Ant
Ants Temporal range:
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Fire ants | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Scientific classification | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Domain: | Eukaryota | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kingdom: | Animalia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Phylum: | Arthropoda | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Class: | Insecta | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Order: | Hymenoptera | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Infraorder: | Aculeata | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Superfamily: | Formicoidea | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Family: | Formicidae Latreille, 1809 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Type species | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Formica rufa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Subfamilies | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cladogram of subfamilies
A |
Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22,000 species have been classified. They are easily identified by their geniculate (elbowed) antennae and the distinctive node-like structure that forms their slender waists.
Ants form colonies that range in size from a few dozen predatory individuals living in small natural cavities to highly organised colonies that may occupy large territories and consist of millions of individuals. Larger colonies consist of various castes of sterile, wingless females, most of which are workers (ergates), as well as soldiers (dinergates) and other specialised groups. Nearly all ant colonies also have some fertile males called "drones" and one or more fertile females called "queens" (gynes). The colonies are described as superorganisms because the ants appear to operate as a unified entity, collectively working together to support the colony.
Ants have colonised almost every landmass on
relationships.Ant societies have division of labour, communication between individuals, and an ability to solve complex problems. These parallels with human societies have long been an inspiration and subject of study. Many human cultures make use of ants in cuisine, medication, and rites. Some species are valued in their role as biological pest control agents. Their ability to exploit resources may bring ants into conflict with humans, however, as they can damage crops and invade buildings. Some species, such as the red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) of South America, are regarded as invasive species in other parts of the world, establishing themselves in areas where they have been introduced accidentally.
Etymology
The word ant and the archaic word emmet
The family name Formicidae is derived from the Latin formīca ("ant")[9] from which the words in other Romance languages, such as the Portuguese formiga, Italian formica, Spanish hormiga, Romanian furnică, and French fourmi are derived. It has been hypothesised that a Proto-Indo-European word *morwi- was the root for Sanskrit vamrah, Greek μύρμηξ mýrmēx, Old Church Slavonic mraviji, Old Irish moirb, Old Norse maurr, Dutch mier, Swedish myra, Danish myre, Middle Dutch miere, and Crimean Gothic miera.[10][11]
Taxonomy and evolution
Phylogenetic position of the Formicidae[12] |
The family Formicidae belongs to the order
During the Cretaceous period, a few species of primitive ants ranged widely on the
Distribution and diversity
Region | Number of species [24] |
---|---|
Neotropics | 2,162 |
Nearctic | 580 |
Europe | 180 |
Africa | 2,500 |
Asia | 2,080 |
Melanesia | 275 |
Australia | 985 |
Polynesia | 42 |
Ants have a
Ants range in size from 0.75 to 52 millimetres (0.030–2.0 in),
Morphology
Ants are distinct in their
Like other arthropods, ants have an
Head
An ant's head contains many
Two
Mesosoma
Both the
Metasoma
The
Polymorphism
In the colonies of a few ant species, there are physical castes—workers in distinct size-classes, called minor, median, and major ergates. Often, the larger ants have disproportionately larger heads, and correspondingly stronger
Workers cannot mate; however, because of the
Genome size
Genome size is a fundamental characteristic of an organism. Ants have been found to have tiny genomes, with the evolution of genome size suggested to occur through loss and accumulation of non-coding regions, mainly transposable elements, and occasionally by whole genome duplication.[58] This may be related to colonisation processes, but further studies are needed to verify this.[58]
Life cycle
The life of an ant starts from an
The larvae grow through a series of four or five
A new ergate spends the first few days of its adult life caring for the queen and young. She then graduates to digging and other nest work, and later to defending the nest and foraging. These changes are sometimes fairly sudden, and define what are called temporal castes. Such age-based task-specialization or polyethism has been suggested as having evolved due to the high casualties involved in foraging and defence, making it an acceptable risk only for ants who are older and likely to die sooner from natural causes.[64][65] In the Brazilian ant Forelius pusillus, the nest entrance is closed from the outside to protect the colony from predatory ant species at sunset each day. About one to eight workers seal the nest entrance from the outside and they have no chance of returning to the nest and are in effect sacrificed.[66] Whether these seemingly suicidal workers are older workers has not been determined.[67]
