A Closer Look with Brittany Campbell
Females definitely do the heavy lifting in ant colonies. The worker ants are wingless females that scavenge for food and carry out other necessary duties to keep the colony functioning. The female worker ants will also help to build the nest and sometimes even defend the colony when a foe attempts to enter.
Ants have learned that aphids, insects that suck plant juices, can provide a delicious treat. Aphids secrete honeydew, a liquid that is rich in sugar, from their plant juice diet and the honeydew produced is a favorite meal of many ants. Ants have learned to take advantage of this meal and will actually herd aphids around a plant and in turn provide valuable protection to aphids from predators.
Within a caste, or specific role that an ant has in a colony, there are age differences in the different tasks that ants perform. For instance, in many ant species the older worker ants actually do the foraging while the younger worker ants stay inside of the nest with indoor duties. The older ants are left to the more hazardous tasks outdoors where they can come into danger, so are more dispensable in ant colonies.
Most people can agree that red imported fire ants (RIFA) have no place in and around structures. Unfortunately, even a great flooding event doesn’t wipe out red imported fire ants. In large rain events, RIFA ants will clasp onto each other tightly and create a raft that floats on top of water to survive flooding.
Ants have been found to be able to carry over 5,000x their body weight. To figure this out, engineers used Alleghany mound ants and measured the centrifugal force required to rip the head off of the neck, since the neck joint is where ants have much of the pressure when carrying wight. The neck joint separated at forces up to 5,000x their body weight!
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References
Oettler, J., & Johnson, R. A. (2009). The Old Ladies of the Seed Harvester ant Pogonomyrmex Rugosus: Foraging Performed by Two Groups of Workers. Journal of insect behavior, 22(3), 217–226. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-008-9167-7
Adams, B. J., Hooper-Bùi, L. M., Strecker, R. M., & O'Brien, D. M. (2011). Raft formation by the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. Journal of insect science (Online), 11, 171. https://doi.org/10.1673/031.011.17101
Vienny Nguyen, Blaine Lilly, Carlos Castro. (2014) The exoskeletal structure and tensile loading behavior of an ant neck joint. Journal of Biomechanics, 47(2), 497-504.