The Biology of Ants

Question 1

honeypot ants

Answer 1

• Their job is to eat honey and becoming living jars of honey
• The crop expands in storage for the honey
  
  • everything else is pushed towards the back
• when honey is scarce, the other ants will tap with the antennae or squeeze the abdomen the ant to signal they are hungry
  
  • tropholacsis
  • the ant will regurgitate some of the honey back up into the mouth of the other ant
• spend their life upside down
  
  • mandibles hold onto the top of their house

Question 2

harvester ants

Answer 2

• large ants
  
  • chemicals to detect each other and/or rivals
  • aggressive and territorial
    
    • fight to the death
      
      • body collectors to get dead bodies off the field
  • their is a line of security guards chambers within the colony
    
    • some of them leave, others seal the colony back up
  • have nasty sting
    
    • very painful
    • neurotoxic reaction
      
      • localized pain and goosebumps
      • hurts for 5 hours
    • have to shuffle around ant colony to prevent from biting
    • why is the toxin intense?
      
      • use their venom to protect themselves for Texas horn lizard
        
        • has a mucous lining within the stomach to stop the venom from getting into their system

Question 3

bullet ants

Answer 3

• rely on size
  
  • an inch long
• called a bullet ants single sting feels as though they were getting shot but a bullet
• has the most painful sting
• only females can sting
• stinger is a modified ovipositor
  
  • yolk glands are modified to give venom to the stingers
• can use their head for stitches
• used in cultural rituals for coming of age rituals for males

Question 4

paramedic ants

Answer 4

• going to war with soldiers
  
  • attack termites colonies
    
    • gun termites that shoot glue at the ants
• smell the wound on ants due to the broke cuticle by termite mandible
  
  • carry the ant back to the colony and coat in antibiotic saliva
  • 8 times higher of survival
• save the ones that are most likely to survive first, reverse triage

Question 5

army ants

Answer 5

• dont build nests
  
  • bibouac, nomadic homes out of their own bodies
• queen can lay 3 million eggs a week
• they kill anything that is in their way, but they dont eat everything
  
  • often only want a specific type of food, the nests of ants
• kill a billion individual animals in a raid
• destructive but balance out the ecosystem (invasive species)
• most bio-diverse
  
  • 500 species that live in the colony
    
    • beetles, other ants, spiders
  • most protected
  • food brought to you
• emergent properties

Question 6

Argentine ants

Answer 6

• one of the most successful invasive species on the planet
• one of the most distributed organisms
• native to argentina
  
  • accidentally introduced in new orleans 100 yrs ago
  • all over the south and california (temperate areas)
• can have two different queens but have the same sense
  
  • this can create a super colony