The ant at work
In reality, the intelligence of a man is above any animal or
an insect but examining the effectiveness of certain insects, such as a bee and an ant,
we can’t dispute the fact that the most intelligent insect can rightly be
considered an ant, because it is one of the few hard-working social insects.
Ants gather in large groups and accept smaller colonies to
be slaves. They are intelligent creatures to navigate their environment
and the weather. They go to war against each other, know how to protect and
defend themselves, by using tactics and strategies.
According to a study, the ants know how to heal themselves. The
ant, infected with the spores of the parasite fungus, transfers to the healthy
ants a small number of spores which is not enough for a full infection, but
strengthens their immune system.
The body temperature of ants changes in response to the
atmospheric temperature. In winter, their body temperature falls so greatly
that their movements inevitably grow sluggish. Therefore, they hibernate
restlessly in relatively warm places, such as the soil or under the bark of
trees.
Depending on the environmental conditions, there can be
several queens in the anthill, polygamy or monogamy. There may be several ants that act as the queen and often arrange fights among
themselves, trying to hit each other with antennas.
Such fights do not cause significant damage to the females,
however, the working ants watching them make their choice in favor of one of
them, after which they kill the rest.
Ants
are able to communicate by explaining to each other the path to food, they can count and perform
simple arithmetic operations.
For example, when a scout ant finds food in a specially
designed maze, they return and explain how to get to it to other ants. If
you remove the pheromone trace at this time, the relatives of the scout will
still find food.
In another experiment, a scout searches the labyrinth of
many identical branches, and after communication, other insects immediately run
to the indicated branch.
Ants communicate using odours because their glands
produce pheromones in different concentrations for different messages.
If an ant stumbles upon its own pheromone trail, the insect will walk in a circle until it is completely exhausted, condemned to this fate
its brethren will follow its trail. This phenomenon is called:
ant-hill, the spiral of death, a carousel of death, or ant circles.
For the reason that ants communicate with smells, they
cannot distinguish between a dead and a living ant. They understand
the difference only when the dead begins to decompose.
However, not all ants have a permanent residence. There
are roving ants. They live in the tropics of Africa, as well as in Central
and South America. Sometimes African roving ants come together in huge
colonies of up to twenty million and usually they move very fast.
It is very
interesting to observe how roving nomad ants move. They look like a living
river flowing in a direction known only to them. Where they meet a large pool, they stick to each other to form a bridge and cross over.
Such a column of nomads stretches on average up to one or
two meters. When staying for the night, the queen, together with the
larvae, remains in the center, and the remaining ants, clinging to each other
with their paws, form a large ball, approximately one meter in diameter.
These nomads, it seems, do not get tired of the exhausting
crossings. They can travel up to three hundred kilometers per
day and despite how tiny and small, they can carry along objects twice much bigger than them.
Temporary sites are made by them only so that the queen of ant will
lay eggs and then everyone sets off again. Why they do not want to
settle in one place, build a house and lead a measured lifestyle? It is a big
mystery.
But the fact we can't ignore is the ants are not only intelligent but are hard-working creatures that will dwell on this earth forever.
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