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Division of labor of ants

All ants are called ants. So ants don't refer to any particular animal. The ants found all over the world are social animals, and the ants living alone have not been found so far!

There are more than 15, species of ants in the world, and there are more than 3 species in China. Any kind of ant population has a clear class and a clear division of labor. They are generally queen ants, male ants and worker ants.

The queen ant, as we all know, is the "helm" of an ant colony. Its main tasks are spawning, brooding and commanding, and it is in charge of this big family. The queen ant is the largest in the ant colony, and its life is divided into three stages: winged, winged and wingless!

Male ants are average in size, some species have wings and developed genitals! Its main function is to mate with queens, and their life span is usually short!

worker ants are the smallest ants with the largest number in the colony! Their main function is to keep the whole nest running. All the work in the nest is done by worker ants, including building and expanding the nest, collecting food, feeding larvae and queens, etc. In addition, soldier ants are also a kind of worker ants, but they are larger individuals among the worker ants. Both worker ants and soldier ants are females, but they are infertile! The reproduction mode of ants < P > The queen can give birth to two kinds of female ants, one can give birth, usually the next generation queen; One kind is infertile, and that is worker ants.

When the number of an ant colony reaches a certain scale, the queen ant will breed some flying male and female breeding ants in advance! When the time is right, these breeding ants will fly out of the nest and pair up. This is called "marriage flying"!

"Marriage Flying" can be said to be the starting point of an ant colony. Breeding ants flying out of the nest usually go to a fixed place to mate, usually males arrive first. This place may have been used by several generations of ants!

When bisexual reproductive ants meet at the mating point, the ant colony begins to reproduce. The male injects sperm into the female body and reaches the female seminal vesicle or sperm storage organ. Usually, soon after this, the male will die and the female will become a widow. Pregnant females will find a suitable place to multiply and grow. They are the queens of the new ant colony. The female will use these sperm for reproduction for the rest of her life. Breeding ants are produced by the combination of sperm and eggs, and worker ants are produced by asexual reproduction! Information transmission

Ants also have their own unique ways of information transmission, and they mainly communicate through their own secretions. It's not just what we usually see that we rely on tentacles to communicate.

They touch their antennae because they have a large number of olfactory receptors. Ants mainly rely on them to identify smells, and they are also used for some daily communication when they meet!

when they find food, they will leave a smell on the road, and other ants will follow the smell to find food, and constantly strengthen the smell! When food is eaten or dragged away, the smell will slowly disappear without ants to maintain it!

Pay attention to Qile Zoo and show you the animal kingdom! If a few ants are taken away by us a few kilometers away, what will they do next?

Ants are animals that we often see in our daily life. When I was a child, my family was in the countryside, and it was natural to be naughty. Sometimes I would crouch down and watch the ants move quietly. More often, I would use small sticks or other objects to stop the ants on their way. Sometimes I would catch an ant and put it far away to see what their reaction was. Then, from a scientific point of view, if ants are taken several kilometers away from their active areas, what will happen to them in a new environment? Can you blend in with the local ant colony and continue to live? Species and main habits of ants

Ants belong to HYMENOPTERA Formicidae of Insecta, and there are many species in the world, including more than 2 subfamilies, more than 28 genera and more than 1, species, of which about 3 species are distributed in the north and south of China. Different species of ants vary greatly in size, such as the smallest thief ant, which is only .2 mm long and difficult to identify without careful observation by the naked eye; The largest ant, the Australian bull ant, can reach more than 3.5 cm in length, which is bigger than the smaller beetle. The common types of ants in China are mainly house ant, broad-knot big-headed ant, yellow-haired ant, brown-yellow house ant, etc., and their body length is generally between 2 and 8 mm.

No matter what kind of ant, its body structure can be divided into three parts: head, chest and abdomen. There are three pairs of chest feet in the chest and a pair of antennae in the head. The color of the body is mainly black, brown and crimson, and some kinds are yellow, light yellow or white.

