The world around us is fraught with many mysteries and surprises. It is so rich in species diversity that common man it is impossible to comprehend all the subtleties of nature. Especially numerous representatives of the animal world are insects.
Nomadic ants - features of insects
Every person in his life met ants. These tiny workers always cause admiration and surprise in people. Their work is organized to the smallest detail. Each inhabitant of the anthill works for the common good. But did you know that there are a huge number of varieties of these insects? And some of them are very dangerous.
African army ants got their name because of their behavior. They do not create their anthill in a certain place, but lead a nomadic lifestyle, migrating in colonies from one area to another.
The movement of the column takes place during the daytime. In 1 hour, ants are able to overcome from 100 to 300 m. The width of the column can reach 15 m. Then it narrows, forming a sort of tail, the length of which can stretch up to 45 m.
Nomadic ants, moving in whole colonies, sweep away everything in their path. These insects are dangerous for both animals and humans. very painful, and can cause an allergic reaction in a person, and this, in turn, can lead to anaphylactic shock and suffocation.
Insect habitats
Nomadic ants are found not only in Africa. The habitat of these insects is the tropics. Therefore, you can see them on the two American continents, in Central and South Asia. Insects like tropical and subtropical climates.
Description of the species
The number of the colony can reach 22 million individuals. The largest is the uterus. Its length during the laying period is 5 cm, which is a record among various kinds of ants. The uterus is capable of producing a huge number of individuals, so the number of the colony does not decrease. Some insects die, but new army ants immediately come to their place.
Craving for migration is observed only in two subspecies:
- Ecitoninae.
- Dorylinae.
In the process of moving, soldier ants are responsible for protection, so they are concentrated on the edges of the column. Inner part occupied by workers who drag the future offspring and food.
Since the movement of the column occurs only in the daytime, at night the ants create a nest of living labor, the diameter of which is about a meter. Insects cling to each other with their paws, forming a secluded place for their queen and her offspring. To create such a nest, about 150 - 700 thousand individuals are involved.
Migration does not last long, only a few days, after which the settled phase begins, which lasts from several weeks to 3 months. During this period, the uterus lays a huge number of eggs (100 - 300 thousand) and by the end of the stay, larvae will appear from them. At the same time, adult individuals - adults - will emerge from the cocoons of the previous offspring.
Insect nutrition
The favorite delicacy of ants are insects such as:
- bee;
- termite.
The nomadic ants of the African continent also feed on carrion, and it does not matter at all whether they eat the corpse of which animal, large or small. Stray insects mercilessly absorb everything that comes their way:
- different types of insects;
- snakes;
- bird nests;
- small invertebrates;
- amphibians.
Ants pierce the victim and inject a dose of toxic, poisonous substance into it. Since the speed of insects is not too high (up to 20 km / h), weak, slow and wounded animals most often become their prey.
Do army ants have enemies?
Oddly enough, but such a dangerous insect as a nomadic ant still has an enemy - this is a praying mantis. But the organization of the ant colony is so high that even with such an enemy, insects can easily cope. Seeing the praying mantis, one of the ants rushes to him and bites his jaws, injecting poison. Even if the insect dies, the rest of the individuals, having seen such a signal, group and rebuff the offender. In this case, you will not envy the praying mantis, he is threatened with death.
Because of this collective organization of the column, no one runs the risk of hunting ants.
How long do these insects live?
Few people know that life expectancy reaches 10 - 15 years. Other individuals of the colony live much less, from 2 months to 2 years maximum. Under laboratory conditions, the lifespan of individual insects was 4 years.
Fascinating facts about roaming ants
- Nomadic killer ants, carrying a mortal danger to humanity, are a complete fiction created by the film industry. Of course, insect bites are a big threat to people who are allergic to toxic substances, but not a single case of human death has been recorded. Therefore, calling nomad ants killers would be unfair.
- These insects are excellent orderlies. They clean agricultural plantations from various pests.
- On the African continent, army ants are the most dangerous predators.
- Insects are able to follow in the footsteps of their relatives.
- Ants have no vision at all, but they have a well-developed hearing.
