I was fascinated with ants colonies back in 1986 and. I observed the desert ants especially the California desert ants. Saudi deserts,and Brunei . I also observed red and black ants, mountain ants, bush and forest ants and near rivers ants.They make the hills of soft dry sands mixed with some saliva to make the opening secure and some how resistant to humidity. The entry opening can be one or multi but the direction of the ants hill grabbed my attention and I wanted to know why?
Those ants collect food and take it to the storage tunnels after cutting the part of the seeds so they do not grow inside the colony. Who taught them to do that? sure is not Darwin.
Ants help cultivate and clean our environment while most humans destroy environments.I was invited to a house belong to one of environment guru who has 3 cars ! take the plans in so many trips ,use water in his house like river flow, always have lights on in so many areas! and then i saw him spray the ants in one of the corner of his garden . I never saw him again or volunteer in any of his cause. OK lets go the the ants now. I will try here to go to the point and leave the introduction, method and history behind.
Each colony have different signature pheromones on it and on the trail , that’s why you see ants movements so nice in multiple lines back and forth following the specific pheromone that belong to their colony. If you disturb the sand on the trail they get confused but the ants will manage to add more of the signature pheromones and call for help to assist of rebuilding the trail.
I discovered that the ants hill opening always angled and direct away from the sunshine ( east). How they know , of course they sense the heat and the sunshine can kill fungus. Food fungus are the basic food that these ants eat. as fungus are singular cell and the ants can digest that. so they want to cultivate the fungus in the food chambers with out direct sunlight that kill there food supply. and also trying to protect the larva and the queen from extra heat and high temperature.I also did a control study in the lab and took pictures using electric light and rotate the light each day and observe the ants always relocate the direction of the hill opening entrance away from the light. After r/o magnetic involvements in different method. using fan as wind to see the effect of winds , but the light and heat was the primary trigger for the ants to change the direction of there hill opening.
Some of those ants bit me so hard but i kept my cool and gave them sugar and other fruit seeds. I also noticed that the red ants have almost perfect hills build up and work hard to direct the opening away from sunrise when i compare them to the black ants. This might be due to the size of the ants
AS the black ants I was observing are smaller. I wonder if red her ladies are so organized > mmm.
I studied more than 150 hills in one acre . When I dont use the light in the lab and keep them in the dark in the glass chamber the ants seem OK and they dont change the direction with fan wind or small low light. As soon as i start increasing the light density the ants recognize this as the heat source and immediately start working to change the direction of the hill entrance.
Those ants build there hills in a crescent cone shape with a tilt not just to protect there food supply from the heat and the sun light but also from desert storms and some rain. Each entrance have different pheromone sent so they ants know that this entrance for the food storage , the second for the larva and others for extra storage areas.When the storage full the ants mark the opening with another pheromone to tell the ants that there is no more room capacity and that is a different research. It will be so great to study these ants in different planets with sun rise from the west as some planet turn in opposite direction and to observe how that will effect them .These ants develop this sense over 120 million years or more and the behavior is part of there genetic make up now.
Now I leave you with some info about the ant.
Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera.
scientific name: Formicidae
Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants . More than 12,500 of an estimated total of 22,000 species have been classified.
Ants form colonies that range in size from a few dozen predatory individuals living in small natural cavities to highly organized colonies that may occupy large territories and consist of millions of individuals. Larger colonies consist mostly of sterile, wingless females forming castes of “workers”, “soldiers”, or other specialized groups. Nearly all ant colonies also have some fertile males called “drones” and one or more fertile females called “queens”. The colonies are described a super because the ants appear to operate as a unified entity, collectively working together to support the colony. Ant from germanic name. Naml in Arabic means the micro insects and it is movements called dabeeb , also means numbness and the insect with soft touch and burned bites.
The Quran has a verses for the ants and mentioned that king Solomon the prophet hear and listen to the ants talking as one of his miracle he understood what they are saying. So do ants have an ultrasound or infra sound ability that make him to hear them !?
Fossil of ants found in amber stone for millions of years .
2500 species of ants found in Africa, 2162 species were found in neotropics, 2080 in Asia, 985 in Australia, 580 in near arctic , 275 in Melanesia, and 180 to 200 in Europe
What that can tell us?
Ants are found on all continents except Antarctica, and only a few large islands, such as Greenland, Iceland, parts of Polynesia and the Hawaiian islands lack native ant species.
Ants range in size from 0.75 to 52 millimeters (0.030–2.0 in), the largest species being the fossil titanomyrma giganteum , the queen of which was 6 centimeters (2.4 in) long with a wingspan of 15 centimeters (5.9 in).
Ants vary in color; most ants are red or black, Depends on the food they eat, the area they live in, the Pheromone and the acid concentrations they have.
on the but a few species are green and some tropical species have a metallic lustre. More than 12,000 species are currently known (with upper estimates of the potential existence of about 22,000) .
Ants are distinct in their morphology from other insects in having elbows. Only reproductive ants, queens, and males, have wings. Queens shed the wings after the nuptial flight, leaving visible stubs, a distinguishing feature of queens.
Wingless queens (ergatoudis ) and males occur in a few species, however.
A new worker spends the first few days of its adult life caring for the queen and young. She then graduates to digging and other work, and later to defending the nest and foraging. ( poor man).LOL.
Mated females then seek a suitable place to begin a colony. There, they break off their wings and begin to lay and care for eggs.
