrooms grow from these pieces in storage, which are the main food for these gourmet ants.

Centromyrmex ants feed exclusively on termites. The dracula ant drinks juices secreted by its own larvae, and feeds the larvae with various insects. House ants are omnivores.

In winter, with a significant cooling, the ants hibernate, during which they starve.

Most species, however, are active in the winter in an airtight anthill, feeding on abundant supplies.

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 book

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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 from