How many ants are there in the world. Everywhere in the district a huge number of ants. The ant's body contains complex control systems
For almost every person, ants are associated with hard work, self-sacrifice and the ability to work day and night for the benefit of the colony. There is even a saying: "Work like a hundred ants." In addition, scientists have found that ants can boast not only an enviable "workaholism", but also amazing physical abilities. And knowing how much an ant weighs, one can only wonder how they succeed.
Even in schools, students are told that ants can lift loads more than their own weight, 10 times their own weight. But as it turned out, this is not the limit - as the study of ants, more and more impressive facts about their abilities become clear ...
How much does an ant and all ants in general weigh?
The average weight of an ant varies depending on the species from 1 to 150 milligrams. Our usual ones are black and weigh about 5-7 milligrams.
The lightest ants are pharaoh ants, well-known household pests, and some types of tropical ants, which are just as small. The mass of an ant from the caste of workers in these species is 1-2 milligrams.
And some of the largest ant species are the South American bullet ant and African wandering ants. In the former, a working ant weighs up to 90 milligrams, while in the latter, the uterus diligently grows stout during the period of settled life and can weigh up to 10 grams!
At this time, such a uterus can lay up to 120 thousand eggs every day, which is also one of the records not only for insects, but also among other animals in general. In addition, both the bullet ant and wandering ants (siafu) are among the most dangerous in the world.
It turns out that one wandering ant weighs as much as 200-700 working individuals weigh. Although there are species - for example, jumping ants - in which the queens from working ants practically do not differ either in size or in mass. But these ants have many other distinguishing features. For example, even simple worker ants can breed in them.
It is interesting
The largest ants that lived on Earth had a body length of up to 7 cm in queens. If you extrapolate their mass, it turns out that such monsters weighed about 20 grams.
In general, ants are so widespread and so numerous that their total mass on the planet is greater than that of any other group of insects. According to scientists, all ants on Earth weigh about the same as all people weigh - about one billion tons. At the same time, there are approximately 10 million ants for each person.
But what is interesting about ants is not even how much they weigh, but their ability to lift objects that are very heavy compared to their body weight.
How much weight does the ant lift?
Today it has been verified that, on average, an ant can lift 50 times its own weight.- for example, up to 100 mg is tolerated by each worker ant-leaf cutter. Knowing how much an ant weighs, you can calculate what he is capable of as a weightlifter.
Interestingly, in leaf-cutting ants, soldiers weigh several tens of times more than ordinary workers, and the uterus weighs 700 times! Naturally, in this species, soldiers appear only in those anthills, the number of which exceeds 100 thousand individuals - it is difficult for a smaller number of workers to feed such an army.
In principle, a soldier of this type can set a more outstanding record, but he never does: his task is not to carry loads, but to protect the “loaders”.
On a note
If a person could lift weight in the same proportions as ants do, then he would easily squeeze a barbell up to 5 tons over his head. That is, the strength of an ant exceeds that of a person by about 25 times. As mathematicians cleverly calculated, it would take about a million ants to carry an adult human, and about 10,000 to carry a mug of beer. Of course, the results of such measurements depend on the type of ant and how much each of them weighs.
Of course, the smaller the ant, the less mass it lifts. However, the ratio of the lifted weight to the mass of the ant itself increases as the size of the insect decreases.
It is interesting
With the joint transfer of weights, the abilities of ants increase even more. During laboratory experiments, an ant alone developed a power of 24.2 erg/sec, and two ants together developed a power of 63.2 erg/sec. That is, an ant can lift as much in cooperation with a comrade as much as both of them together cannot lift on their own.
Why are ants so strong?
I must say that not only ants are so strong: in general, all insects can develop very high power. The same fleas very quickly push their body to a distance 150 times their body length. And scarab beetles can lift 850 times their body weight. In front of such abilities, even an ant's strength doesn't seem that great.
The reason for such phenomenal abilities of ants and insects in general has long been explained by scientists. In the animal world, there is a law according to which, with a decrease in the geometric dimensions of the body of a living being, its mass decreases in proportion to the length of the body to the third power, and the cross-sectional area of \u200b\u200bmuscles is proportional to the square of the body length.
A little complicated, but it means that ants have 100 times stronger muscles per unit mass than humans. And this proportion is observed for other living creatures - crustaceans, fish, mammals. And additionally, the external skeleton and a slightly different muscle structure contribute their own allowances to these calculations.
In general, this does not mean that the most is the strongest. Indeed, the tiny one lifts more times the weight that the giant wandering ant lifts. But the absolute mass of the load in the case of a domestic pest is less. Therefore, the strongest ant is just the largest.
Ant abilities
However, the strength of ants is determined not only by the weight that they can lift. Ants use their physical abilities in other ways as well.
For example, ant bridges are very well known, which are organized by working individuals of African nomadic ants to transfer larvae and queens through water barriers. Several hundred ants seize each other's bodies so tightly that a cat-sized mammal can run across the bridge to the other side of the stream. True, no animal tries to do this - these ants are extremely dangerous because of their painful bites.
And the same leaf-cutting ants can drag along the ground a load weighing 30 times their body weight. The need for this may arise when the insect, due to the non-standard size of the object, cannot lift it above its head.
It is interesting that especially resourceful representatives of Homo Sapiens have learned to use many of these abilities of ants for their own purposes.
Ants build a bridge (video)
Is it possible to use "ant power"?
In Central Africa, the powerful jaws of ants are used to sew up open wounds on the body: the two edges of the wound are pressed against each other and an angry ant is applied to them like a stapler with its head. The insect immediately compresses the jaws and tightly squeezes both edges of the skin. A few of these ants - and the seam is ready. It is only important to cut off the ant's head with scissors as soon as possible: after that, the jaws will no longer open.
Sometimes in the same Africa, the natives extract tasty seeds and small nuts from anthills, using ants as gatherers. However, the natives are incredibly ethical in this regard - instead of stocks taken from the anthill, they leave pieces of dried meat or fruit for insects. They know that if nature is not plundered, but equally shared with it, it will thank many times over.
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:
- The top cover, consisting of needles, blades of grass and twigs, protects the ant house from the weather.
- A chamber heated by the sun's rays - here the ants warm themselves and their offspring.
- One of the many entrances, guarded by soldiers, in addition to being a door, also serves as a channel for ventilation.
- Warehouse for garbage and dead ants.
- A wintering chamber where ants sleepily wait out the cold.
- Storage room for grains.
- The queen's chamber, where the queen lives and lays her eggs, which is cared for by worker ants.
- Chamber for eggs and larvae.
- Aphid chamber.
- 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 powerful insects.
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.
