Speaking of yellow ant, we will certainly not be unfamiliar, this tree-dwelling in the warm tropical, subtropical region, rich in the middle and lower reaches of the Lancang River in Yunnan Lincang, Simao, Xishuangbanna and other places, footprints widely distributed in the south of China's small ants, can be said to be China's most common, but also the most ferocious, one of the most peculiar ants.
Specifically, the yellow ant is an ant belonging to the genus Of Leaf Weaver Ants, commonly known as acid ants, yellow orange ants, mangrove ants, weaving nest ants, etc. The yellow ant population is divided into two species: winged ants and worker ants.
Worker ants vary in size, body length of 6 to 11 mm, because there is a transparent acid storage under the small yellow ball named "acid ant", their body color is red rust or orange red, female ants are larger, body length of 15 to 18 mm, when the queen just "ascended the throne" soon, they are mostly green or light yellow, with the continuous growth of age and the increase in the number of ant colonies, the color of the queen will change, into a similar color to the worker ants, relatively speaking, the male ants are much smaller, the male ants are 6-7 mm long, the body color is brownish black.
Both female and male ants have wings, and they have only one task, that is, to breed offspring, and as for the tasks of protecting nests, preying, and caring for offspring, these are the jobs of labor ants.
The combat effectiveness of the yellow ant is beyond doubt, they can be called the top combat force of China's native ants, the yellow ant is light, the population is large, very aggressive, once frightened, a large number of worker ants will fall out of the nest, erect the abdomen collective fire, from the abdomen shot out of the abdomen with a strong irritation of the ant acid attack invaders.
The colony predation characteristics of the yellow ants make it a very influential "insect harvester" in the jungle, and the yellow ants feed mainly on insects, preying on insects such as large green bugs, giddings, orange red leaf beetles, celestial bulls, patina golden turtles, leaf beetles, green scales, leaf bees and so on. Its means of predation are very changeable, large prey will use formic acid long-range attack, using the advantage of the group to surround the prey, and then work together to bite the prey to death, smaller insects directly surround and tear up, similar to the ancient "car crack" punishment.
Yellow ants are typical social ants, their lives are inseparable from the exchange of pheromones between social individuals, these seemingly simple exchanges often determine the fate of the yellow ants, worker ants every day with the sun rises away from the nest to work until sunset to return to the nest to rest, the daily work is heavy but some of the individuals between them can live up to several years, and the out-of-group outliers can only survive for a few days.
Studies have shown that the aggressiveness and dominance of the yellow fox ant has had a considerable impact on small insects that specialize in pollination of plants. Yellow ants like to catch small insects, and the most frequently visited flowers are the focus of the yellow ants to crouch, due to the size of the ants, yellow ants do not pose a serious threat to large pollinators, such as bumblebees, cymbal bees, etc., but those small aphids, wasps or fruit flies may be directly hunted or driven away by the yellow ants, greatly reducing the number of such pollinators.
Yellow ants are fierce, good at preying on the characteristics of various insects, but also found by the ancient working people of our country, China as early as 304 BC in the Jin Dynasty to control citrus pests, which is the earliest precedent in the world to treat insects with insects
Unlike other burrowing ants, yellow fox ants inhabit trees, and what is more peculiar is that they can spit silk and fix leaves in trees into a simple nest, which is why some regions call them nesting ants.
It is also this simple way of nest weaving, yellow fox ants can get rid of the limitations of underground nests, generally yellow ants like to build nests on broad-leaved trees, this inverted cone-shaped nest can be built at will on the branches around the main nest, the new nest because the green leaves are not completely dried up, often green, the size is like a palm, the larger nest diameter of up to 68 cm, the color is also dry yellow, the general yellow fox ant nest will not be blackened and metamorphic, if the nest becomes black mostly abandoned nest, These temporary cantonments can extend the dominance of the yellow fox ant to the entire canopy, or even multiple tree crowns, and the size of the entire colony can reach tens of thousands, which is very dominant.
Of course, the skill of weaving nests is a necessary skill for every worker ant, but the yellow fox ant does not have a developed silk gland like a spider, and they only have a transparent small yellow ball under their abdomen, which is used to attack the enemy, and if a silk gland is evolved, it is a bit "all-powerful". The task of weaving nests of yellow ants all falls on the old mature larvae in their colonies, and unlike other ant larvae, once the nest is damaged or a new nest is opened, the yellow lynx ant will mouth the old mature larvae of its own group, forcing it to spit silk between the leaf slits or branches, which is a bit of a "child labor" meaning.
Because the body color of the yellow fox ant is similar to the color of the red fire ant, many people mistakenly believe that this beneficial ant is an invasive species and destroyed, in fact, when looking closely at their physical differences, this difference is very obvious.
Red fire ants are also very familiar to everyone, known as "invincible ants", sting people will have a strong sense of burning, the population is huge, the invasion ability is strong, for one of the most destructive invasive organisms, has been in China's 12 provinces to make waves, many people are simply talking about "ants" discoloration, generally small black ordinary ants everyone knows, once the color of the ants is a little red, subconsciously think that it is red fire ants are also understandable.
Red fire ants are orange-red in color, the dorsal plate on the abdomen is dark brown, they are complete ground-dwelling ants, the nest is to pile the soil into 10-30 cm high, diameter 30-50 cm ant mound, and the yellow fox ant is an arboreal ant, the color is also as yellow as the name, light, so it is very easy to identify.