The composition describing ants is 400 words

Ants are the most common insects on the earth and the largest number of insect species. Because all kinds of ants are social groups, they were called "ants" in ancient times. According to the classification of modern morphology, ants can be divided into ants and termites.

There are many kinds of ants, of which more than 9,000 are known in the world and more than 600 have been identified in China. Ants live a long life. Worker ants can live for a few weeks to 3-7 years, and queens can live for more than ten years or decades. An ant nest can grow in 1 place for several years or even more than 50 years.

It belongs to Arthropoda, Insecta, Hymenoptera and Formicidae.

The shape of ants is divided into three parts: chest and abdomen, and has six legs. Ant eggs are about 0.5 mm long, irregular oval, milky white, and worker ants are smaller, about 2.8 mm long and brown all over. It is easy to find a single ant by careful observation. Both male and female ants are bulky. The abdomen is obese, the head and chest are brown, the first half of the abdomen is brown, and the second half is brown. Male ants are about 5.5 mm long. The female ant is about 6.2 mm in length.

sociobiology

Ants are typical social insects, which have three elements of social insects, that is, individuals of the same species can cooperate with each other to take care of their larvae; There is a clear division of labor; At least several generations in the ant colony overlap, and future generations can take care of the previous generation for a while.

life cycle

A typical nest contains 1 reproductive female ant (queen), a large number of worker ants and their offspring. Male birds don't exist in nests all year round, and different kinds of male birds have different seasons. In the right season and climate, males in different nests of the same species will mate with new unfertilized females. Most species build new ant nests by flying in marriage; But some species fly without marriage and mate on the ground or vegetation. After mating, the males die one after another, and the wings of the fertilized females soon fall off.

At the initial stage of each nest, there are only winged females and males. After mating, wingless female ants (female ants whose wings have been removed by glue) can make 1 earth room to bury themselves under suitable conditions, or hide themselves in other holes and then prepare to lay eggs. Female ants don't always do the above work alone like bees. Some species use several newly mated females to build new nests.

Female ants generally do not eat during the development of the first offspring, and only rely on unused flying muscles and degradation products of energy reserves in the body to produce yolk in the ovary. Some female ants can't eat every year/kloc-0. Eggs usually take weeks or even months to produce. As soon as the eggs hatch, the female ants feed their larvae with saliva. The first offspring are worker ants, which are usually weaker and smaller after development. These worker ants burst out as soon as they were unearthed. Looking for food for myself and my mother. Female ants continue to lay eggs and reproduce after feeding; Worker ants will undertake all the work of maintaining the whole colony of ants' nests, and bear the heavy responsibility of raising offspring. The second batch of worker ants are bigger and stronger. In this way, the population in the ant nest expands rapidly, and the ant nest also expands.

Female ants without wings usually reproduce in this way. However, some female ants without wings do not build new nests, but still return to their old nests and become one of many queens; Some female ants without wings enter another nest of the same kind that has been built as queen ants; Some will enter other kinds of nests and destroy the original queens. Eventually, the host worker ants will die, which is called temporary social parasitism. Some female ants without wings also enslave workers who occupy their nests. These worker ants are called ant slaves.

When the number of nests and ant colonies increases to a certain extent, female ants begin to produce fertilized eggs (diploids). After special care and special food, these eggs will develop into a new generation of reproductive female ants, while unfertilized eggs (haploids) will develop into male ants. This situation varies from species to species.

The mated female ants can survive for more than 20 years, and 1 female ant can carry 320 million sperm cells. However, worker ants can usually survive for 3 years without being abnormally affected by other biological or abiotic factors.

The season when ants leave their nests. Generally, April-165438+10 in the south, and June, July and August in the north are the peak seasons for ant activities. As winter approaches, ants gradually slow down and don't like activities, and concentrate in the upper nest room. During the wintering period, the freezing point of organs and tissues of ants decreases, and their muscle activities hardly produce heat or feed. Most kinds of ants don't store food like other insects before overwintering, but some ants still have storage hobbies, such as harvesting ants.

(2) Food

Ants are usually omnivores, and their main food is some terrestrial arthropods, including spiders, millipedes, centipedes and insects. Another protein source of ants is feeding on the larvae of other ants. Ants also suck the juice of plants. Honeydew secreted by insects such as aphids, scale insects and horned cicadas is also a favorite food for ants.

(3) Ant nest

Ants build nests in various forms.

Ant nests are places where ants feed their offspring, resist adverse external environmental influences and prey on natural enemies. They can be divided into the following types:

1, no nested type

Most kinds of marching ants, strict family and double-jointed marching ant subfamily, lack permanent ant nests and just gather together to camp; When camping, older and stronger worker ants are at the outermost edge of the ant colony, followed by young worker ants, and female ants and young ants are at the innermost edge. These ants usually choose to camp in the gap between the roots or thick branches and the soil.

