You probably often hear about
this little animal. Ant. Yes, of course you’ve seen it a lot around you
everyday, right? You could easily spot them anywhere, at school, at your house,
at the canteen, etc. When there’s a food, especially food containing sugar, the ant’s colony would crowd around it. They could barely seen as an individual
because of their small bodies (some of you probably often accidentally step on
them because of this, right?), but as a colony or group they become more noticeable.
You see them a lot but have you
known about them? Let’s learn more about this little animal!
SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION
Kingdom : Animalia
Phylum : Arthropoda
Class : Insecta
Order : Hymenoptera
Suborder : Apocrita
Superfamily : Vespoidea
Family : Formicidae
ANATOMY
The 3 main body regions of insects are the
head, thorax, and abdomen. In ants, the abdomen is subdivided into
the propodeum, which is attached to the thorax, and the metasoma,
comprised of the waist (which in this case, is the petiole with
one node) and the gaster (the enlarged portion that appears as
the abdomen proper).
SPECIES
Some of you may think that all
ant looks the same. Try to look closer! You’ll
find out that although they have similar appearance, but there are differences
between the species. Do you know that there are thousands species of ant all
over the world? According to wikipedia.com, there are more than 12,500 out of
an estimated total of 22,000 species have been classified.They are
easily identified by their elbowed antennae and a distinctive node-like
structure that forms a slender waist. Here are some of the ant’s species:
Pristomyrmex punctatus
Paratrechina longicornis
Dolichoderus thoracicus
Harpegnathos saltator
Podomyrma
Mystrium
Paratrechina longicornis
Pogonomyrmex rugosus
HABITATS
Ants are insects that its spread
is very wide and can be found in various habitats such like tropical forests,
grasslands and some other habitats. Although it can be found in many place, but
ant can't be found in a cold temperature area such like Greenland.
DIETS
Ant usually swarm
around sugar or sweet food, it rarely seen around salty food. Ants are
very fond of sweets, but they do not eat sweets exclusively. Sweets supply energy
for the ants to do various activities, but food materials such as dead insects
and plant seeds are also very essential for them.
When workers find
pieces of solid food, they carry them back to the nest. On the other hand, when
they find sweet liquid food such as honeydew, they store the liquid in the crop
in their abdomen and walk back to the nest. When they reach the nest, they feed
the liquid food in drops directly from their mouth to the mouth of other
members of the nest.
COLONY LIFE
Ant is described as a social
animal. It lives together in a form of colony. The colony consists of
a few hundred to millions of ants. It generally have one or two
fertile females called "queens", some fertile males called
"drones", and a large number of sterile females called "workers".
Each position has their own duty in the colony. Queens and drones are responsible for reproduction. Worker ants are responsible for gathering food, defending the
colony, as well as taking care of the larvae, eggs and pupae.
FACTS ABOUT ANT:
-
Ant’s size ranged from 2 to 7 mm
-
Ants
are able to lift weights about 20 times of its own body weight.
-
Ants
use their antenna as a
feeler and olfactory
-
To
recognize members of their colony, ants release chemicals called pheromones.
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