Ants!Posted by
Elizabeth on Jul 7, '09 8:40 AM for everyone
Ants have been living on the Earth for more than 100 million years and can be found almost anywhere on the planet. It is estimated that there are about 20,000 different species of ants. For this reason ants have been called Earth's most successful species.
Ants have three main parts. The head, the trunk(middle section), and the rear or metasoma. All six legs are attached to the trunk. At the end of each leg is a sharp claw that helps ants climb and hang onto things. The metasoma contains the stomach and rectum.and have a poison sack. Ants are closely related to wasps and other stinging insects. Many types of ants have stingers and can inflict a very painful sting. This is a useful way to defend against the many predators ants have. The head consists of the jaws (two strong pinchers which are used to carry food, to dig, and to defend. Just inside the mouth is a small pocket where ants can store food). The eyes of ants are made up of many lenses enabling them to see movement very well.eyes, and The antennae are special organs of smell, touch, taste, and hearing. (The feelers are special organs of smell that help ants communicate, pick up these smells as signals).
Their skeleton is on the outside - not covered by skin, muscles, and tissue like humans. Inside Ants do not have lungs. Oxygen enters through tiny holes all over the body and Carbon Dioxide leaves through the same holes. There are no blood vessels. The heart is a long tube that pumps colorless blood from the head back to the rear and then back up to the head again. The blood kind of coats the insides of the ants and is then sucked into the tube and pumped up to the head again. The nervous system of ants consists of a long nerve cord that also runs from head to rear with branches leading to the parts of the body, kind of like a human spinal cord.
Ants build many different types of homes. Many ants build simple little mounds out of dirt or sand. Other ants use small sticks mixed with dirt and sand to make a stronger mound that offers protection from rain. Western Harvester ants make a small mound on top, but then tunnel straight down to hibernate during winter. Ant mounds consist of many chambers connected by tunnels. Different chambers are used for nurseries, food storage, and resting places for the worker ants. Some ants live in wood like termites. Army ants don't make a home at all but travel in large groups searching for food.
Ants are social insects, which means they live in large colonies or groups. Some colonies consist of millions of ants. There are three types of ants in each species, the queen, the sterile female workers, and males. The male ants only serve one purpose, to mate with future queen ants and do not live very long. The queen grows to adulthood, mates, and then spends the rest of her life laying eggs. A colony may have only one queen, or there may be many queens depending on the species. Ants go through four stages of development: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.