2. Nesting in soil

There are the most kinds of ants nesting in soil, and the structure of ant nests in soil changes greatly. Some nests are very simple, with only 1 exit on the ground and only three parts under the soil, namely, garbage dump, nest room and main larval rearing room. Some ant nests are complex in structure, with main and auxiliary channels, and the channels in the nest are criss-crossed, with multiple ant nest rooms, larval feeding rooms and queen rooms; After the ant colony expands, this nest can be built from the ground into a decaying pile.

3. Nest type of ant plants

Many ants in tropical and subtropical regions often use existing holes or gaps to build nests on favorite plants, which are called ant plant nests.

4, wood nest and paper nest type

Wooden nest mainly refers to the nest built by ants through cutting piles, lodging wood segments and other materials.

5. Hanging nest type

Hanging nest refers to the ant nest hanging or attached to the upper branches of plants, which is slightly similar to the third kind of ant nest, but this kind of ant nest is built by ants through complex division of labor and cooperation, mainly including mud nest and silk nest. The silk nest is strong and not easy to break. Some species use worker ants to grab soil and climb trees, and use soil, leaves and worker ant saliva to form mud nests.

(D) hierarchy and social division of labor

According to the shape, behavior and social division of labor, ants can be divided into three basic levels: male ants, female ants (queens) and worker ants. At present, there are six widely used grade names:

1. Male ants: Most kinds of male individuals don't take part in labor, just accept food from their companions, wait for their marriage and fly, and then die.

2. Queen: refers to a fully developed female reproductive ant, which has the chest structure and two pairs of wings of Hymenoptera; Two pairs of wings were taken off after the wedding flight. Queen ants are sometimes called female ants.

3. Worker ant: refers to a female ant without reproductive ability, with partial or complete ovarian degeneration and no seminal vesicle. Some ants, such as worker ants, fire ants and bowback ants, can be divided into several subtypes according to the size of their bodies (mainly heads): large worker ants, medium worker ants and small worker ants. Large worker ants are called soldier ants if they are mainly engaged in war and defense work.

4. Worker ant-female ant: it is between worker ant and female ant in shape, and it mostly occurs in parasitic species and evolutionary species with or without seminal vesicle. Their bellies are often not as big as normal queens, their chests are simple, and some of them have very small wings.

5. Sex worker ants: At present, it is found that in many fierce ant species, female ants are replaced by sex worker ants. Sex worker ants have the morphological structure of worker ants, but they have the same reproductive ability as queens.

6. Abdominal ants: The 1 grade is formed by the extremely huge hindquarters of worker ants and female ants. Can be seen as a twisted queen ant.

Generally speaking, almost all kinds of ants will change their behavior with age. Young workers are often engaged in feeding and cleaning in the nest, while older workers are looking for food, defending and building nests outside the nest.

(5) communication of ants

Ants have a unique way of information exchange, so their individuals can get to know each other in many ways.

Chemical communication is the basic way for ants to exchange information. Chemical pheromones are "queen pheromones" released by the maxillary glands of queen ants and quasi-female ants, also known as "queen substances". This kind of "queen substance" is distributed in the ant colony, which can inhibit the development of worker ants' ovaries and reproductive system, and make worker ants specialize in all the work inside and outside the colony except spawning. Secondly, the secretion of worker ants' main glands plays a defensive and alarm role, which is also called alarm pheromone. There is a rectal gland near the rectum of worker ants, which can secrete tracer hormones and mix them in feces to mark the territory of ant colonies. Abdominal gland secretions play a role in locating close objects. There is a Duchenne gland near the poison sac, and its secretion plays an alarm and summoning role, and is often secreted from the sting together with the venom.

The visual signals of ants are often mixed with chemical communication signals. Ants with big compound eyes have good eyesight, can see objects several meters away, and are particularly sensitive to moving objects. After finding food, you can ask your companions to gather quickly where there is food.

In addition, ants can exchange information among individuals through certain activities, such as touching, touching, tasting, grabbing, moving back and forth quickly, nudging and so on.

(6) Ant guest and slave

In the ant nest, you can often see other kinds of insects inhabiting. Generally, beetles are the main species, such as buried insects and pseudo-beetle. These insects that live together in ant colonies are called ants. Symbiotic ants often feed on the eggs and larvae of ants, and also learn to master the chemical information system in the ant colony, and exist as a member of the ant colony for a long time. Workers in the ant colony can also enjoy the sweet secretion from the ant guest's body. Ant-guest phenomenon not only appears in the ant nest, but also often has a mutually beneficial relationship with other insects in the territory outside the range of ant colony activities, such as aphids secreting sweet juice for worker ants to eat, and worker ants protecting aphids from enemies. Some caterpillars are also protected by worker ants by secreting sweet juice.

