Ants are the most amazing insects on the planet.

Today we will tell you interesting facts about ants that will allow you to get to know these insects better. Surely you do not know how much one ant weighs. What are they doing in the winter months? And the fact that these small creatures can be useful is known to units at all.

External structure

The family of ants has a fairly large number of species, but all of them are united by the structure of the body. As you know, there are working ants that constantly leave the nest and scurry about in search of food. These individuals are wingless, regardless of gender, and only in females do they exist during the mating season. After this, the female individuals bite off their wings and become the same as the rest of the working ants.

The body of these insects is covered with a chitinous membrane and has the following structure:

• head;
• prothorax;
• abdomen.

Each individual species of ants has its own head structure, on which mandibles are located, designed to carry food, building material and, of course, to protect.

The eyes of these insects are faceted - they consist of several lenses. But not all species of ants are sighted. For example, the Dracula ant has no eyes at all and is completely blind. And those species that have eyes are not able to distinguish objects, but can only recognize movements. Some of the species also respond to the degree of illumination of space and the polarization of light.
Cranked antennae play the role of sensory organs - with their help, the ant recognizes odors, picks up vibrations and vibrations of the air, receives and transmits signals in direct contact with other individuals.

On a note! It is characteristic that only ants have such antennae. Other insects lack them.

Some species are “armed” with a sting, which is located at the end of the abdomen. It serves ants both for protection and for hunting.

Consider the paws

It’s pretty easy to count how many legs an ant has — six. All three pairs of legs are well developed and visible to the naked eye. Absolutely all types of these insects have such a number of paws.

With the help of the legs, the ant can not only move, in fact they are designed for various functions:

• the first pair of paws is equipped with a kind of brush with which insects clean the antennae and other paws;
• the hind legs are equipped with spurs, which are most often used for defense and attack during battles with other ants;
• all paws have small notches that allow these insects to move on absolutely smooth and at the same time steep surfaces;
  

  On a note! Pharaoh ants easily move around the glass, which is not capable of, for example, black cockroaches.

• some species use their paws to cross water barriers. For example, a bulldog ant can cross a puddle of 15 cm wide.

Propagation Features

Now we should consider how ants reproduce. This process has tremendous effectiveness. The fact is that the offspring is produced by one female, which is called the uterus. She is constantly in the nest, laying her eggs and caring for them.In addition to her, males are around the future offspring. Some of them are labor, which from time to time leaves the nest to find food; the second part simply “watches” the eggs, saving them from enemies. In addition to the uterus, there are other females in the anthill, but they are not able to breed and are the same labor force as the males.

Once a year, young females and males appear from the pupae, which can mate. During the mating season, they are winged, but immediately after fertilization, the female individuals leave the nest and try to find a new place to create their ant hill. To provide itself with food, the newly made uterus nibbles on its wings.

Domestic ants behave somewhat differently. Young uterus do not organize new nests, but create unique “colonies”. At the same time, they creep into new territories only after becoming too crowded in the "native" anthill. After the "resettlement" between the main and daughter nests, a strong connection is constantly maintained. You can learn more about the anthill device in the article https://beetles.bigbadmole.com/en/kak-ustroen-muraveynik/.

Important! For this reason, it is quite difficult to get home ants. After all, it is necessary to detect all anthills in order to completely destroy the insect colony.

In the nests of house ants there are both working individuals and scouts, who treat the former “not with the highest respect”, but rather perceive them as containers with seed material. While the anthill area allows all those present, the uterus located in it does not show hostility to each other. Although males may even destroy some of them, most often those who lay few eggs.

Ant weight

How much does an ant weigh? The answer to this question will depend solely on the type of insect:

• our "native" red and black ants have a weight of 5 to 7 mg;
• the home pharaoh ant is the lightest - 1-2 mg;
  
• the bullet ant is the heaviest and weighs about 90 mg;
• and the mass of the uterus of an African stray ant can reach 10 g.

But what is most surprising is that the total mass of all ants living on the planet is equal to the mass of all mankind, and this is no less than 1,000,000,000 tons! And if you believe the calculations of scientists, then one person accounts for 10 million ants.

Ant wintering

What do you think ants do in winter? Sleeping - many will answer. No, you are mistaken. Their life continues to boil. Single species fall into a state of diapause, when the internal organs of insects reduce their work, but do not completely stop it.

Ants spend the winter months in the same anthills in which they also have a period of activity. And so that the frosty air does not penetrate inside, insects carefully close the entrances with dry leaves. Sometimes they are lowered into the lower "compartment" of the nest, where a warmer temperature is maintained.

During wintering, ants are inactive and do not eat so often. But if there are larvae in the nest, then adult individuals retain their activity in full measure and feed offspring. In addition, due to temperature fluctuations, the upper layers of the anthill periodically get wet and the ants are constantly forced to transfer food supplies to dry compartments.

On a note! Under severe climatic conditions, for example, in the northern regions, ants are able to tolerate particularly low temperatures. So, in larvae wintering in Kolyma, a body temperature of -58 ° C was recorded. This indicator is the smallest for insects in general.

Some species of ants that do not have diapause are forced to remain active throughout the winter. To survive, they stock up on food in the fall months, which should be enough until the thaw. At this time, the labor force is repairing the nest and trying to maintain a microclimate.

The larvae of these species of ants require protein food for growth, which cannot be obtained in winter conditions.Before the onset of cold weather, they develop to the state of adults and then go to winter. And with the onset of spring, when access to protein foods opens, the uterus begins to produce new offspring.

The benefits of small insects

Do you know how ants are useful? In fact, these tiny insects perform many of the most difficult environmental functions and are able to provide invaluable services to humans.

For nature

1. They take an active part in regulating the number of harmful insects by simply eating their larvae.
   

   Interesting fact! In just one season, thanks to one anthill, 100,000 to 1,000,000 insect pests are destroyed.

2. Promote the spread of plants. As you know, ants constantly carry food for the uterus and most often seeds of plants play this role. But far from all the “catch” the workers manage to drag to the nest. And the lost part simply sprouts.
3. Help flowers in pollination. Ants are sweet tooth who love to enjoy nectar, and as a result, they transfer pollen from one flower to another on their feet.
4. Increase soil fertility. Laying underground passages, insects loosen the earth, saturate it with oxygen and enrich it with organic compounds and minerals.

Now you understand why ants are considered medics of the forest.