Ants are also called ants. Except for a few parasitic lives, ants all have social life, and there are many kinds. Generally, there are three grades, namely male ants and fertile females, worker ants and soldier ants. However, other types of individuals often appear in Formicidae. Both male and female ants have wings. After mating, the wings of the female ants fall off on their own, and they begin to build nests. Later, they specialized in breeding offspring without going out, and were called "queen ants". Worker ants and soldier ants are sterile females without wings. Worker ants generally nest, go out for food and feed young ants and female ants. Soldier ants have developed heads and large jaws, and are responsible for defending the enemy. Ants' nests are often located in the deep soil or near the topsoil, and a few can be in the form of ridges, or under bricks and stones, or in the stems and roots of trees and plants, sometimes in the walls of houses, or in the nests of other insects or animals. The size of ant colony varies with species, for example, there are 35 ~ 1400 small domestic ants. Ants have complex feeding habits, including carnivorous and phytophagous; It can directly or indirectly harm human beings. For example, small house ants that invade people's food cause pollution and spread diseases. Oriental spear ants living in the field can harm potatoes, cruciferous vegetables, watermelons and so on. Some ants can kill pests and become friends of human beings. For example, mangrove ants can control pests on citrus trees, red ants can kill sugarcane pests, and red ants can kill forest pests.
Modern ant experts divide ants into 9 subfamilies:
(1) honey ant subfamily.
(2) False motrymenae (false motrymenae)
(3) Odorinae (Dolichoderinae)
(4) Ant subfamily
(5) Ponerinae
(6) Armillarinae
(7) Dortmlinnaeus.
(8) Leptanillinae
(9) Plantagininae
The most famous invading ant is the red ant. It originated in South America and was introduced to the United States at the beginning of this century. First of all, it spread from the southeast where nature was destroyed by human beings to the inland, causing huge economic losses. In the area occupied by foreign ants, red ants account for 99% of all ants. It killed almost all invertebrates, climbed the tree, and killed the female birds and reptiles that were hatching eggs by attacking the softest parts, especially the eyes. In the southeastern United States and Puerto Rico, this red ant is also the killer of hatching turtles.
The harm caused by red ants is not unique. Giant ant pheidole megacephala and long-legged ant anoplolepis gacilipes are both ants that originated in Africa and now spread all over the tropics. In the lowlands of Hawaii, many endemic species have become extinct due to the participation of these two ants. Argentine ants native to South America are the most important pests in subtropical and temperate regions, including the Mediterranean, South Africa, Australia, Bermuda and the southern United States. They attack invertebrates and vertebrates. Argentine ants also came to Hawaii and became the main pests in plateau areas.