Ant colonies can be long-lived. The queens can live for up to 30 years, and workers live from 1 to 3 years. Males, however, are more transitory, being quite short-lived and surviving for only a few weeks.[68] Ant queens are estimated to live 100 times as long as solitary insects of a similar size.[69]
Ants are active all year long in the tropics; however, in cooler regions, they survive the winter in a state of dormancy known as hibernation. The forms of inactivity are varied and some temperate species have larvae going into the inactive state (diapause), while in others, the adults alone pass the winter in a state of reduced activity.[70]
Reproduction
A wide range of reproductive strategies have been noted in ant species. Females of many species are known to be capable of reproducing asexually through thelytokous parthenogenesis.[71] Secretions from the male accessory glands in some species can plug the female genital opening and prevent females from re-mating.[72] Most ant species have a system in which only the queen and breeding females have the ability to mate. Contrary to popular belief, some ant nests have multiple queens, while others may exist without queens. Workers with the ability to reproduce are called "gamergates" and colonies that lack queens are then called gamergate colonies; colonies with queens are said to be queen-right.[73]
Drones can also mate with existing queens by entering a foreign colony, such as in army ants. When the drone is initially attacked by the workers, it releases a mating pheromone. If recognized as a mate, it will be carried to the queen to mate.[74] Males may also patrol the nest and fight others by grabbing them with their mandibles, piercing their exoskeleton and then marking them with a pheromone. The marked male is interpreted as an invader by worker ants and is killed.[75]
Most ants are
Mated females then seek a suitable place to begin a colony. There, they break off their wings using their tibial spurs and begin to lay and care for eggs. The females can selectively fertilise future eggs with the sperm stored to produce diploid workers or lay unfertilized haploid eggs to produce drones. The first workers to hatch, known as nanitics,
Nests, colonies, and supercolonies
The typical ant species has a colony occupying a single nest, housing one or more queens, where the brood is raised. There are however more than 150 species of ants in 49 genera that are known to have colonies consisting of multiple spatially separated nests. These polydomous (as opposed to monodomous) colonies have food and workers moving between the nests.[81] Membership to a colony is identified by the response of worker ants which identify whether another individual belongs to their own colony or not. A signature cocktail of body surface chemicals (also known as cuticular hydrocarbons or CHCs) forms the so-called colony odor which other members can recognize.[82] Some ant species appear to be less discriminating and in the Argentine ant Linepithema humile, workers carried from a colony anywhere in the southern US and Mexico are acceptable within other colonies in the same region. Similarly workers from colonies that have established in Europe are accepted by any other colonies within Europe but not by the colonies in the Americas. The interpretation of these observations has been debated and some have been termed these large populations as supercolonies[83][84] while others have termed the populations as unicolonial.[85]
Behaviour and ecology
Communication
Ants communicate with each other using pheromones, sounds, and touch.[86] Since most ants live on the ground, they use the soil surface to leave pheromone trails that may be followed by other ants. In species that forage in groups, a forager that finds food marks a trail on the way back to the colony; this trail is followed by other ants, these ants then reinforce the trail when they head back with food to the colony. When the food source is exhausted, no new trails are marked by returning ants and the scent slowly dissipates. This behaviour helps ants deal with changes in their environment. For instance, when an established path to a food source is blocked by an obstacle, the foragers leave the path to explore new routes. If an ant is successful, it leaves a new trail marking the shortest route on its return. Successful trails are followed by more ants, reinforcing better routes and gradually identifying the best path.[86][87]