Ants are gregarious insects, usually moving in groups, mainly living in dry areas, and generally nesting underground. The scale of ant nests is relatively large, with obvious functional zoning and good ventilation, waterproof and drainage functions. The queen ant lives in the main room of the nest, which is ten times larger than other "rooms", while other ants in the ant colony live in other sub-nests, and some "rooms" are also specially used for incubating ant eggs and placing food. Some biology lovers once found an abandoned ant nest in Brazil, filled it with as much as 1 tons of cement, and finally dug out the solidified cement, just like a huge underground "castle".

The feeding habits of ants are very diverse, and the preferences of different kinds of ants are different, such as carnivorous ants that feed on meat, omnivorous ants with partial meat, omnivorous ants that are partial to vegetarianism, and vegetarian ants that eat only plants. Among them, the origin of vegetarianism is mainly the fruits and seeds of plants, and most ants belong to this feeding habit. While some ants, such as army ants and red ants, mainly feed on small insects. In group combat, some large carnivorous ants can even kill frogs, snails, snakes, toads and other animals much larger than themselves. The socialized division of labor of ants

Ants are a kind of animals with strong social division of labor and cooperation. In an ant colony, different types of ants undertake quite clear tasks, and they are responsible and orderly. In a mature ant colony, there are usually four types of ants, namely queen, male, soldier and worker. Among them:

The queen ant is the core and leader of an ant colony, which is mainly responsible for laying eggs and releasing strong pheromones to give orders to the ant colony. The number of queens in an ant colony is generally only one, and its life span is relatively long, generally reaching more than 1 years, and some even reaching 5 years.

Male ants mate with the queen full-time and will die soon after mating. According to the size of the ant colony, the number of male ants in an ant colony ranges from a dozen to hundreds.

soldier ant is a kind of immature female ant, which is mainly responsible for fighting other ant colonies and maintaining the safety of the whole ant colony. Its life span is short, generally less than 6 months, and the short one is only 1 month.

Worker ants, also immature female ants, are mainly responsible for raising young ants, feeding queens and males, and looking for food outside. They are the "jobs" with the largest workload and the most tasks in the whole ant colony, and their life span is also very short, generally less than 1 weeks. The pheromone of ants

Any individual of ants will release pheromones, which are mainly mixed with a variety of aromatic organic substances and secreted through the tail of ants' abdomen. In the social activities of ants, pheromones play a very important role and are an important means of information exchange between ants. The role of pheromones in the daily activities of ants can be summarized as follows:

The unique attributes of ant colony: the pheromones secreted by different kinds of ants are very different, even the pheromones coated on the individuals of the same kind of ants and different ant colonies are also different.

Mark the ant's action route: No matter whether the ant moves alone or in groups, it will leave secreted pheromones on its crawling route, which is convenient for remembering the route.

Marking the location of prey: When ants go out to find food, worker ants leave pheromones on the route and marks on the prey, which is convenient for calling more partners to find and deal with them in the future.

Affect individual development: In the ant colony, the queen ant secretes the most pheromones with the greatest intensity. The pheromones secreted by her can not only play a leading role in the whole ant colony, but also inhibit the growth and development of the corresponding population in a targeted manner, thus controlling the functional structure of the whole ant colony and achieving a dynamic balance. Under the control of pheromone secreted by the queen, the growth and development of other female offspring are incomplete, and eventually they grow into soldier ants and worker ants. If you take ants far away

Just mentioned, in an ant colony, different types of ants have different functions, so their range of activities is also different. Most of the ants we see on the ground are workers who go out to look for food, or soldiers who are fighting with other ant colonies. It is difficult to see queens and males (males also have wings). Moreover, different types of ants carry and secrete different pheromones, so taking them far away will lead to different fates.

For example, if you are lucky enough to catch queen ants or male ants, because they usually rely on worker ants for food and feeding, they lack independent survival ability. If you put them in other areas, let alone a few kilometers, that is, a few hundred meters away from the nest, as long as the worker ants or soldier ants in the original ant colony do not find them, they can only starve. Moreover, the pheromones secreted by them are the strongest. If they are found by other ant colonies, it is impossible for them to be accepted by other ants because the pheromones do not match, and the result is that they are taken back to their nests by other ants for food.

