Ants according to National Geographic.

Ants are common insects, but they have unique abilities. More than 10,000 known species of ants exist worldwide. They are particularly prevalent in tropical forests, where they can account for up to half of all insects living in some places.

Ants against termites

Ants look a lot like termites, and the two are often confused, especially by nervous homeowners. However, ants have a narrow “waist” between the abdomen and thorax, which termites do not have. Ants also have large heads, angled antennae and powerful jaws. These insects belong to the order Hymenoptera, which includes wasps and bees.

social behavior

Enthusiastic social insects, ants typically live in communities of structured nests that may be located underground, in mounds at ground level, or in trees. Carpenter ants nest in wood and can be destructive to buildings. Some species, like army ants, defy the norm and have no permanent home, instead seeking food for their huge colonies during migration periods.

Ant communities are led by one or more queens, whose function in life is to lay thousands of eggs that will ensure the survival of the colony. Workers (the ants humans typically see) are wingless females that never reproduce, but instead forage for food, care for the queen's offspring, work on the nest, protect the community, and fulfill many other functions.

Male ants often have only one role: to mate with the queen. After fulfilling this function, they can die.

Diet

Ants communicate and cooperate using chemicals that can alert others to danger or lead them to a promising food source. They usually feed on nectar, seeds, fungi or insects. However, some species have a more unusual diet. Army ants can attack reptiles, birds or even small mammals.

Unusual ant species

An Amazonian species (Allomerus decemarticulatus) cooperatively constructs vast traps from plant fibers. These traps have many holes, and when an insect steps on them, hundreds of ants inside use the openings to grab it with their jaws.

Another species, the yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes), is capable of forming what are called supercolonies that house multiple queens. On Christmas Island, Australia, the accidental introduction of crazy yellow ants in the early 20th century led to a destructive infestation. The ants pose a significant threat to the island's endemic population of red crabs, which are displaced by ants from their burrows or killed as they pass through ant nesting sites during the large-scale annual migration of red crabs. the forest towards the coast.

Source: National Geographic

Translation: Fourmiculture