Ants use pheromones for more than just making trails. A crushed ant emits an alarm pheromone that sends nearby ants into an attack frenzy and attracts more ants from farther away. Several ant species even use "propaganda pheromones" to confuse enemy ants and make them fight among themselves.[88] Pheromones are produced by a wide range of structures including Dufour's glands, poison glands and glands on the hindgut, pygidium, rectum, sternum, and hind tibia.[69] Pheromones also are exchanged, mixed with food, and passed by trophallaxis, transferring information within the colony.[89] This allows other ants to detect what task group (e.g., foraging or nest maintenance) other colony members belong to.[90] In ant species with queen castes, when the dominant queen stops producing a specific pheromone, workers begin to raise new queens in the colony.[91]
Some ants produce sounds by stridulation, using the gaster segments and their mandibles. Sounds may be used to communicate with colony members or with other species.[92][93]
Defence
Ants attack and defend themselves by biting and, in many species, by stinging often injecting or spraying chemicals. Bullet ants (Paraponera), located in Central and South America, are considered to have the most painful sting of any insect, although it is usually not fatal to humans. This sting is given the highest rating on the Schmidt sting pain index.[94]
The sting of jack jumper ants can be lethal for humans,[95] and an antivenom has been developed for it.[96] Fire ants, Solenopsis spp., are unique in having a venom sac containing piperidine alkaloids.[97] Their stings are painful and can be dangerous to hypersensitive people.[98] Formicine ants secrete a poison from their glands, made mainly of formic acid.[99]
Trap-jaw ants of the genus
In addition to defence against predators, ants need to protect their colonies from pathogens. Secretions from the metapleural gland, unique to the ants, produce a complex range of chemicals including several with antibiotic properties.[103] Some worker ants maintain the hygiene of the colony and their activities include undertaking or necrophoresis, the disposal of dead nest-mates.[104] Oleic acid has been identified as the compound released from dead ants that triggers necrophoric behaviour in Atta mexicana[105] while workers of Linepithema humile react to the absence of characteristic chemicals (dolichodial and iridomyrmecin) present on the cuticle of their living nestmates to trigger similar behaviour.[106]
Nests may be protected from physical threats such as flooding and overheating by elaborate nest architecture.
Learning
Many animals can learn behaviours by imitation, but ants may be the only group apart from mammals where interactive teaching has been observed. A knowledgeable forager of Temnothorax albipennis can lead a naïve nest-mate to newly discovered food by the process of tandem running. The follower obtains knowledge through its leading tutor. The leader is acutely sensitive to the progress of the follower and slows down when the follower lags and speeds up when the follower gets too close.[111]
Controlled experiments with colonies of
Nest construction
Complex nests are built by many ant species, but other species are nomadic and do not build permanent structures. Ants may form subterranean nests or build them on trees. These nests may be found in the ground, under stones or logs, inside logs, hollow stems, or even acorns. The materials used for construction include soil and plant matter,[78] and ants carefully select their nest sites; Temnothorax albipennis will avoid sites with dead ants, as these may indicate the presence of pests or disease. They are quick to abandon established nests at the first sign of threats.[113]
The
Weaver ant (Oecophylla spp.) workers build nests in trees by attaching leaves together, first pulling them together with bridges of workers and then inducing their larvae to produce silk as they are moved along the leaf edges. Similar forms of nest construction are seen in some species of Polyrhachis.[115]
Formica polyctena, among other ant species, constructs nests that maintain a relatively constant interior temperature that aids in the development of larvae. The ants maintain the nest temperature by choosing the location, nest materials, controlling ventilation and maintaining the heat from solar radiation, worker activity and metabolism, and in some moist nests, microbial activity in the nest materials.[116][117]
Some ant species, such as those that use natural cavities, can be opportunistic and make use of the controlled micro-climate provided inside human dwellings and other artificial structures to house their colonies and nest structures.[118][119]
Cultivation of food
Most ants are generalist predators, scavengers, and indirect herbivores,
Locomotion
The female worker ants do not have wings and reproductive females lose their wings after their mating flights in order to begin their colonies. Therefore, unlike their wasp ancestors, most ants travel by walking. Some species are capable of leaping. For example, Jerdon's jumping ant (Harpegnathos saltator) is able to jump by synchronising the action of its mid and hind pairs of legs.[137] There are several species of gliding ant including Cephalotes atratus; this may be a common trait among arboreal ants with small colonies. Ants with this ability are able to control their horizontal movement so as to catch tree trunks when they fall from atop the forest canopy.[138]
