Doesn't it scare you that there are creatures on the planet that are so insignificant in size, but that stand next to a person in terms of intellectual development? They have a complex system of communications, based on the exchange of chemical elements - pheromones. This interaction helps to find food and carry out the delivery of food to the colony. They overpower a larger victim, kill, nest, and take to the nest due to their ability to lift up the weight 50 times their own! Just imagine: a person lifts a 4-ton load!
Some collect mushrooms and mold for food, others graze wood aphids (like a man grazing cattle), as well as soldiers, guards, road and tunnel builders, carpenters.
These are ants. Don't be surprised if they are the next dominant form of life. About 50 thousand species of these insects inhabit the land. We would like to focus your attention on two.
LEAF-CUTTERS
Leaf ants (Acromyrmex) are found in the rainforests of South and Central America. Insects cut leaves into semicircular pieces with their sharpened jaws. Then, on their backs covered with thorns, they are transferred to the nest. If you look at this action from above, it reminds you of a procession under umbrellas. Hence the second name of the insects - "umbrella" ants.
Life in an ant state is both chaotic and organized. All actions are regulated by the collective mind. Many roads converge to the camp, on which the endless flow of goods is transported. Female workers are constantly plying between the colony and the trees as if on invisible rails, formed by the smell of ants.
THE CITY'S ECOSYSTEM OF UMBRELLA ANTS
Under the domes of the city, there is a whole multilevel underground labyrinth: rooms of pupae, galleries, rooms of the queen. Each colony (the average number of inhabitants is 80 thousand, it can reach 8 million) is headed by one uterus. It lays eggs, and the anthill receives new inhabitants: female workers, soldiers, breeding individuals (winged males and future queens, whose fate to fly away and begin to reproduce).
Wings are a sign of superiority. The uterus must always be kept clean so that it cannot be infected by bacteria and dangerous viruses. It must carry eggs to maintain colony numbers. Both the queen and ants, which are able to reproduce, are protected by workers - they clean and prepare food supplies. During military operations, winged princes and princesses are hidden in the lowest (5 meters underground) protected quarters.
LEAF CUTTERS
Ants practice agriculture. From the name "leaf cutters" it does not follow that they eat leaves. Their invaluable food is mushrooms, which are grown under vegetal humus. In order to maintain the full volume of food, leaves that are cut off from the trees should come under the domes of the city regularly, at any cost. If there is a malfunction in the flow of streams (there was an obstacle - a large leaf fell on the road), an individual who detects it, emits smelling vibrations. This is a secret alphabet. The sign is a sign that stimulates the thirst for the destruction of obstacles. Other members of the community come to the aid and destroy the barrier. The movement is restored. Meanwhile, in the colony, female workers shake up the growing mushrooms to ventilate and pinch to ensure growth.
NOMADIC ANTS
Nomads (subfamily Ecitoninae), in contrast to their continental neighbors, peaceful vegetarians of leafcutters, hunt, and pillage. These belligerent creatures comb the forest from end to end in search of prey. The phases of sedentary and nomadic life are linked to the reproductive cycle. The length of each phase is 2-3 weeks.
Predators of the New World go in a wide line, thousands of individuals unite in a single force. Soldiers march on the periphery of the squadron, than female workers. They carry a brood in the chewing, determine the place for the rest. They are also destined to catch and carry prey, mainly invertebrates, but can also eat nesting birds and small reptiles.
Tiny hunters are ruthless. This is a warlike machine programmed to destroy the enemy. The only target is food. In addition to the jaws, the poisoned sting, paralyzing the enemy. Everything depends on the speed of action of the poison.
In an hour, the column is 100-300 m. The structure of the detachment: "head", width of 10-15 m and length of 1-2 m; "tail" - up to 50 cm.
ANTS MYSTERY
Ants' behavior excites the minds of entomologists for many summers. They are devoid of self-consciousness, only the collective mind controls all actions - this is their difference from human civilization. Everything is subordinated to one goal - to preserve the colony. Detachable pheromones automatically activate this single superorganism. Anthill works as a well-oiled clockwork mechanism.
Ants are unique types of interaction and nutrition, lifestyle, camp structure, impact on biocenosis, complex links with plants and soil, vertebrates and invertebrates.