The females store the sperm ,they obtain during their nuptial flight to selectively fertilize future eggs. The first workers to hatch are weak and smaller than later workers, but they begin to serve the colony immediately. They enlarge the nest, forage for food, and care for the other eggs. This is how new colonies start in most ant species.
Ant colonies can be long-lived. The queens can live for up to 30 years, and workers live from 1 to 3 years. Males, however, are more transitory, being quite short-lived and surviving for only a few weeks, POOR MALE.
Ants communicate with each other using pheromones , sounds, and touch.
YOU CAN HEAR THE ANTS SOUND HERE;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBBok55XL7Q
It is proven scientifically that ants have sound.
The use of pheromones as chemical signals is more developed in ants, such as the red harvester ant, than in other hymenopteran groups. Like other insects, ants perceive smells with their long, thin, and mobile antennae. The paired antennae provide information about the direction and intensity of scents.
Since most ants live on the ground, they use the soil surface to leave pheromone trails that may be followed by other ants.
Ants use pheromones for more than just making trails. A crushed ant emits an alarm pheromone that sends nearby ants into an attack frenzy and attracts more ants from farther away. That’s what the ants of king Solomon that mentioned in the Quran properly did using the pheromone and sound to able Solomon to hear them and avoid crushing them. Most likely an infra sound or clicks of ultrasound .
Many animals can learn behaviors by imitation, but ants may be the only group apart from mammals where interactive teaching has been observed. A knowledgeable forager of temnothorax albipennis will lead a naive nest-mate to newly discovered food by the process of tandem running. The follower obtains knowledge through its leading tutor.
Complex nests are built by many ant species, but other species are nomadic and do not build permanent structures. Ants may form subterranean nests or build them on trees. These nests may be found in the ground, under stones or logs, inside logs, hollow stems, or even acorns.
some ants make and store honey.
The materials used for construction include soil and plant matter, and ants carefully select their nest sites; Temnothorax albipennis will avoid sites with dead ants, as these may indicate the presence of pests or disease. They are quick to abandon established nests at the first sign of threats.
Some ants like to drink water, or water with sugar.
Foraging ants travel distances of up to 200 metres (700 ft) from their nest and scent trails allow them to find their way back even in the dark. In hot and arid regions, day-foraging ants face death by desiccation, so the ability to find the shortest route back to the nest reduces that risk.
some store water and take it back home
In some parts of the world (mainly Africa and South America), large ants, especially army ants are used as surgical sutures The wound is pressed together and ants are applied along it. The ant seizes the edges of the wound in its mandibles and locks in place. The body is then cut off and the head and mandibles remain in place to close the wound. Wow.
Some ants have toxic venom and are of medical importance . he species include paraponera clavata (tocandira) and Dinoponera . (false tocandiras) of South America and the Myrmecia ants of Australia.
the ant man comic books.
In south africa , ants are used to help harvest rooibos (Aspalathus linearis), which are small seeds used to make a herbal tea. The plant disperses its seeds widely, making manual collection difficult. Black ants collect and store these and other seeds in their nest,
some ants drink colorful honey
where humans can gather them en masse. Up to half a pound (200 g) of seeds may be collected from one ant-heap.
Although most ants survive attempts by humans to eradicate them, a few are highly endangered. These tend to be island species that have evolved specialized traits and risk being displaced by introduced ant species.
some plants trap and eat ants.
Roasted ants in Colombia and put to work in china ant work for human and feed human. Thailand people eat and sale ants.
Ants and their larvae are eaten in different parts of the world. The eggs of two species of ants are used in Mexican escamoles.They are considered a form of insect caviar and can sell for as much as US$ 40 per pound ($90/kg) because they are seasonal and hard to find.
In areas of India , and throughout south east Asia, a paste of the green weaver ant is served as a condiment with curry. Poor ants now , I have heard of a chicken curry but never a deep fried ants.
THE FAMOUS ANTS EATER.
Ants have often been used in fables and children’s stories to represent industriousness and cooperative effort.
They also are mentioned in religious texts. In the book of proverbs in the bible, ants are held up as a good example for humans for their hard work and cooperation. Also in the holy book of Quran a full story and verses about the ants.
In the Quran, Suliman is said to have heard and understood an ant warning other ants to return home to avoid being accidentally crushed by Suleiman and his marching army.Many birds eats ants.
In parts of Africa, ants are considered to be the messengers of the deities. Some native american mythology , such as the Hopi mythology, considers ants as the very first animals. Ant bites are often said to have curative properties. The sting of some species of Pseudo Mymex is claimed to give fever relief.
Some ants carries water back .
Ant bites are used in the initiation ceremonies of some Amazon Indian cultures as a test of endurance.
many animals ,birds and fish eat ants.
Ants also are quite popular inspiration for many science fiction books like the insectoids, and the Formics , the Bugs of Star ship troopers.
some spiders eats ants. Bears eat ants , and frogs love them.
lizards feed on them too. Chimpanzee use tools to get the ants and eat them.
some snakes also love to eat ants and larva.
Ants eats ants from different species of ants and they have wars.
ants hill show the tunnels that have worker place, the queen chamber and larva place , food storage etc.
Ants are smart hard working insects . Do not crush them when you see them , you can clean them out and find another way to clean with out killing them. They work harder than us. and they do have direction. DO YOU HAVE A DIRECTION IN LIFE? to hear the sound of the ants listen to them here.
Thank you for reading
Steve Ramsey, PhD. Calgary, Alberta- Canada.