Other species of ants can form chains to bridge gaps over water, underground, or through spaces in vegetation. Some species also form floating rafts that help them survive floods.[139] These rafts may also have a role in allowing ants to colonise islands.[140] Polyrhachis sokolova, a species of ant found in Australian mangrove swamps, can swim and live in underwater nests. Since they lack gills, they go to trapped pockets of air in the submerged nests to breathe.[141]
Cooperation and competition
Not all ants have the same kind of societies. The Australian
Some species attack and take over neighbouring ant colonies. Extreme specialists among these
Ants identify kin and nestmates through their scent, which comes from hydrocarbon-laced secretions that coat their exoskeletons. If an ant is separated from its original colony, it will eventually lose the colony scent. Any ant that enters a colony without a matching scent will be attacked.[145]
Parasitic ant species enter the colonies of host ants and establish themselves as social parasites; species such as Strumigenys xenos are entirely parasitic and do not have workers, but instead, rely on the food gathered by their Strumigenys perplexa hosts.[146][147] This form of parasitism is seen across many ant genera, but the parasitic ant is usually a species that is closely related to its host. A variety of methods are employed to enter the nest of the host ant. A parasitic queen may enter the host nest before the first brood has hatched, establishing herself prior to development of a colony scent. Other species use pheromones to confuse the host ants or to trick them into carrying the parasitic queen into the nest. Some simply fight their way into the nest.[148]
A
Relationships with other organisms
Ants form
Many plant species have seeds that are adapted for dispersal by ants.[169] Seed dispersal by ants or myrmecochory is widespread, and new estimates suggest that nearly 9% of all plant species may have such ant associations.[170][169] Often, seed-dispersing ants perform directed dispersal, depositing the seeds in locations that increase the likelihood of seed survival to reproduction.[171] Some plants in arid, fire-prone systems are particularly dependent on ants for their survival and dispersal as the seeds are transported to safety below the ground.[172] Many ant-dispersed seeds have special external structures, elaiosomes, that are sought after by ants as food.[173] Ants can substantially alter rate of decomposition and nutrient cycling in their nest.[174][175] By myrmecochory and modification of soil conditions they substantially alter vegetation and nutrient cycling in surrounding ecosystem.[176]
A
Most ants are predatory and some prey on and obtain food from other social insects including other ants. Some species specialise in preying on termites (Megaponera and Termitopone) while a few Cerapachyinae prey on other ants.[124] Some termites, including Nasutitermes corniger, form associations with certain ant species to keep away predatory ant species.[178] The tropical wasp Mischocyttarus drewseni coats the pedicel of its nest with an ant-repellent chemical.[179] It is suggested that many tropical wasps may build their nests in trees and cover them to protect themselves from ants. Other wasps, such as A. multipicta, defend against ants by blasting them off the nest with bursts of wing buzzing.[180] Stingless bees (Trigona and Melipona) use chemical defences against ants.[124]
Flies in the Old World genus
Fungi in the genera
A nematode (Myrmeconema neotropicum) that infects canopy ants (Cephalotes atratus) causes the black-coloured gasters of workers to turn red. The parasite also alters the behaviour of the ant, causing them to carry their gasters high. The conspicuous red gasters are mistaken by birds for ripe fruits, such as Hyeronima alchorneoides, and eaten. The droppings of the bird are collected by other ants and fed to their young, leading to further spread of the nematode.[185]
A study of Temnothorax nylanderi colonies in Germany found that workers parasitized by the tapeworm Anomotaenia brevis (ants are intermediate hosts, the definitive hosts are woodpeckers) lived much longer than unparasitized workers and had a reduced mortality rate, comparable to that of the queens of the same species, which live for as long as two decades.[186]
South American poison dart frogs in the genus Dendrobates feed mainly on ants, and the toxins in their skin may come from the ants.[187]
Anteaters, aardvarks, pangolins, echidnas and numbats have special adaptations for living on a diet of ants. These adaptations include long, sticky tongues to capture ants and strong claws to break into ant nests. Brown bears (Ursus arctos) have been found to feed on ants. About 12%, 16%, and 4% of their faecal volume in spring, summer and autumn, respectively, is composed of ants.[192]
Relationship with humans
Ants perform many ecological roles that are beneficial to humans, including the suppression of