- The queen in the colony has no rights. Her task is to breed new offspring.
- The peoples of Central Africa leave their homes and take their livestock away as soon as there is information that a column of ants is moving in the direction of their settlement.
- If the army ants move in the direction of the prison, then the prisoners who have not committed serious crimes and are not sentenced to death are released for the duration of the insect invasion.
Varieties of dangerous ants
In our regions, we often meet ants, but they do not pose a danger to people, which cannot be said about some varieties living in a tropical climate. There are species that contain aggressive poison. The following are considered dangerous:
- Siafu are nomadic army ants. Habitat - Australia. Insects have powerful jaws. As with other species of wandering ants, there is no permanent anthill. Insects build a bivouac (temporary dwelling), which consists of the bodies of workers. Bites are dangerous to humans, as they can cause allergies.
- Bullet ants. These insects have a very strong poison - ponerotoxin. The bite delivers a terrible pain that does not subside during the day. This type of insect is found in the tropics and subtropics of the South American continent. The Indian tribes used these ants for initiation ceremonies. The young man was attached to a bracelet, which was hung with insects. The ants bit the boy, after which his limbs were paralyzed for 2-3 days, and the bites turned black. The worst thing is that the young man must go through this execution 20 times, and only after that he can be considered a real man.
- Fiery. This species of ants is very dangerous for humans. In one year, about 20 deaths were recorded after a bite that caused a severe allergic reaction. Habitat: Asia, southern Europe and America. Ants easily adapt to environment populating unknown territories. The poison is called solenopsin. The bite feels like the pain of a burn, it provokes the formation of a tumor.
- A large insect that is very poisonous. Three out of a hundred bitten experienced anaphylactic shock. It is very difficult to predict what the body's reaction to such a poison will be, because it is very different in its own way. chemical composition from toxins contained in the sting of bees and wasps.
Nomadic ants, the description of which was discussed in the article, are really amazing representatives of the animal world. Their organization and well-coordinated work can only be envied.
The ant family is by far the most evolutionarily advanced. They live in colonies in which self-organization and division of labor are clearly traced. Ant individuals have a special "language", which allows them to convey complex information, as well as a smell that allows them to determine the belonging of individual individuals to a particular family. In nature, they maintain a symbiotic balance with other insect species, plants, bacteria, and fungi.
Today, science knows more than 14 thousand varieties of ants, 300 of which live in Russia. Not all of them are harmless to humans, and their population is increasing every year, so it is recommended to know as much as possible about them, especially when ants are constantly trying to take root in a house or apartment.
What are ants and what is their role in nature
Despite the beneficial ecological and agricultural features of ants, they can still harm humans by settling in human habitation. Of the large number of varieties of ants, you should be aware of the most dangerous for humans that live in nature and venomous bites which can be fatal to sensitive people.
ant family
Despite different kinds ants, all of them do not live as separate individuals, but build common Home- an anthill, within which they multiply their population. In each of these ant settlements, ants are divided into groups that perform a specific task.
The colonial way of life of these insects contributes to the subsequent division of one anthill into several others. They often build their dwellings deep in the soil, in rotten wood, under small rocky rocks, and can also settle in the foundation of a house, under floors, in the outer cracks of walls.
The most dangerous ants
Dangerous ants are often referred to as killers. Killer ants are not fiction, but scientific proof of the existence of such insects that can lead to a fatal outcome for a person, allergy sufferers are more at risk. But this does not mean that other people may not suffer from their bites.
Poisonous ant populations include the following varieties:
There are legends among people that cannibal ants are the most dangerous. However, this is just a myth. Ants don't eat people. Their dangerous species can bite a person, due to the many bites and a large number ant poison, he can die. Small children are at risk of being bitten by hordes of ants.
The biggest ants in the world
People are afraid not only poisonous properties ants, but also their size. Not all types of ants in nature are small insects. The most gigantic of them are represented by the following types:
The smallest ants
The smallest individuals from the family of ant insects are house ants that settle in people's houses and apartments: pharaoh ants and small red ants (they are also called brown ants). They are attracted to any food waste. Often they settle near the trash. The size of their bodies is 2-4 mm, males are winged. They are big problem for residents, because they can settle in furniture, floors, foundations and even household appliances. It is very difficult to fight him, one apartment can be one big anthill with many hidden passages and nests.
