Ants
Ants live in large groups. They are social insects. Jobs Some ants in the colony have special jobs. Queen The queen ant has one main job. She has to lay enough eggs to keep the colony alive. Male Ants A few male ants live in the colony and their job is to mate with the queen to make the eggs. Female Ants Most of the ants that we see are female ants. They are worker ants. They have 3 main jobs.
Strong Ants are incredibly strong. They can lift things that are about twenty times heavier than they are. How much do you weigh? If you had the strength of an ant, how much could you lift? This could be a world record! Where are Ants? If you were looking for an ant, you could look in most of the continents. They live everywhere, except in very cold places. Some ants build nests in trees and others build nests under the ground. Their nests can be easily seen because the ants build a mound that looks like a small volcano. In other places, ants build a nest that looks like a small mound of dry twigs. If the mound is disturbed, thousands of angry little ants can be seen. Family The queen ant lays very small eggs. After just a few days, the egg hatches. The young larva looks like a tiny worm. A few weeks later, the larva becomes a pupa. It moves very little in its cocoon. It grows and changes in the cocoon, but it does not eat or drink. After about twenty five days, an adult ant comes out of the cocoon. A worker ant can live a couple of years. A queen ant can live for more than a decade. Male ants might live for only a month or two. Honey Ants In central Australia, honey ants can be found. The worker ants collect honey and pollen from plants. Where could they store their honey? They use some special ants in their nest. They feed the honey to these ants and the honey is stored in their body. These ants become very big and round. Aboriginal people liked to dig these honey ants out of their nests and bite off the swollen body that is filled with sweet honey. |
Reading
Try reading Ants by Melissa Stewart. It's an 'Epic' book.
Try reading Ants by Melissa Stewart. It's an 'Epic' book.