Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. 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 out of an estimated total of 22,000 species have been classified. They are easily identified by their elbowed antennae and a distinctive node-like structure that forms a slender waist.
Ants form colonies that range in size from a few dozen predatory individuals living in small natural cavities to highly organised colonies which may occupy large territories and consist of millions of individuals. These larger colonies consist mostly of sterile wingless females forming castes of "workers", "soldiers", or other specialised groups. Nearly all ant colonies also have some fertile males called "drones" and one or more fertile females called "queens". The colonies are sometimes described as superorganisms because the ants appear to operate as a unified entity, collectively working together to support the colony.
Ants have colonised almost every landmass on Earth. The only places lacking indigenous ants are Antarctica and a few remote or inhospitable islands. Ants thrive in most ecosystems, and may form 15–25% of the terrestrial animal biomass. Their success in so many environments has been attributed to their social organisation and their ability to modify habitats, tap resources, and defend themselves. Their long co-evolution with other species has led to mimetic, commensal, parasitic, and mutualistic relationships.
Ant societies have division of labour, communication between individuals, and an ability to solve complex problems.These parallels with human societies have long been an inspiration and subject of study.
Many human cultures make use of ants in cuisine, medication and rituals. Some species are valued in their role as biological pest control agents. However, their ability to exploit resources brings ants into conflict with humans, as they can damage crops and invade buildings. Some species, such as the red imported fire ant, are regarded as invasive species, establishing themselves in areas where they are accidentally introduced.
[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/Meat_eater_ant_feeding_on_honey02.jpg/220px-Meat_eater_ant_feeding_on_honey02.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Bullant_head_detail.jpg/220px-Bullant_head_detail.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Scheme_ant_worker_anatomy-en.svg/450px-Scheme_ant_worker_anatomy-en.svg.png[/IMG]
The life of an ant starts from an egg. If the egg is fertilised, the progeny will be female (diploid); if not, it will be male (haploid). Ants develop by complete metamorphosis with the larval stages passing through a pupal stage before emerging as an adult. The larva is largely immobile and is fed and cared for by workers. Food is given to the larvae by trophallaxis, a process in which an ant regurgitates liquid food held in its crop. This is also how adults share food, stored in the "social stomach", among themselves. Larvae may also be provided with solid food such as trophic eggs, pieces of prey and seeds brought back by foraging workers and may even be transported directly to captured prey in some species. The larvae grow through a series of moults and enter the pupal stage. The pupa has the appendages free and not fused to the body as in a butterfly pupa. The differentiation into queens and workers (which are both female), and different castes of workers (when they exist), is influenced in some species by the nutrition the larvae obtain. Genetic influences and the control of gene expression by the developmental environment are complex and the determination of caste continues to be a subject of research. The developmental environment Larvae and pupae need to be kept at fairly constant temperatures to ensure proper development, and so are often moved around the various brood chambers within the colony.
[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5f/Meat_eater_ant_nest_swarming02.jpg/220px-Meat_eater_ant_nest_swarming02.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Meat_eater_ant_qeen_excavating_hole.jpg/220px-Meat_eater_ant_qeen_excavating_hole.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/FlyingAnts.jpg/220px-FlyingAnts.jpg[/IMG]
Most ant species have a system in which only the queen and breeding females have the ability to mate. Contrary to popular belief, some ant nests have multiple queens while others can exist without queens. Workers with the ability to reproduce are called "gamergates" and colonies that lack queens are then called gamergate colonies; colonies with queens are said to be queen-right. The winged male ants, called drones, emerge from pupae along with the breeding females (although some species, like army ants, have wingless queens), and do nothing in life except eat and mate. Most ants are univoltine, producing a new generation each year. During the species specific breeding period, new reproductives, winged males and females leave the colony in what is called a nuptial flight. Typically, the males take flight before the females. Males then use visual cues to find a common mating ground, for example, a landmark such as a pine tree to which other males in the area converge. Males secrete a mating pheromone that females follow. Females of some species mate with just one male, but in some others they may mate with anywhere from one to ten or more different males. 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 fertilise 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 species. Species that have multiple queens may have a queen leaving the nest along with some workers to found a colony at a new site, a process akin to swarming in honeybees.
This is all I'm going to post for today. [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant[/URL]
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Plectroctena_sp_ants.jpg/250px-Plectroctena_sp_ants.jpg[/img]
Ants smell bad when they are squished.
Ant colonies are fucking badass.
I used to eat them as a kid :smug:
I hate Fire Ants.
I used to always kick the mound
I once stepped in a fire ant hill.
[QUOTE=Craptasket;26687381]I used to always kick the mound[/QUOTE]
I still do.
[QUOTE=Craptasket;26687381]I used to always kick the mound[/QUOTE]
Wow, I read that as lick.