Pharaoh ants can enter an apartment from neighboring housing, from the street through windows, with things or products brought. House ants are large colonial hordes, the neighborhood with which is not something pleasant.
At home, ants with wings can also start. Flying individuals are not some special kind of ants, they are just flying females and males, which have a so-called mating season. Flying ant specimens signify that somewhere in human habitation the development of an anthill is soon planned. The wing is food for the female after she has laid her eggs. But the males die after the fertilization of the females. 
Pharaoh ants and redheads can annoy residents for years, the only effective method to combat them - the use of toxic agents - sprays, powders, mixtures, gels, aerosols, boric acid. The process of struggle is quite long, because the effectiveness of the methods of struggle depends on the rate of death of the queen of the anthill.
Ant populations are very large, some species interbreed with others, and sometimes it is very difficult to determine which species they belong to.
- In nature, a spider was recently discovered exactly similar to an ant. But the fact that this is not an ant is indicated by eight legs instead of six. Such spiders make their way into anthills as scouts. An excellent disguise of such a spider is not distinguished even by ants.
- Not all ants build their homes in tree trunks and in the ground. Ants, called weavers, make their homes on the branches of trees, stitching the leaves with cobwebs that the larvae secrete into a large cocoon. The weight of such an ant nest can reach three to five kilograms.
Ants against termites
In nature, there are both small red ants, medium and large red and black, brown, and a white wingless "ant". This is what termites look like. What is most interesting, they have nothing to do with ants, although they are similar in appearance to them, they are direct relatives of cockroaches. Termites are a treat for ants.
Associated with small insects who spends his whole life in hard work. In most cases, they are harmless. The only danger they pose is damage to the crop or a slight redness at the bite site, which quickly passes. But in the world there are very dangerous representatives of this species. Killer ants are able to attack people and sting ruthlessly, putting dangerous poisons under the skin.
This type of insect is typical for tropical and subtropical latitudes, where the climate is warm and humid. The largest populations are found in Africa, the species lives in Central and Southern parts of Asia. They are also called wandering ants or siafu army ants. These are large individuals, whose body length is about 1.5 cm.
They got their name because of their characteristic way of life. Army ants do not build a stationary anthill. They are constantly changing their habitat.
Interesting!
The colony walks about 1 km daily. They move in a broad column, which gradually tapers towards the tail. Its width can reach 15 m, and length up to 45 m.
Ants nomads strictly adhere to a certain order during the procession. The edges of the column are guarded by soldier ants, closer to the middle, working individuals move, which carry food and future offspring.
The homeland of the species is South America, distributed over much larger territories and can be found in the USA and Mexico. Individuals have small size which do not exceed 6 mm. African killer ants have excellent adaptive abilities, so their distribution area is constantly increasing.
Looking at the photo of this species, attention is immediately focused on a powerful sting, which has some resemblance to a similar organ of a scorpion. They also have rather large chewing jaws, which play not only a defensive role, but also as a way to transfer food particles.
Poison ants are recognized as the most great view among relatives.
- The body length of a worker ant is 2-2.5 m. Their female grows up to 3 cm.
- The predominant habitat is South America.
- has a black-brown color.
- characteristic feature is the presence of a powerful sting, inside of which a large amount of dangerous poison is concentrated.
This species does not like to roam and prefers to equip anthills in the depths of the soil. There is enough moisture for them to produce offspring. A characteristic feature of the anthill is the simplicity of design. Wasps and spiders are used as food, as well as plant and fruit juices.
Interesting!
The bulldog ant uterus can penetrate other people's anthills and kill the true queen. After that, a new queen remains in the colony. Working individuals begin to serve her.
Bulldogs live only in the wild and are not inclined to occupy human dwellings. Once near the anthill, a person should immediately leave this place. The guards of the nest instantly give a command, and almost the entire colony goes into battle. The bites of this species are considered the most dangerous in the world. They can lead to severe anaphylactic shock, and in more severe cases, even death.
