ANT

ANT

* Ants are insects, and like all insects, have a body with three main parts - the head, the thorax (middle section), and the abdomen.

* The abdomen of an ant is narrow where it joins onto the thorax. Insects have six legs that are attached to the thorax, three to each side.

* The head is made up of the jaws called mandibles, the eyes, and the antennae. The eyes of ants are made up of many lenses and are called compound eyes. Compound eyes make it possible for ants to see movement very well.

ANT COLONIES

* Ants live in large colonies or groups. Their home is a nest. There may be up to a million ants in a large nest. In each colony there are three types of ants: the queen, the female workers, and males.

* The only job of male ants is to mate with a queen ants so that she will be able to lay eggs, which is her only task. Male ants don't live very long.

* The queen grows to be an adult, mates with a male, then spends the rest of her life laying eggs. In a colony there may be only one queen or there may be many queens, depending on the species of ant.

* Worker ants do all the work in the nest. They build it and clean it, gather food, look after the queen, the eggs, and the young ants. Worker ants also defend the nest.

NEST

* Some build simple mounds of dirt or sand. Others use small sticks mixed with dirt and sand to make stronger, waterproof mounds.

* Inside the nest there are many chambers (or rooms). The chambers are connected to each other by tunnels. Chambers are used for different things, for example as nurseries for eggs and young ants, for storing food, as resting places for the worker ants and a there's a special chamber just for the queen.

* Ants communicate (talk to each other) by touching each other with their antennae. They also use chemicals called pheromones (say feh-ruh-moans) to leave a trail of scent for other ants to follow.

LIFE CYCLE

* The larva hatches from the egg and is cared for by the worker ants, who move the larvae to different chambers if the nest gets too hot, or floods. During the pupa stage the larva is in a sleep-like state as it changes into an adult ant.