How the anthill works: internal structure, life and interaction of ants

Ants are so numerous insects on our planet that there are several thousand of their species. A single ant does not seem to be a complex and dangerous creature with intelligence. But this impression is misleading, since the ants do not live alone, and in the group and in the system of interaction of these insects, one can marvel at their high organization and a clear division of responsibilities. In fact, ants can be compared with people, only we can still learn their tolerance, hard work and coherence in work. “Plows like an ant” - we are talking about a hard-working man, imagining a small bug that drags an object several times its weight and size.

These insects live in large families that have been preserved for several years, in fact, all the ants in such a colony are relatives from a biological point of view, and from a social point of view, this is a city whose population is strictly divided into castes and strictly organized. In fact, we can say that under our feet a parallel civilization is seething and developing.

We interact through speech, gestures and facial expressions, and ants communicate through food exchange and through smells, each ant has its own unique smell, and each family has its own unique shades of smells, thanks to which insects feel that a stranger has entered their home. Their interaction is also carried out with the help of pheromones, using which insects inform each other about the location of the food or about the danger.
About how the anthill is arranged and how complicated everything is in it, we have known since high school, but more serious studies are carried out by antmemium scientists from myrmecologists.

Anthill device

The anthill looks like an ordinary mountain of branches, blades of grass, pieces of land, but in fact it is a finely and competently thought-out dwelling, inside of which everything is much more interesting than outside.

The ant house has the shape of a cone for a reason, thanks to it the rain rolls down along the blades of grass and needles almost without getting inside. The anthill rises above the grass level so that the sun's rays penetrate inside, with which the ants warm up, as well as warm their larvae and pupae. And the deeper layers of the anthill is a refuge for insects on cold days. Thanks to a cunning project, ants spend their summer in a summer cone, and winter in earthen passages.

Parts of the Ant Dwelling

Looking at the picture, you can see the various parts of the anthill, described below for what each of them serves:

1. The top cover, consisting of needles, blade of grass and twigs, protects the ant house from weather conditions.
2. A chamber heated by the sun's rays - here the ants warm themselves and their offspring.
3. One of the many entrances guarded by the soldiers, in addition to the role of the door, also serves as a ventilation channel.
4. Warehouse for debris and dead ants.
5. A wintering chamber, where ants in drowsiness await the cold.
6. Camera for storing grains.
7. The queen’s cell, where the uterus lives and lays eggs, is looked after by working ants.
8. Chamber for eggs and larvae.
9. Camera for aphids.
10. Storage room for caterpillars and other "meat" production.

It is interesting! The largest anthill in the world is located in the Tomsk region near the village of Zavarzino. This conclusion was reached by Tomsk local historians who made measurements of this structure. In order to build such an ant house, the ant family, according to scientists, took at least 20 years. Record parameters - 3 meters high and 5 meters in diameter. According to local historians, this anthill is overgrown, but its inhabitants have already started building a new dwelling nearby. It is possible that it will not be inferior in size to the old.

How is an ant colony arranged? The life of ants in an anthill

In order to understand how ants live in an anthill, we will start from birth. Once a year, males and females hatch from eggs, which are ready for procreation, they have wings and fly apart in different directions for mating. The males, after fulfilling their main purpose - fertilization, die, and the females fly away in search of a place for a new colony. Having found it, the female gnaws off her wings in order to obtain additional nutrients and begins to actively lay her eggs.

At first, hungry times await her, she survives only due to the accumulated fat layer, but then, when the first representatives of the offspring hatch, they begin to provide her and the larvae with everything necessary. The ant queen mother mates only once, while she has enough sperm for her entire long (up to 20 years) life to recreate her offspring.
These insects are hymenoptera, males develop from unfertilized eggs and have a single set of chromosomes, and females are endowed with a double set. In this state of affairs, daughters acquire the whole genome from the father, and half from the mother. At the same time, the sisters become closer relatives to each other than the daughters for the mother. Despite the fact that the word “ant” is masculine, all female working ants are daughters of the queen-queen who cannot mate and remain unfertilized all their lives.