Thus, it is quite difficult to assess the danger of a bite from each species. This is due to the characteristics of the body and its resistance. In the habitats of dangerous individuals, warning and education of local residents about possible dangers and precautions is always carried out.
Most dangerous ants in the world February 8th, 2018
At the word ant, almost everyone will have a picture of an ordinary small, black ant of small size, well, or of its red forest counterpart.
However, among the large number of these insects, there are also ants that, despite their small size, are able to sow horror and panic not only among people, but also among animals. We are talking about an army ant soldier.
The most dangerous ants in the world are army ants, which are found in the beds of the Amazon River, in Asia and Africa. The size of such ants ranges from 12 mm to 3 cm. The body of these dangerous ants has a yellow-gray color and is covered with many hairs. They have sword-like stingers half the size of their bodies. Army ants are aggressive and completely blind. Everything that they meet on the way turns into small pieces. They do not see or feel the size of prey and attack everything that moves.
The name "army ant" comes from the fact that a thousand-strong colony never sits still. Their movement stops only when the queen lays eggs. While she lays them, the ants are looking for food for future offspring. When small ants appear, these dangerous ants continue the movement of the column further.
In their own way, these insects unique creations nature. They do not need any anthills, and they do not build them, as they are insect nomads. They got their name due to the fact that about a million individuals are part of the ant colony, in fact, this is just a mobile battalion. While the queen is busy breeding offspring, the ants scour the entire area in order to provide themselves and the future generation with food.
Another feature that sets them apart from other ants is their ability to use their bodies to create organic architectural structures. Clinging to each other, they form any structure that will be used for the benefit of the entire colony. These are not only living "walls" that protect offspring and their queen from bad weather, but also bridges that make it possible to overcome any obstacle.
reproduction
When the time comes for the queen to lay eggs, the number of which can reach several thousand, the entire ant colony stops for a halt. After small larvae are born from the eggs, the column, carefully lifting them, again begins its movement, bringing death and ruin on its way.
army ant food
This type of ant eats everything that comes in its way. It is especially terrible that, due to their blindness, they attack even the victim that exceeds their size by a thousand times. An animal that comes across on the way, which did not realize in time to leave the road, or just sleeping, they attack at once with the whole detachment. Thus, the victim does not even have time to understand what is happening, is dismembered and eaten alive. These insects do not require poisonous stings or the use of ballistic acid, they act on the psyche of the animal, causing him boundless panic.
If scientists are to be believed, then ant soldiers do this not because they are very hungry, but simply because everything that comes in their way is presented to them as a threat to the existence of the entire colony.
army ant enemies
After the above, it is probably difficult to imagine that these insects can have enemies. To date, no such information is available.
Are army ants dangerous to humans?
There is evidence that a colony of these ants ate animals the size of a horse. Army ants inspire fear and horror on the inhabitants of Africa, as they destroy everything in their path. They even learned how to make bridges out of themselves to get across the river. These giant ants eat poultry, rats. People find tied horses and dogs dead. It is terrible even to imagine what will happen to a person if such an army is encountered. They eat a large animal in about 6-7 days.
The use of army ants in medicine.
In Africa, army ants are used as surgical clamps. They are brought to the edge of the wound, the ants bite through it, after which the body of the ant is cut off, and the jaws connect the edges until the wound heals.
To date, it is still not known exactly how many species of ants exist in the world, but scientists can confidently state that army ants are the most dangerous ants in the world.
Sources:
In their fight against "harmful" insects, people do much more harm to themselves than those with whom they fight.
Ants are social insects of the stinging Hymenoptera suborder, the closest relatives of wasps and bees, but not all species have a sting and poisonous glands. It is thanks to their remarkable ability to cooperate that ants have become the dominant group of arthropods. In warm countries, on 1 hectare of land, you can count up to 20 million individuals of these ever-hurrying, businesslike creatures.
