Ants are social insects having more than 12,000 different species. These insects which belong to the order Hymenoptera had evolved some 110-130 million years ago from wasp-like ancestors. Ants are known to be very organized and they live in colonies. A typical ant colony has three types of ants i.e. queen, workers (female) and drones (fertile males). Each type of ant has a specific function to carry out – the queen ant lays eggs, drones mate with the queen while worker ants carry out tasks such as gathering food, building colonies, etc. The female worker ants also have a sub-group called soldiers which protect their fellow ants.
Scientific Classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Superfamily: Vespoidea
Family: Formicidae
The body of ants is broadly divided into three parts which are the head, mesosoma and metasoma. The body part which connects metasoma and mesosoma is known as petiole. The head consists of three parts which are the eyes, antenna and jaws. Owing to the number of lenses which form eyes, the ants can catch movements easily. These eyes however, don’t provide ants with a high resolution. Some ants from the subterranean region cannot see at all; most of the ant species don’t have a well developed eyesight. Ants have 6 legs and all of these are attached to their trunk. Internal systems of the ants body are covered in a protective covering called exoskeleton. Ants do not possess lungs; spiracles, the valves present on exoskeleton of ants act as entry points for oxygen. Carbon dioxide and other gases are expelled out of body through the same spiracles.
If you are wondering about what do ants eat, then you need to know that young and older ants feed on different types of food. The larvae are however, fed with a liquid substance by the elder, worker ants. Worker ants travel in search of food and directly eat what is available to them. The food which they bring back is processed (broken down) into a liquid state by smaller ants. It is interesting to note that few adult ants don’t eat at all after attaining full growth. Specialty of ants is that they act as herbivores, predators and also carry out the work of scavengers.
Nature. Biodiversity. Landscape. 