In some parts of the world (mainly Africa and South America), large ants, especially army ants, are used as surgical sutures. The wound is pressed together and ants are applied along it. The ant seizes the edges of the wound in its mandibles and locks in place. The body is then cut off and the head and mandibles remain in place to close the wound.[194][195][196] The large heads of the dinergates (soldiers) of the leafcutting ant Atta cephalotes are also used by native surgeons in closing wounds.[197]
Some ants have toxic venom and are of medical importance. The species include Paraponera clavata (tocandira) and Dinoponera spp. (false tocandiras) of South America [198] and the Myrmecia ants of Australia.[199]
In South Africa, ants are used to help harvest the seeds of rooibos (Aspalathus linearis), a plant used to make a herbal tea. The plant disperses its seeds widely, making manual collection difficult. Black ants collect and store these and other seeds in their nest, where humans can gather them en masse. Up to half a pound (200 g) of seeds may be collected from one ant-heap.[200][201]
Although most ants survive attempts by humans to eradicate them, a few are highly endangered. These tend to be island species that have evolved specialized traits and risk being displaced by introduced ant species. Examples include the critically endangered Sri Lankan relict ant (Aneuretus simoni) and Adetomyrma venatrix of Madagascar.[202]
As food
Ants and their larvae are eaten in different parts of the world. The eggs of two species of ants are used in Mexican
In his First Summer in the Sierra,
As pests
Some ant species are considered as pests, primarily those that occur in human habitations, where their presence is often problematic. For example, the presence of ants would be undesirable in sterile places such as hospitals or kitchens. Some species or genera commonly categorized as pests include the Argentine ant, immigrant pavement ant, yellow crazy ant, banded sugar ant, pharaoh ant, red wood ant, black carpenter ant, odorous house ant, red imported fire ant, and European fire ant. Some ants will raid stored food, some will seek water sources, others may damage indoor structures, some may damage agricultural crops directly or by aiding sucking pests. Some will sting or bite.[207] The adaptive nature of ant colonies make it nearly impossible to eliminate entire colonies and most pest management practices aim to control local populations and tend to be temporary solutions. Ant populations are managed by a combination of approaches that make use of chemical, biological, and physical methods. Chemical methods include the use of insecticidal bait which is gathered by ants as food and brought back to the nest where the poison is inadvertently spread to other colony members through trophallaxis. Management is based on the species and techniques may vary according to the location and circumstance.[207]
In science and technology
Observed by humans since the dawn of history, the behaviour of ants has been documented and the subject of early writings and fables passed from one century to another. Those using scientific methods,
The successful techniques used by ant colonies have been studied in computer science and robotics to produce distributed and fault-tolerant systems for solving problems, for example
As pets
From the late 1950s through the late 1970s, ant farms were popular educational children's toys in the United States. Some later commercial versions use transparent gel instead of soil, allowing greater visibility at the cost of stressing the ants with unnatural light.[213]
In culture
Ant society has always fascinated humans and has been written about both humorously and seriously.
In the early 1990s, the video game SimAnt, which simulated an ant colony, won the 1992 Codie award for "Best Simulation Program".[227]
Ants also are quite popular inspiration for many
See also
- Glossary of ant terms
- International Union for the Study of Social Insects
- Myrmecological News (journal)
- Task allocation and partitioning in social insects
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Cited texts
- Borror DJ, Triplehorn CA, Delong DM (1989). Introduction to the Study of Insects (6th ed.). Saunders College Publishing. ISBN 978-0-03-025397-3.
- Hölldobler B, Wilson EO (1990). ISBN 978-0-674-04075-5.
Further reading
- Mike Snider (8 January 2022). "When the trees where these ants live were damaged, they made some DIY home repairs". USA Today.
- Bolton, Barry (1995). A New General Catalogue of the Ants of the World. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-61514-4.
- Hölldobler B, Wilson EO (1998). Journey to the Ants: A Story of Scientific Exploration. Belknap Press. ISBN 978-0-674-48526-6.
- Hölldobler B, Wilson EO (2009). The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance and Strangeness of Insect Societies. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-393-06704-0.
External links
- Wilson, Andrew (1878). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. II (9th ed.). pp. 94–100.
- AntWeb from The California Academy of Sciences
- AntWiki – Bringing Ants to the World
- Ant Species Fact Sheets from the National Pest Management Association on Argentine, Carpenter, Pharaoh, Odorous, and other ant species
- Ant Genera of the World – distribution maps
- The super-nettles. A dermatologist's guide to ants-in-the-plants