More than 10,000 ant species are distributed throughout the globe, except for the Far North and Antarctica. The most interesting, diverse and highly organized of them live in the tropics, but in Russia there are also some "ant wise men". For example, red wood ants (Formica rufa) are an inexhaustible source of research and discovery. Surely you have seen their magnificent anthills in our forests, where little red-haired workaholics participate in soil formation and save plants from caterpillars.
Ant Wars
A few paces away from me, among the dense vegetation, a black mass appeared on the ground: ants were advancing. These predators, ants-ecitons, destroy all living things in their path.
Arkady Fidler . Call of the Amazon
If Europe manages to get along more or less peacefully next to the ants, then the United States is less fortunate. As recently as yesterday, you threw a sugar bowl on the floor in horror at the sight of yellow pharaoh ants (Monomorium pharaonis) and urgently called the insect extermination company? What a trifle these your worries are compared to the long-term war between the USA and red fire ants (Solenopsis invicta)!
Dangerous invaders were accidentally brought by sea to the United States from South America in the early 1900s, when an active cattle trade was established. Since the climatic conditions turned out to be favorable, and there were no and could not be natural enemies on foreign land, after a few years the fire ants multiplied in incredible numbers. They "captured" more and more territories, moving from Alabama to California. Small fiery creatures mercilessly stung farmers, erected anthills in the path of mowers and undermined the image of an omnipotent capitalist power.
In fact, the Americans suffered much more from the poison of wasps and bees, but now the USDA had a good reason to launch "heavy artillery" against fire ants. Pesticides of the Mirex brand were sprayed throughout the southeast of the United States from numerous helicopters and began to wait for the results ... The first to sound the alarm was the biologist, founder of the global environmental movement, Rachel Carson, who later described all the vicissitudes of this war in her bestseller " Silent spring (Silent spring, 1962). “Who has the right to decide for all of us,” she indignantly, “what is the highest value is a world without insects, a barren world, not even adorned with the wing of a flying bird?” Rachel turned out to be right after eating Mirex-flavored worms, all migratory thrushes disappeared, and in 1976 it was convincingly proven that these chemicals are dangerous to humans and are a heart toxin. Perhaps Carson herself was a victim of cancer-causing pesticides—she died two years after the book was published.
By the way, in the USSR there were also attempts to use Mirex, but not on such a large scale.
chemical question
A mortal did not win victories over the sky.
Everyone in a row is devoured by the earth-eater.
Are you still whole? And brag about it?
Wait: you'll get the ants for dinner!
Omar Khayyam. Rubaiyat
By the 1990s, fire ants, unlike thrushes, had recovered and expanded their populations. And now they are interested not only in newborn chicks, but also in wires, air conditioners, traffic lights and other electrical appliances that they disable, causing economic damage to the United States in the amount of $ 6 billion a year. The description of the great "ant confrontation" is included in many essays and scientific works on ecology, in particular, in 2004, the "detective" work of Joshua Bus was published ( Joshua Blu Buhs. The Fire Ant Wars), which once again reminds of possible consequences the use of pesticides.
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Despite the development of transgenic technologies that will help us protect our crops from codling moths and leafworms, the topic of chemicals is still one of the hottest in the world. For example, the BBC recently reported that nearly one-third of British food contains pesticides. Even more noise was made in June 2006 by the discovery of a group of scientists from the Department of Public Health at Harvard University, led by Alberto Ascherio (Alberto Ascherio). It has been shown that pesticides used in agriculture increase the risk of developing Parkinson's disease by 70%. Based on this discovery, Mrs. Bertrand Couderc, a lawyer for a certain agricultural worker, was able for the first time in France to prove that his illness was an occupational disease and to achieve substantial financial compensation for her ward.
Perhaps, with the help of the fashionable theme of the far-fetched danger of genetically modified organisms, they are trying to distract us from a more real threat? For me, the "chemical question" will always be relevant, since I myself have experienced the effects of chemicals. When I was 13 years old, we moved to a town not far from one of the oldest cities in Siberia, Usolye-Sibirskoye. It always seemed to me that Siberia with its wonderful green taiga is the lungs of Russia. How wrong I was! Almost every morning our houses were covered with a thick cloud of chlorine, and after a few months from a cheerful and healthy child I have become a stunted creature. Then I did not know who was to blame and to whom I should turn my hatred. But for sure they could breathe normally and did not know terrible word"asthma". I was urgently sent to Kyrgyzstan to my grandmother, and I was saved, which cannot be said about some other children who became disabled. They say that at present the ecological situation in Siberia has improved only because many chemical industries are idle due to the economic crisis. But back to our "great and terrible" ants.
