In our article we want to talk about incredibleworkers - ants. Wherever we are, they are around us - small and inconspicuous. They live all over the Earth. Especially a lot of them in the woods. You do not have time to stop, as the legs are already crawling and biting goosebumps.
Who are the ants?
Ants are a family of insects and superfamilyanthill It should be noted that these are the most numerous representatives of the whole family. Why are these creatures so interesting? Despite their small size, they have a rather complicated organization of their society. There is even a whole science that studies ants and their behavior, called myrmecology.
It is difficult to describe the diversity of these insects, andtherefore, we will only talk about forest ants that we often meet. In the middle part of Eurasia, as a rule, you can find three types of them. I would like to tell about them in more detail.
Red Mira
Мирмика – это вид маленьких рыжих муравьев, длина which is about four to five centimeters. The body has a color ranging from yellow to red and brown. This species is most common in Eurasia. Such forest ants are often found in meadows and in vegetable gardens, competing with famous black ones. An interesting fact is that they have mastered not only wildlife, but also urban landscapes. For their protection, small red ants use stinging and poison, which is quite painful for the body, especially when the bites are numerous. Sometimes people get an allergic reaction due to acid (formic).
Mormics lifestyle
However, insects themselves are capable of aggressivean attack only if their anthill in the forest damaged them. Peacemaker's nests are built on the ground, under pebbles and in tree stumps, mossy hummocks. Their families number from 10 to 12 thousand individuals. In this case, egg-laying females can be up to one hundred pieces. Members of one family live in several nests, which are interconnected not only by land paths, but also by underground passages. Some of these "houses" are permanent, they are inhabited all year round. Other buildings have a seasonal nature, insects use them only in summer. Before wintering, all members of the largest family migrate to vast permanent nests.
Small ants use their summer apartments to grow numerous larvae, pupae and basal aphids.
Mirmiki hunt small invertebrates,they eat nectar of flowers, grow colonies of aphids on the roots of plants. The search for food engaged in ants intelligence. Having found food, they leave odor trails, then return for help to the anthill and correctly derive their fellows by their own marks.
Red Forest Ant
This species of ants is of medium size. But the red forest ant makes the greatest contribution to the protection of forests from pests. Their value is very large. Red ants are listed in the Red Book.
Insects build their houses in hugeconical heaps throughout the forest. The size of the working ants reach nine millimeters. They have a black belly and brown head. They build an anthill of needles and small twigs. It may seem that it is chaotically scattered garbage, but this is not at all the case. Imagine that even in heavy rains, the anthill does not get a bit wet, and all its internal passages remain whole and dry. The height of the ant house reaches seventy centimeters. And sometimes even a half meters. Insects usually begin to build on old stumps.
The outer part of the house is made waterproof,but at the same time the humidity inside the anthill itself remains consistently high. This makes it possible to smolder and decompose those plant elements of which the entire structure is built. It is this process that warms the whole dwelling. If necessary, ants repair their house, taking out old parts and replacing them with new, dry ones. The anthill is cleaned regularly, unnecessary remnants of food, egg shells and dead individuals are carried out of it.
Family life
The process of internal corruption does not stopnever. Due to this, a zone with high temperature and humidity is formed inside the house. Here larvae, eggs and pupae are stored. The dwelling of the most important figure of the anthill, the uterus, which is engaged in laying eggs, which are looked after by the nannies, is also here.
In each house lives one uterus of an ant.Sometimes it happens that a young female turns one of the summer nests into an independent anthill. At the same time, it takes for itself a part of the working ants, since by itself it cannot exist. This is how a completely new house with its inhabitants is formed.
If the size of the family is large enough, the ant queen can become another queen. But this happens very rarely. In any case, even the most huge anthill can not have more than two queens.
It is also possible that a female becomes a queen in a nest left without a womb. However, this phenomenon happens very rarely, as a rule, it is difficult to find an abandoned ant hill in the forest.
What do the ants eat?
Forest ants live in numerous families, each of which has its own territory, which is carefully guarded. Aliens are not allowed into their lands.