Ant social strata

Ants as humans have social relationships and hierarchies. Each has a set of qualities: intelligence, aggressiveness, speed of reaction, enterprise, ability to communicate with others. Depending on what qualities of each dominate, the ant receives a certain profession:

• invading warriors - the main task is to capture new territories and attack other anthills with the aim of abducting larvae and cocoons in order to subsequently make them slaves working for the benefit of another's ant hill;
• builders - diligently maintain the structure and condition of the anthill, create new tunnels and communications as the number of residents grows, every day hundreds of construction ants drag needles and twigs from above to the deep layers of the anthill, and from the lower floors - to the top. Thus, a stable moisture regime is maintained and that is why the anthill dome does not decay and does not mold;
• orderlies - isolate sick ants from society, if a limb is damaged in a patient, amputate it, gnawing with its powerful jaws;
• nannies, nurses - take care of the offspring and are engaged in education;
• earners - they get and store food;
• security guards - protect the entrances to the anthill from strangers and ensure the safety of the queen with the larvae;
• shepherds or millers - ants have their own pets. Aphids eat vegetation and secrete droplets of a sweet liquid called a pad. Between insects established mutually beneficial cooperation. Ants tickle aphids and get a pad - for them it is a delicious and nutritious food, which is the main source of carbohydrates.And in the form of a return service, they graze and protect their dairy cows from the attack of predators;
• transporters - transfer the pad to the anthill;
• workers of the maternity hospital - lay eggs in specially designated compartments and are responsible for maintaining the required temperature regime;
• keepers of nectar - are necessary in the anthill in case hunger times arise in it, and the ants-getters will not be able to find food. Then come in handy products that always have thrifty custodians;
• scouts - looking for new places where you can get food.

Depending on how many ants there are in the anthill, there is a division of labor. In a small ant family, all of its participants can engage in different types of activities, observing the principle of interchangeability. But in a large community specializations appear and individual roles are assigned to individual ants.

Ants, just like humans, are born unequal, with different genetic predispositions, and the main task of the community is the effective use of the potential of each family member. So, for example, those who become guards and warriors initially show an aggressive disposition and, without reasoning, rush into battle, they are slightly larger than the other relatives and have strong tentacles. The same story with the intellectual elite of the ant community - scouts. Smart ants have the ability to remember the sequence of turns on the way to a place with new nutrition and transmit this information to food providers.

The question of the prestige of the profession

At a young age, ants can change their profession and look for themselves in different types of activities, for those who are not determined by specialization, the role of laborers is destined. Beginners, no matter how hard they try, cope with duties worse than older and more experienced tribesmen. According to scientists in the world of ants, there is such a thing as the prestige of the profession. For example, the lower caste - slaves, ants do not allow to drag the larvae and even in case of danger they are taken away and transferred by themselves. For them it is a matter of prestige! Slaves are assigned the role of builders, apparently, this profession is not quoted by ants.

Self-affirmation: "the pose of the suitcase"

To consolidate their place under the sun, insects are forced to show their tough temper. They sometimes behave aggressively towards their fellow tribesmen: they jump on each other, rise above the enemy, defiantly walk on high and tense legs, painfully bite. The winner of the dispute can grab the loser and make him squirm in the “pose of the suitcase”, then drags him from the battlefield, can bring him to the anthill and throw him there so that he does not interfere with his career and does not come any closer to the winner.

It is amazing that ants live so cohesively and work as a single mechanism for the benefit of their family, without having a single “think tank”. Moreover, the anatomical features of one ant will not allow him to be the sole manager - the capabilities of his nervous system are too small for such a large amount of programs and information that are necessary to control the life of an entire anthill.

The life of ants in the anthill is unique, very interesting and requires a long study to understand the new secrets of these tiny but powerful insects.