Ants, such busy insects, when they were young, did not have less scourges, and squatted in the corner of the wall to press ants without doing anything, if ants were a civilization, wouldn't this be a cruel massacre? But fortunately, the ants did not have this realization, and this black ant was not welcome!
But in the arid Australian desert, there is a honeypot ant, the stomach is bulging with liquid, the entire abdomen has swelled into a translucent spherical body, the locals caught this ant, the general operation is to screw off the head, directly lost in the mouth, because it is filled with honey!
In the Australian desert after the heavy rain, everything was revived, and countless small grass flowers began to sprout in a scramble, and then they blossomed and seeded before the water vapor dried, and then the seeds drifted with the wind in the desert! And in just a few short weeks, there is one insect that is busier than anyone, and they are the endemic species of the local area, the honeypot ant!
There is a certain percentage of real honeypot ants in the colony of this honeypot ant, and they will desperately suck the nectar during the flowering season until they can hardly climb, and then return to the nest and continue to have other ants collecting honey to feed until they are close to the size of grapes, at this time they have been hanging upside down in the nest to become a temporary food warehouse for the colony!
When the dry season comes and food is scarce, the worker ants will come to ask for honey from these honeypot ants, at which time the honeypot ants will ruminate out honey to feed the worker ants, of course, the ants are very disciplined, and will not come to the tooth sacrifice when there are enough mistakes, and will only use these "strategic reserves" in the most difficult times.
Honeypot ants are not fixed
Many friends will think that this is too cruel to honeypot ants? In fact, do not think so, they are part of the ant colony division of labor, the social division of labor in the colony is distinguished from the genetic level, divided into three kinds of ant kings (females, queens), soldier ants and worker ants. The Queen is specifically responsible for reproduction, and other individuals provide food for her, without any reproductive rights. Of course, this is the way for ants to survive, and the identity of the honeypot ant is not permanent, when the honey of the honeypot ant is regurgitated, its abdomen can return to normal size, become like other worker ants, and restore its ordinary identity!
The proportion of honeypot ants in the honeypot ant is about 50%, but it will also be adjusted according to the size of the colony, such as the Australian puffed giant mountain ant (a kind of honeypot ant) In a small colony of 1000 ants, the proportion of honey storage ants is about 49%, about 46% of the 4000 ant colony, and the largest honey storage ant is 15 mm long and weighs more than 1.4 grams! Proportionally, dig a small nest of ants and you'll be fed!
The ratio of honeypot ants to palms
The belly of the honeypot ant is so big, why is it not broken?
Bracing so big is not broken, this is estimated to be the most curious place for everyone, what is the structure, bracing for half a year, after using it can be restored as before, this technology, after the birth of women that is absolutely the most favorite, what is the structure?
Honeypot ant in the puffed giant mountain ant abdomen is composed of hard diaphragm and soft joint membrane, no honey storage when the joint membrane will shrink, diaphragm folding, the body size and ordinary ants are no different, once the need to store honey, then the joint membrane will open, has been the maximum state, this ratio, comparable to our blowing balloon!
Diaphragm and joint membrane structure of honeypot ants
The durum has only four segments, and most of them are folded joint membranes, and this magical honeypot ant is really an evolutionary miracle. In addition to the brilliant yellow honeypot ants, there are also green honeypot ants, the color is different because of the difference in color between the nectar they suck and the sweet sap, so those green honeypot ants look more like a real grape!
Honeypot ant is not a unique species, but a lot of ants with honey storage behavior, such as Australian bowback ant genus, North African arrow ant genus, North American honeypot ant genus, etc., then do we have honeypot ants in China? There is also a Mongolian proto-ant is a kind of ant with honey storage behavior, it is distributed in China's Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Mongolia and Central Asia, West Asia, the Caucasus, the Balkans to Spain and other large areas!
However, and everyone has a different impression of the same honeypot ants as grapes, the Mongolian original ant's "honeypot" is relatively small, it looks like only ants with a larger belly, but the honey storage is still real, they generally inhabit under the stones, the number of each group is not much, about only a few hundred, this scale, it is estimated that you have to dig a few nests of ants to eat!
In addition, there are insect lovers who raise honeypot ants as pets, and there are Mongolian original ants (Chinese honeypot ants) for sale on a treasure, buy them back to build nests, feed them honey with different pigments, watch them breed, and it is also very interesting to watch them breed and play with a rainbow-like belly!