Chinese name: soldier ant kingdom: animal kingdom: arthropoda subfamily: jaw subfamily morphological characteristics, distribution environment, distribution area, living habits, growth and reproduction, protection level, morphological characteristics soldier ant is a non-reproductive group in the social groups of ants and termites. It has a big head, a well-developed upper jaw and a jaw tube that secretes acidic venom. Among termites, soldier ants who mainly defend their nests account for about 5% of the population. Pseudoreproductive ants and Ruo ants can both develop into soldier ants. Ants belong to Arthropoda, Insecta, Hymenoptera and Formicidae. Such as Capritermes, called maxillary soldiers; The other is the degeneration of the upper jaw, and the head and shell extend forward extremely, forming a long trunk, which is called the elephant trunk soldier. The upper lip of soldier ants is also very different from winged adults and worker ants. Its end is often transparent, and it can be divided into round, blunt, pointed, bifurcated and slightly flat. However, the structure of the lower jaw and lower lip of soldier ants is still quite stable, and generally will not change much. Ants in the distribution environment of soldier ants communicate through the smell of secretions. Because they usually live in an ant nest, this way of communication is better than other HYMENOPTERA insects. If an ant finds food, it will leave the smell at home all the way, and other ants will look for food along this route and strengthen the smell continuously. If the food here is collected and no ants come back, the smell will gradually dissipate. If an ant is crushed, it will give off a strong smell, which will immediately alert other ants, and they are all in an attack state. Some kinds of ants also give off a smell to confuse the enemy. A soldier with strong fighting capacity attacks or defends himself by biting with two big teeth. When biting, formic acid is secreted, and the bitten wound is red, swollen and painful. Ants can grow normally at 15-40℃, but the optimum temperature is between 25-35℃. Hibernate when it is below 10℃ in winter. Ants are gregarious insects and have a strong love for their nests. Most species nest underground. They eat all kinds of food, usually both plants and meat. Ants are the most common insects on the earth and the largest number of insect species. Because all kinds of ants are social groups, they were called "ants" in ancient times. According to the classification of modern morphology, ants can be divided into ants and termites. There are many kinds of ants, of which more than 9,000 are known in the world and more than 600 have been identified in China. Ants live a long life. Worker ants can live for a few weeks to 3-7 years, and queens can live for more than ten years or decades. An ant nest can grow in 1 place for several years or even more than 50 years. Distribution area Its traces are almost all over the world, and can be seen on all continents except Antarctica, especially in the tropics. Ants are also very old animals, which have lived on the earth for more than 100 million years. There is no recognized data on how many kinds of ants there are on the earth, and all kinds of information vary greatly because of different sources. This phenomenon may be related to the fact that ants are too small and too widely distributed. At present, there are about 500 species of ants living in China. Living habits In the triple chemical defense of soldier ants, chemicals are secreted by frontal glands, forming a solid chemical defense against invaders. The research on the secretion of frontal gland of soldier ants shows that the chemical weapons of termites mainly include aldehydes and their derivatives, acids and their derivatives, acids and protein. The composition of these secretions varies with different termite species, and the chemical composition is quite complicated. Even the chemical composition of the frontal gland secretions of some different groups of the same termite is different. The difference of these chemical components is related to the evolution of different termite species. Generally speaking, the higher the degree of evolution, the greater the reactivity and toxicity of the chemical substances secreted by its soldier ants, and the more complex the chemical composition. Soldier ants always store all kinds of toxic or anti-chemical substances in their frontal glands, so as to prepare for the war against aggression at any time. There are three main ways for male and female soldier ants to distinguish between soldiers using chemical weapons for defense: first, while biting the attacking enemy, the soldier ants immediately secrete toxic or * * * chemical substances from the frontal gland and inject them into the enemy through the wound, causing him to die of poisoning; Second, the soldier ant smeared contact poison on his opponent with an enlarged upper lip shaped like a paint brush. These poisons are toxic secretions of fatty acid-derived chemical reaction vinegar. These toxic secretions can expand the enemy's metabolism, thus achieving the goal of killing the enemy; The third method is glue spraying, in which soldier ants spray an irritating sticky barrier or toxic chemicals on the enemy. Some species of termites can even spray toxic substances secreted by frontal glands to enemies outside 10 cm, so that the invading enemies are poisoned and die. Soldier ants are divided into male and female, and they are infertile because of the imperfect development of sexual organs. The duty of soldier ants is to guard and fight, defend their nests, defend the activities of worker ants, and safely separate breeding ants with long wings. When a group is attacked, soldier ants can shake their bodies with the impact of the upper jaw to send out messages, and bite each other to death with the upper jaw. Soldiers' mouthparts are degraded, they have no ability to eat, and they need worker ants to feed them. Some species are divided into big soldier ants and small soldier ants. Ants in each ant colony can generally be divided into three categories: breeding ants, worker ants and soldier ants. Both male ants and fertile female ants have wings. Shortly after mating, the male ants died, the female ants lost their wings and began to nest and lay eggs. The earliest eggs were taken care of by the mother ants from hatching to growth. The food of these little guys comes from the mother ants, which is equivalent to the milk of mammals. As time goes by, these "children" grow up slowly, and all the "housework" is undertaken by them, and the mother ant becomes the queen ant responsible for laying eggs in this "family". The number of eggs laid by the queen every day varies slightly according to different species, generally around 500 to 1 000. An ant queen can lay tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even more eggs in her life. Because her abdomen is constantly expanding due to the development of ovaries, even her food has to be fed by worker ants, and her movements have to be carried by worker ants. Another clever trick of the queen ant is that she can lay eggs with or without fertilization, and unfertilized eggs will develop into male ants. Only a few female ants are fertile and must stand on their own feet when they grow up. Those infertile female ants become worker ants and soldier ants. Worker ants and soldier ants have no wings. What we usually see crawling on the ground are basically worker ants. Worker ants in the ant colony are the hardest. They are responsible for nesting, foraging and raising offspring. Countries with protection levels have no legal protection for ants.