Fun facts about ants!

Ants live in nests, either under the ground or in trees. the are found all over the world. The common black garden ant can be used can be used to illustrate the main features of ant life.

Leaf-cutting ants grow their own food (fungus) on beds of leaves which they make in their nests.

Ants live in colonies - they are social animals. This means that they all work and live together, each insect with a particular duty to contribute towards the upkeep of the nest. Bees and wasps are also social animals. Each ant colony is made up a lot of tunnels with 'rooms' leading from them, in which the ants store food and look after the young ants. The colony has a queen, an umber of works and some soldiers.

The fire ant, which is found in the southern united states and central America, has a habit of jamming up traffic lights and other electronic devices by crawling inside!

The queen does nothing but lay eggs, while the workers repair damage and build new parts to the nest, collect the food and look after the eggs and young. The soldiers are equipped to defend the next from attack, either from other ants attempting to occupy the next, or from birds in search of a feast of ants. The soldiers have powerful mouth-arts with are useful weapons for attack and defence. Ants have an additional form of defence - a sac of formic acid, connected to a sting. They can also squirt the acid at the enemy.

Ants can pull 52 times their own weight. That would be like a human pulling about 4.5 tons.

The nest is started by the queen. In the summer, thousands of winged male and female ants are hatched. These leave the nests and fly off on a marriage flight, after which the males die and the females lose their wings. The female which in time will become the queen then searches for a suitable place to build a nest. She makes a small tunnel and lays some eggs in it. When these hatch she feeds the young ants herself. These grow into workers, and they take over the building and running of the next. The queen stays in one room and lays eggs, which the workers take away and look after. The colony has started. It may last form many years, with a new queen replacing the old one when she dies.

Ants communicate by rubbing their antennae together.

Now find words for homework in it, make a summary of it or write something like it about an other insect yourself!