Ant slave refers to the phenomenon that one ant enslaves another ant to work or find food for this group. Slaves are also called ant workers, and enslaved people are called slaves. For example, China's round-jawed leaf-cutting ants and's enslaved paving ants use paving ants to steal food from other ant colonies, or help major ants attack intruders.

Small house ant

Worker ants are 2.2-2.4 mm long, yellowish to yellowish brown, and sometimes reddish; Distributed all over the world, more than 300 species have been described, some of which are distributed in warm areas. They are small in size and reproduce quickly, and usually live in the environment where human beings live.

Diseases and hazards spread by ants

Male and female ants generally live in the depths of caves, and mainly workers come out to feed and do harm.

(1) Brown domestic ants can harass people. Especially harassing children and seriously ill patients. Ants eat pus and phlegm, and they can also eat dead bodies in funeral homes. Because ants crawl on infectious objects, such as used surgical dressings and toilets, they can mechanically carry various microorganisms, such as typhoid fever, dysentery, Yersinia pestis and possibly anthrax.

(2) Because ants are often attracted to food, ants are in danger of carrying germs to food. Ants bite people, especially patients. It can also cause neonatal umbilical cord infection and septicemia.

(3) Ants can damage some parts of the house (floor, ceiling, etc.). ) Tropical ants attack people and animals, and some ants sting people. Ant is an insect that has evolved successfully. The most striking thing is that they have social habits. Ants belong to Hymenoptera and are close relatives of wasps. It is known that ants first appeared in Cretaceous, which may have evolved from primitive wasps that appeared in Jurassic. The main difference is that the tentacles of ants are obviously knee-bent, and there are one or two nodules in the abdomen, and the abdomen of wasps is a whole. Ants generally have no wings, only males and infertile females have wings when mating, and females lose their wings after mating.

Ants are completely abnormal insects, which develop into adults after the stages of eggs, larvae and pupae. Ants have no ability in the larval stage and do not need to eat. They are completely fed by worker ants, who eat food first and then spit it out to feed the larvae. Adults also exchange food in this way, and the development of larvae requires a certain temperature. Therefore, worker ants often move them around to maintain a suitable development site. Ants are generally divided into different tasks.

In the first few days, worker ants take care of queens and larvae, and then gradually begin to do more complicated work, such as digging holes and collecting food. Some kinds of worker ants are different in size, with big heads and well-developed teeth. They are usually responsible for fighting and defending ant nests, also known as soldier ants. Some species have no separate division of labor.

Generally, ants are female, but they are not responsible for fertility, only the queen ants give birth. A group of male and female ants are also cultivated in an ant nest. They don't work, they just eat and grow. They all have wings. When they mature, they fly out of the nest to mate together. After mating, the male ants die soon. Female ants find suitable places to build nests, eat wings, become queens, lay eggs and develop into new nests.

Ants communicate through the smell of secretions, which is better than other HYMENOPTERA insects because they usually live in an ant nest. If an ant finds food, it will leave the smell at home all the way, and other ants will look for food along this route and strengthen the smell continuously. If the food here is collected and no ants come back, the smell will gradually dissipate. If an ant is crushed, it will give off a strong smell, which will immediately alert other ants, and they are all in an attack state. Some kinds of ants also give off a smell to confuse the enemy.

Ants, like other insects, rely on their antennae to identify smells. The first part of the antenna is swollen, knee-shaped and very flexible. Because the antenna is a pair, it can not only distinguish the strength of the smell, but also distinguish the direction and distance of the smell source. Adults can exchange feedback food with each other, and learn about each other's health and nutritional status, found food and other information through the smell. At the same time, it can also distinguish each other from the group engaged in that task, such as digging holes to build nests or collecting food. The queen ant also constantly secretes a smell. Once this smell disappears, worker ants will breed new queens.

Ants attack or defend themselves by biting people with two big teeth. When they bite, they secrete formic acid, which will irritate the bitten wound.

There are many kinds of ants and their lifestyles are different. Some ants have a special centralized lifestyle:

There is a military ant in Africa and South America. Instead of building a fixed nest, they move in groups and eat all the insects and small animals they meet along the way. In the process of marching, worker ants use their bodies to build temporary camps for larvae and pupae. Army ants distinguish their families by smell, and any outsider will be attacked.

In the Amazon river basin, some kinds of ants specially plunder the pupae of other ants and use them as their slaves after hatching, which saves them a lot of trouble in feeding their larvae. For example, the red grazing ant (Polyergus rufescens) relies on slaves to do most of its work.

Ants can generally remove animal carcasses and loosen the soil, which is beneficial to agriculture. Some kinds of ants can prey on agricultural pests, such as Oecophylla smaragdina, which can control citrus leaf beetle, and Tetramorium guineense, which can control sugarcane borer. But there are many kinds of ants that can harm crops, protect pests, destroy buildings and even attack and bite people.

The termites that cause great damage to buildings do not belong to ants, but belong to isoptera insects, although termites have some habits similar to ants.