[editline]14th December 2010[/editline]
[QUOTE=DrumStick;26687504]I still do.[/QUOTE]
Made this post seem even weirder.
cool story bro
Everyone knows Termites are better.
[media]http://www.pestking.com/image/Termite_Queen.jpg[/media]
Mmm look at that throbbing body.
[QUOTE=Fycix;26687555]Everyone knows Termites are better.
[media]http://www.pestking.com/image/Termite_Queen.jpg[/media]
Mmm look at that throbbing body.[/QUOTE]
Squish the fucker.
What about our Facepunch Communist Party of Ants? Someone, go get that thread!
[editline]14th December 2010[/editline]
Or those threads.
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Ant_head_closeup.jpg[/img]
Now enjoy your sleep!
My favourite insects .
I did actually have that ant "house" , like NASA did .
Watching them was the best part of the summer , ants are awesome.
I could actually see , how the ant solider forced his mates to build the tunnel
I fed other insects to ants when I was younger.
I use to kill the red ones and let the black ones live, cause they didnt bite me
an ant will always fall on it's right when it is drunk.
[QUOTE=poopsicle;26688304]an ant will always fall on it's right when it is drunk.[/QUOTE]
How do you get them drunk?
[img]http://www.ant-farms.com/images/original-ant-farm-l.jpg[/img]
Used to love these things as a kid.
I feel bad for stepping on ants now.
[QUOTE=DrumStick;26688315]How do you get them drunk?[/QUOTE]
A type of plant produces fruit which has alcoholic quality's.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohgqRRLjBsg[/media]
[editline]15th December 2010[/editline]
[QUOTE=-chu-;26688322]I feel bad for stepping on ants now.[/QUOTE]
Don't worry, an average ant colony produces roughly 10800 ant baby's every day.
Ants must be the coolest insect ever.
Shamelessly stolen from cracked, it's the:
[B]Army or Soldier Ant (Eciton burchellii)[/B]
[img]http://cdn-www.cracked.com/articleimages/wong/armyant1.jpg[/img]
[B]From:[/B]
The Amazon Basin. There's other subfamilies living in Asia and Africa, but these are the most notorious.
[B]Why you must fear it:[/B]
By now, you will not be surprised to hear that these ants are, in fact, fucking huge, with the soldiers reaching a half inch in length. You will also not be surprised to learn that they have massive, powerful, machete-like jaws half the length of the soldiers themselves. They're notorious for dismantling any living thing in their path, regardless of size. They're also completely blind, which for some reason makes the whole thing worse.
[img]http://cdn-www.cracked.com/articleimages/wong/armyant2.jpg[/img]
They're called 'Army' ants because their entire colony, comprising up to and over one million insects, is a 100 percent mobile battalion. They don't make permanent hives like other ants, no, they bivouac down in single locations just long enough for the queen to shit out thousands of eggs, while the soldiers spread out in wide fans daily in search of food ("food" here, means "anything moving"). Then the eggs hatch and they enter the dreaded swarm phase of their existence.
[img]http://cdn-www.cracked.com/articleimages/wong/armyant3.jpg[/img]
Much like the word "killer," nature takes words like "dreaded" and "swarm" very, very seriously. They carefully pick up their larvae and go on the move, a near-solid mass of insect death and horror moving steadily and swiftly along the jungle floor, flaying alive and disassembling every living thing too stupid, slow or asleep to get the living fuck out of the way. There is no talk of painful stingers or ballistic acid here, no, this is terror of a far more primordial nature--the kind that simply flows over you by the hundreds of thousands and rips you apart with massive, unbelievably powerful jaws, utterly and literally blind to size and species, considering everything in their path to be a threat to the continuation of their colony.
There are reports of animals the size of horses being overwhelmed and shredded by them. Go stand next to a horse and then think about what that means for you.
[B]More scary shit: [/B]
Army Ants are masters of wholly-organic, living architecture. For the good of the colony, the ants will use their own living bodies to build any conceivable structure necessary, latching on to each other foot-to-foot to create protective walls and ceilings against the ravages of the weather, bridges to cross otherwise impassable spans, whatever happens to be needed. (Can they form themselves into a crude catapult mechanism and launch themselves at prey? Not yet.)
There is no other living thing in the entire world that does this.
And, they're blind.
Article: [url]http://www.cracked.com/article_15816_5-most-horrifying-bugs-in-world.html#ixzz185yqUvox[/url]
I've never seen an actual big ant, only those really tiny ones.
Antlions are the way to go.
[img]http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/outreach/antlions/figure%203_eatingant.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=linksysruler;26688607]Shamelessly stolen from cracked, it's the scariest shit in the world.[/QUOTE]
:ohdear:
Holy fuck at the army ants :ohdear:
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