When I was young, my most common thing to do was to crouch under the wall with my friends and tinker with ants, watching them busy looking for food every day. As a kind person, I sometimes can't look at it, and I will find a big meat bug and put it at the mouth of the ant hole to watch them transport back into the hole.
Children love to crouch on the ground and watch the ants
Image courtesy of Sina Blog
At that time, I read less, and I always felt that ants were not two kinds of red ants and black ants? When I grew up, I found that I was too naïve - there are too many types of ants, and today I will introduce a few common taxa.
Ants belong to the insect family, Hymenoptera, which evolved from bees. The ant family contains more than two dozen subfamily, so the number of species is also unusually large. According to statistics, there are 15,000 species of ants in the world.
Subfamily Mammothidae There are successors to the throne
Ants in this taxon are more diverse, and generally have better eyesight than other types of ants, some prefer to forage alone, and have strong aggression.
Friends who know ants should know that ant society is composed of queens, winged female ants, male ants, and worker ants, and some types of worker ants have also differentiated into soldier ants. Although soldier ants and worker ants are females, their reproductive systems are incompletely developed and unable to reproduce.
Two-colored curved-cheeked ants
Photo: Liu Yanming
However, some species of worker ants in the family of ants escaped this tragic fate, such as the curved-cheeked ants , when the queen dies for some reason, a new worker ant is elected to take its place and become queen.
For example, after the queen of the sickle-hunting ant dies, the other worker ants will tear each other apart and compete for the throne. However, this throne is not permanent, and it may be possible to be ousted by new competitors at any time.
The sickle-hunting ant has a huge upper jaw
Leafcutter ants subfamily do not all cut leaves
Although the ant of this subfamily has the word "cut leaves" in their names, not all members will cut leaves.
For example, harvest ants, their food is actually mainly the seeds of plants. They will carry the seeds to the nest and then place them neatly for later use. However, they do not have a dehumidifier in their nests, and once the moisture is too large, the seeds will germinate, so they indirectly become the seed sowers.
Needle hair harvest ants
Photography: Ran Hao
There is also a species of macrocephalic ant in the leafcutter subfamily. This big-headed ant is estimated to be over-exercised, and the huge head is simply out of proportion to the body.
The big-headed ant, the huge head of the soldier ant, stands in stark contrast to the worker ant
When it comes to the one who can actually cut leaves, it is the leafcuttering ant in the Americas. In the wild, there is no need to carry an identification manual, and if you see ants walking busily with leaves, you must be leaf cutter ants. What do they do all day cutting leaves?
Leaf-cutting ants are carrying leaves
Image courtesy of Panorama
Leafcutter ants transport the leaves back to their nests and then chew them up and spread them evenly in the nest. They then spit out the strains and plant them on these leaves. This will germinate many mushrooms, which are their food source.
Marching ant subfamily
Mentioning this subfamily, I think many friends will think of various movies, where the marching ants go, they are full of white bones, and even people can't escape.
Image credit: Raiders of the Lost Ark
In fact, this is completely wronged. Although marching ants move in large groups, they are not fast, and at best they can only kill some invertebrates or small vertebrates. And many marching ants are usually vegetarian and not so ferocious.
American marching ant that goes out to feed: the wandering ant
Image source: Panorama.com
Although different types of ants have their own characteristics, the vast majority have a common characteristic - belligerence.
Antology authority Wilson said that if ants mastered atomic bombs, they would destroy the earth in a week. In this museum class, we invited Ran Hao, a teacher who has studied ants very well, to tell us about the war of ants and the story of ant life.
Speaker of this issue
Ran Hao, Ant Webmaster, Zoologist, Writer, Member of the Biodiversity and Genomics Research Group of Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Member of China Science Writers Association, Member of Science Squirrel Society.
Lecture Title: Ant Wars
Lecture location: Museum classroom live broadcast room
Listening method: identify the two-dimensional code to pay attention to the public number of the museum classroom, send "lecture", and the system automatically replies to the link in the live broadcast room