There are an estimated 11,000 species of ant in the world, approximately 50 of which live in the UK. They do not have ears translating vibrations felt with their feet into sound and with no lungs or noses, they breathe through tiny holes in their abdomen and smell with their antennae. All ants live in colonies each with its own smell so that intruders can be recognised immediately and dealt with. They have a complex social network of sterile females who literally do all the work, drones who do nothing but mate with the queen and the queen who is nothing more than an egg laying machine. On warm humid days in summer winged males and females take to the air. This happens at the same time in all colonies in the same area as a form of protection, hoping to overwhelm insect eating birds by their sheer numbers. After mating on the wing the males die whilst the pregnant females (the new queens) lose their wings and burrow underground to start a new colony. The hardest part of the ant’s life now begins. The young queens must raise the first generation of workers alone. They cannot forage for food so when the first eggs hatch they feed the larvae with a fluid created from the breakdown of their own muscles. By the time the first workers emerge they have lost half their body weight and are very weak. These first workers set about foraging for food whilst nursing their queen back to health. Worker ants find food by sending out scouts who lay down scent trails for the others to follow but also communicate by touching, tapping and feeling one another with their bodies and antennae. They have 2 stomachs, one which holds food for themselves and one with food to be shared. Black ants will eat anything including sugars, vegetables, other insects which includes ants and plants. They milk aphids encouraging them to produce the sugary honeydew by stroking them with their antennae. They also protect them from predators and carry them to new feeding areas when their food becomes depleted. They probably also take some aphids underground over winter, some of which may well be eaten. The colony continues to grow over several years until it typically contains between 4000 – 7000 workers. The queen will then start to lay the eggs that will be the drones and new queens. Queens live for 15 – 20 years while the workers for just 40 – 60 days.
Did You Know?
- Ants appeared on earth 100 million years before any backboned animals.
- Ants from differentcolonies, even within the same species, treat each other as enemies. They use their jaws ‘mandibles’ to hold the legs or antennae of an enemy ant while nest mates tear the victim apart.
- Black ants are important soil engineers, mixing it up and increasing its fertility.
- The ant’s sense of smell is as good as a dogs.
- They can lift 20 times their own body weight which is the equivalent of a small car for us.
- This species is essential for the conservation of the declining populations of the Silver-Studded Blue Butterfly on heathland as they protect the butterfly’s caterpillars from predators in return for feeding on secretions specially produced by the caterpillars.