GO TO THE ANTS! - An Inquiry Into An Amazing World

Go to the ants! Hmmm. What would I benefit from visiting the ants? Then I decided to to explore and do some findings about the ants. Here's my encounter.

Ants are small , numerous, common, social insect that live in colonies containing thousands to millions of ants. The colony is also called a formicary.

Throughout the world, over 12000 species of ants are known and classified. Each having a unique feature and difference in terms of body size and shape, places found, types of nest. The most common ones been black ants, wood ants, fire ants ( great and notorious pests destroying and damaging crops and buildings), garden ants, weaver ants(makes nest like a beehive out of leaves cut with their pincer jaw and joined together with the sticky fluids produced by their larvae), formica, pharaoh ants, bullet ant ( giving one of the sharpest sting you can ever get from an insect) .

It has been discovered that ants possess the longest lifespan and are the most populous insects, this adding to their ability to able to carry things about 100 times their body weight and possibly a thousand times or more, making them the strongest.

`With this outstanding features, I mist say, the ants are true Champions.

The colony consists of

• one or more fertile egg-laying female with a distinct abdomen, the queen(s),
• one or more fertile male that mates with the queen(s), the drones

• wingless sterile females that construct the nest, forage for foods,store the eggs and feed the larvae of the queen, the workers
• one with a distinct large head that protects the colony, forage or kill for food, the soldiers

• some winged male and female, the princes and princesses, that later during the mating season takes a nuptial flight in search of a mate leaving the main colony they belong to and establish a new colony somewhere else.

After mating, the short-lived male dies after two or three days fulfilling his only duty (to mate with the female). The female then sheds her wings which are of no use since she may leave the rest of her life without seeing the world outside again. The female buries herself underground to lay her first batch of eggs and waits patiently for them to hatch into workers to forage for her, expand the nest and take care of subsequent eggs that may be laid by the queen. With workers doing their jobs, this means more effective worker, soldiers, winged male (some of which may act as drones - mate with the queen) and female that will sooner or later take a nuptial flight and repeat the cycle.

The ant's nest is a fascinating and outstanding masterpiece that may lay foot in trees or beneath the ground depending on the size of the colony.

The nest is structured in chambers and connected with shafts. Each chamber having it function; where the queen lays her eggs, where the eggs are stored, where the larvae are fed, where foods are kept and funnily, a garbage station.
While foraging, ants may encounter other ants from another colony and when they do so, it means war. They fight to death. The winner takes the eggs of the loser and hatch them into worker for its own colony and possibly take over the nest as their own.

I must say, their nest is like a great company with different workers saddled with different responsibilities to ensure the growth and survival of the company.

Hmmm. The ants are indeed admirable creatures.
And now to you too :

Go to the ants!

HT:
pixabay.com
http://www.antnest.co.uk/colony.html
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/ant/

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I'm a microbiology undergraduate at the University and I'm fascinated with learning amazing stuff about life everyday.

Steemit is re-kindling my love for writing and I will be sharing with you amazing stuff I discover everyday at school and over the course of my search for knowledge.

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