As tempting as it was to launch a "chemical attack" on the ants, the USDA has shifted from pesticides to more sophisticated strategic developments. Thus, natural enemies of fire ants, humpback flies from the genus Phoridae, have already been imported from South America, which lay their eggs in the body of a living Solenopsis invicta. The developing larva eventually decapitates the ant with the help of a special enzyme. In South America, one can often observe how humpbacks swarm over ant colonies, and their larvae, hiding behind a mask from the head of an ant, brazenly “walk” along with Hymenoptera.
And the fight goes on again
The ants had no doubt spotted the arsonists and were chasing them. They ran faster than people, and the distance between the one and the other was getting smaller and smaller.
Vladimir Obruchev. plutonium
No one wants to go through the sad experience of the United States, but until scientists have invented a biofilter like the one shown in the movie "A Sound of Thunder" (A Sound of Thunder), no one is immune from invasions of South American ants. So, in March 2006, Israel was attacked by the army of the same militant Solenopsis invicta. Creepy photos of Israeli crabs covered in fire ants have been circulating around the world, and "Beware of ants" warnings have appeared on beaches. In Australia, frightened environmentalists are fighting the "crazy" yellow ants Anoplolepis gracilipes, which inject acid into the eyes of local defenseless lizards and chicks and threaten to destroy endemic fauna. They are trying to fight them with the help of a special insecticide "Fipronil" mixed into food balls that are attractive only to ants of this species.
Russia, with its cool climate, is not a very nice place for tropical "barbarians", however, a fire ant Solenopsis savissima var. has already been found in one of the Moscow hospitals. Richteri. If we accept on faith the hypothesis of some pessimistic scientists, in particular, Mike Pilling (Mike Pilling) from the University of Lind West Yorkshire, in 100200 years the climate in Europe will become incredibly warmer. Probably, it will be pleasant to harvest two or three crops a year, but nothing else will prevent heat-loving ants from conquering new territories.Some tropical ants can bring an unadapted European to a heart attack with one of their own. appearance What will happen if they come to visit you? In the jungles of Southeast Asia, I saw colonies of ants a meter (!) wide that swept through the grass like giant black waves. Tourists fled away, and only naturalists like me looked at this riot of life with great pleasure. And the point here is not courage, but knowledge of the habits of insects most ants do not at all look for meetings with a person and rush at him only when the “destroyer” approaches the nest. The most dangerous are South American and African wandering ants, which sweep away everything in their path, and people have to leave villages or build a fire barrier around their houses.
In Search of Solomon's Ring
So ants, colliding somewhere,
rub their stigmas to find out
maybe about booty or about the path.
But only a moment, the embrace of friendship lasts.
Dante Alighieri. The Divine Comedy. Purgatory. XXVI song
Is there a way to protect yourself from Hymenoptera invasions? Probably, the study of the behavior of social insects will help us in this. When crowds of hungry leeches or mosquitoes attack you, you have to flee, but ants are more highly organized creatures, so why not negotiate with them! As the prominent ethologist and Nobel laureate Konrad Z. Lorenz used to say: “I have every reason to believe that Solomon really could talk with animals, and even without the help of a magic ring, the possession of which is attributed to him by legend.”
The so-called hypothetical language of ants is still too complicated for human understanding, but experiments to decipher it have been going on for a long time. This language, most likely, consists of a complex of smells (pheromones), gestures (limb movements) and antennal contacts. The most popular object for studying the “linguistics” of insects is honey bees, relatives of ants. It was on them that the Austrian zoologist Karl von Frisch, who received the Nobel Prize in 1973, proved the existence of a symbolic language of dances. The final confirmation of the presence of "language" abilities in bees was received in the early 1990s by an engineer from Denmark, Bent Bach Andersen. He conducted a truly amazing experiment, creating an artificial robotic bee that gave commands to real bees where to fly for nectar. And they did it! Such experiments are incredibly difficult for a number of reasons. For example, bees from different localities have different dialects, much like people from different republics.