Any description of an ant always begins withthe story of his hard work. And there are reasons for this. Small creatures are so strong that they bring insects into the anthill that exceed them in weight. And if the prey is too large, then it is delivered collectively. When observing ants, it may seem that they only interfere with each other, but this is not the case. Whatever it was, but the prey is in the anthill. It is difficult to imagine this, but every day hardworking creatures drag a couple of thousand insects.
The ration of ants are pine larvaesawfly, caterpillar scoops, oak moths, pupae of various butterflies. Experts have calculated that the inhabitants of one anthill are able to protect from pests to one hectare of forest. This is the kind of work that these little creatures do. It is difficult to underestimate their contribution to the health of forest plantations.
Ants bringing food, share it with othersindividuals who work as cleaners, nannies, builders. Everyone has their own duties, there is a division of labor. Which one to take into account is prepared, it is determined when it comes to the world and depends on the needs of the anthill.
For a long time it was believed that ants were creaturessimilar to robots, albeit industrious, since their interests are focused exclusively on their huge family. However, recent studies have led experts to conclude that every little creature has its own character, they can play, mating with each other or just rolling a ball. Apparently, these disciplined kids find time not only for work, but also for entertainment.
Black ants
Another resident of the forest is a big blackant. In large, rotten spruce stumps, work constantly boils, insects' heads appear in the round holes of the bark. These are the famous black ants. They are also called tree borers.
The big black ant is always busy.Construction inside the stumps never stops. Numerous galleries are constantly expanding. An interesting fact is that representatives of the same family are very different from each other. Builder ants are small, but the soldiers are quite large - some individuals reach two centimeters. However, not only the external description of the ant differs, but also the manner of behavior. Workers fuss in work, they are energetic and fast. Soldiers are slow and sedate, their movements are completely unhurried.
Carving underground roads
Пень, в котором обитают такие лесные муравьи, surrounded by fresh and old sawdust, which indicates the ongoing work. At the same time around the dwelling itself is not visible a single individual. It creates the mistaken impression that insects do not leave the shelter. This is not entirely true. Just outside are not visible those trails that they use.
Black forest ants are laying themselves insurface groundways are underground tunnels that look like real tunnels. Where do they lead? It's simple: a network of such moves stretches to the nearest stumps and spruces, from there the woodwinders deliver insects, pollen. Underground roads are a great alternative to dangerous land routes. In addition, the land is more difficult to reach the destination, and the ants move quickly along the corridors. Underground paths become traps for other insects that fall into them. Drevototsy gladly take advantage of such prey.
Habits of black ants
Black ants love heat, and therefore arrangetheir homes in well-warmed stumps. Like other forest ants, they are busy working from morning to evening. Most active in the warm time of the day. In the morning they are slow as they are chilly. At night, the entire anthill falls asleep, only the big soldiers crawl along the stump. Small individuals perform all work related to the uterus and its larvae. Soldiers gnaw wood, get food, protect the house. Underground tunnels save the ants in bad weather. At this time all outdoor work ends.
Benefits of Forest Ants
Ants are very useful creatures.They secrete a substance called formic alcohol, used in medicine to treat arthritis, rheumatism, hepatitis, tuberculosis, diabetes, renal failure. Helps such a tool and with excessive hair loss.
Forest ants have a beneficial effect on soilinteguments, because they loosen them, thus enriching them with oxygen. In addition, they are food for a number of forest birds: woodpecker, wood grouse, tits, grouse. The ants themselves destroy a significant number of pests, which help to preserve forest stands.
Insect damage
При всей своей полезности насекомые наносят и harm, breeding numerous aphids. However, for forest plantations it is not so scary, the benefits of ants outweigh the negative impact. But gardens and orchards accumulation of aphids can cause significant damage.
Dangerous bites are forest ants,because this results in the release of acid. The substance in small quantities is not dangerous, but can cause allergic reactions in the form of itching, redness, swelling. But numerous bites cause general intoxication of the body with dizziness, nausea, pain. In allergy sufferers, the face and throat may swell, speech suffers, pressure changes. In the most difficult situations possible anaphylactic shock.
Formic acid is dangerous for the eyes because it causes chemical burns. To reduce the pain in the place of the bite, ice is applied and an antihistamine is used.