If the soldier ants are taken away, under the control of the queen pheromone, their sex organs are not fully developed, but they have evolved into a more developed upper Hubei with very degraded mouthparts, which is more convenient for them to bite and kill, and workers need to feed them at ordinary times. Therefore, soldier ants can't take the initiative to eat, even if they find food, although they have independent activity ability. In addition, if found by ants in other ant colonies, because pheromones don't match, they can't be integrated into the local ant colony, and the soldier ants are relatively fierce in temperament, and they will inevitably fight after being found by other ants. A few soldier ants can't resist the attack of a large number of soldier ants in other ant colonies, and the consequences can be imagined, either starving or dying.

Finally, there are worker ants. Although they are also controlled by the queen pheromone, when they leave the queen for a period of time, this control power will decrease with the fading of the queen pheromone, and their bodies can continue to develop and then develop into mature female ants. In addition, the mouthparts of worker ants are not degraded, and they are completely capable of foraging and eating independently in the wild, so they generally do not starve to death. If you encounter ants from other ant colonies in this process, if the types of ants are different, then the difference of pheromones will make worker ants, like soldier ants, be attacked by other ants, and because of their weak counterattack ability, they will directly OVER. However, if it is the same type of ants, when the original pheromone fades completely, there will be a small chance to mate and lay eggs with males in other ant colonies, and finally it is possible to re-establish a huge ant country. To sum up

On the whole, if a few ants are taken to a far place, there is more than 9% chance that they will not survive, among which the queen, male ants and soldier ants will not survive 1%. Worker ants should be able to live independently for a period of time before meeting other ants because their mouthparts have not deteriorated. At the same time, because the body can continue to develop, it has a lower probability of mating with males in other similar ant colonies, thus continuing to survive.

I think all animals have the same nature: starting from scratch, since heaven gave the talent, let it be employed!! Life solves the problem of warm meals, and then moves towards the ideal!

After leaving the colony for seven days, the ant colony and the bee colony are the same. The ant tribe is a team work, and the worker ants go home by smell when looking for food, and also identify the ethnic group by smell.

I have observed this small and strange creature at close range for a long time. "Ants" seem very small, but they have extraordinary wisdom. It's hard to imagine their team spirit.

War in the ant kingdom

Ants will also wage war, but the cause of the war is unknown to us. The scene is equivalent to the main battlefield where the two countries fought in ancient times, and the scene is quite tragic. According to my observation, both ants suffered heavy casualties. (dead bodies everywhere) but still advance wave after wave to fight. I don't know why this war started and who commanded it. Only professionals can give answers.

the wisdom of ants

careful people will observe that there are small clods around the ant nest. Some friends will mistake it for ant feces. Actually, it is not because it has two important functions.

I remember once, I put a few small pieces of ham sausage residue near the ant nest for observation, and soon an ant found those rare pieces of delicious food. But the vigilance of ants is still quite high. First, it turns around the food several times, and makes sure there is no danger, and then quickly returns to the ant nest. It seems to be going back to the leader to report its unexpected discovery. Soon many ants filed out. I saw them Qi Xin work together to transport food several times larger than their bodies to the hole of the nest in a short time. Observing this time, I am even more interested in seeing how they move food several times larger than the hole into the cave. The miracle really happened. I saw that the eluvial soil around the mouth of the cave was gradually loosening, and finally revealed its true colors. There was a small slate several times larger than the mouth of the cave under the eluvial soil.

After opening it, it can be said that there is a hole in the sky. After they transported all the food into the nest, they quickly returned to their original appearance. From the appearance, you can't see that there is such a mystery in a small ant nest.

Another function of the floating soil beside the ant nest is that the ant nest will be washed by rain when the rainy season comes. The floating soil around will turn into yellow mud under the action of water, attach to the ant nest and seal the hole to prevent rainwater from infiltrating. It's amazing to see this scene. It can really be said that it is a seemingly weak creature, but it has wisdom beyond seeking growth.

Back to the Lord's question, if ants are taken several kilometers away. They can't survive. Because ants have a strong sense of family. Once you leave this family, you will only face death.

The above is a boring person who answered a very interesting question. Welcome to participate in the comments and hope to point out the shortcomings. table