But this does not prevent us from dreaming how convenient it would be to learn to “speak” to ants: “Danger! Everyone get out of this area immediately!" A less fantastic way to deal with ants is to synthesize the smell of ant enemies and introduce it into the anthill. Insects will no longer distinguish who is theirs and who is a stranger, and will arrange a "fratricidal" war. Similar experiments are already being conducted at the University of California at Irvine (UC Irvine) on the Argentine ants Linepithema humile, also imported from South America and crowding out local arthropods. A group of scientists led by Neil Tsutsui managed to obtain a substance that "Argentines" perceive as a label of ants of another species.
Unless they know how to embroider with a cross
Is there anything in the world more beautiful than an ant? The lines of his body are clean and curved, the aerodynamics are perfect He looks like an Italian racing car.
Bernard Werber. Ants
If we forget about the ant wars, in which man himself is guilty, then the civilization of ants is the most interesting object for peaceful study and contemplation. Try one day to watch the "ant wise men", and very soon such a hobby can grow into something more. The simplest and most innocuous experiment to detect ant "intelligence" is this: place a low candle on the dome of the "house" of red wood ants, and you will find that they are able to put out the fire with the help of well-aimed shots of formic acid.
The mysterious behavior of insects gave rise to and new fashion Some European pet stores sell special formicaria (something like strong terrariums) with small colonies of ants inside. In Russia, this hobby is only in its infancy, but there are already special clubs for ant lovers. Here you can discuss what to feed your pets and how to keep them. So, many ants die after eating mayonnaise or sausage, but live happily ever after if they are fed fresh honey. The fact that ants are no less gourmets than people, I was convinced on September 8, 2006 at a book fair in Moscow, talking with science fiction and insect lover Bernard Werber.
Tell me, how do you know such details of the life of an ant civilization? Did you really watch them or is everything written fantasy? I asked this kindest Frenchman.
I moved a small anthill to the courtyard of my house and watched the insects with pleasure. What angered me the most was that they didn't want to eat anything but caviar! After completing the research, I took them back to the forest.
Fortunately, people have an interest in ants not only gastronomic. Ants are the best in many ways, and it would be nice to learn something from them. For example, if you carry out simple mathematical calculations, it turns out that ants run faster than people. That is, if they were our size, they would reach a speed of 80 km / h. In addition to unprecedented speeds, these insects also demonstrate the phenomenon of longevity. Usually the anthill is renewed every year, but some females live up to 10-20 years. Perhaps the secret of their longevity is in the ant "state system"? The architectural talents of these small insects cannot but arouse admiration.
Many human corporations are affectionately called "anthills", but how can we compete with ants! Any human firm is unstable, since some "worker" will sooner or later begin to weave intrigues and try to take the place of the "queen". With ants, such blasphemy is impossible, since there are certain castes from birth, and all workers are underdeveloped females who will never become queens. Among the ants there are also slave owners, for example, Amazon ants (Polyergos rufescens), stealing the pupae of other ant species. If you are lucky and you meet Amazon ants in the southern part of the Moscow region, be sure to watch them. Their robbery trips to neighboring anthills are a breathtaking sight. The most curious thing is that the slaves who do all the work for the Amazons will never find out about their origin and will not charge the enslavers with racism.
In the animated film "The ant bully" (The ant bully), spiritualized ants demonstrate the miracles of cooperation build living "bridges" and "ladders" to cross the gorge, confer, develop a war strategy. Do you think these are all fairy tales? Some species are really capable of such tricks, for example, wandering ecitonic ants (genus Eciton) are constantly wandering and have to overcome many obstacles. For some reason, thousands of ants constructing pontoon bridges from their own bodies do not surprise me. Now, if we saw such miracles of mutual assistance among people somewhere in the center of Moscow, at rush hour, it would be a sensation. What do you think?
