Ant fact 1. The total weight of all the ants in the world is the same as, if not larger than that of all humans.
Ants are arguably
the greatest success story in the history of the animal kingdom.For every human
there are about one million ants. In tropical regions; where ants are very
common, their weight can exceed that of ground living'vertebrates' (animals
with backbones) by up to four times!
Ant fact 2.
The ant is one of the worlds' strongest creature in relation to
its size.
Ants can carry 50
times their own body weight, and they will work together in small or large
groups to move even heavy objects.
Ant fact 3. Ants have two stomachs, one to hold food for themselves, and one for others.
Sometimes you may
see ants 'kissing' they are actually feeding each other from their social
stomachs or crops. This process is called trophallaxis. It enables some ants to
stay and look after the nest whilst others forage for food.
Ant fact 4. Ants sleep frequently and are often quite lazy.
Although it is
commonly thought that ants always work and never sleep, research on fire ant
sleeping patterns proves otherwise. It has been uncovered that workers had an
average of 253 'sleep episodes' a day, that lasted an average of 1.1 minutes,
for a total of approximately 4.8 hours of sleep overall. Whereas fire ant
queens only experienced 92 sleep episodes, but each lasted an average of 6
minutes, for a total of 9.4 hours of sleep overall. (BBC)Some ants are more
active during the day 'diurnal', some at night 'nocturnal'. Also during
hibernation, some ants may sleep for around four months!
Ant fact 5. There are over 12,000, known different species of ants.
The ant database
'antbase' provides access to all the recorded ant species in the world. As of
03 Mar 2010 it has logged 12,565 different species of ants. New species are
continually being discovered. It is estimated that there could be around 22,000
different species at this moment in time.
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| Queen Ant |
Ant fact 6. Ants are the longest living of all insects, living for up to 30 years.
A queen ant was
recorded to have lived for 30 years in its natural habitat in Idahoe USA.
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| Maricopa Harrvester Ant |
Ant fact 7. One ant species is the most venemous insect in the world.
The Maricopa
harvester ant has the sting equivalent to 12 honey bees!
Ant fact 8. In many parts of the world, ants are eaten by humans as a delicacy.
The pupae of some
species of ants are the basis for the Mexican dish called 'escamoles'. They are
considered a form of insect caviar and can sell for as much as $40/lb In areas
of India. Throughout Burma and Thailand, green weaver ant is used as a condiment
with curry and an addition to a salad called 'yum'. The natives of North
Queensland Australia enjoy ants that are mashed up in water to make a pleasant
acidic drink similar to lemon squash. In Mexico and Australia, honey pot ant
'repletes' are dug out of the ground and sweet nutritional juices are sucked
out of their crops.
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| Escamoles |
Find out more: http://antark.net/ant-facts/