CATDOLL : CATDOLL: How do little ants spend the winter?

How do little ants spend the winter?

They spend the winter in the caves, and have prepared for it long before winter. They carry weed seeds for next year's sowing, and also carry aphids, scale insects, cicadas, and butterfly larvae to their own nests for the winter, and absorb the excrement of these insects as food (milk and honey).

Ants have an extraordinary ability, which is to "graze" aphids to get delicious food. Aphids are also called honey insects. They suck the sap of plants and excrete a sticky and transparent sweet liquid - honeydew, which is the "milk" that ants love very much.

The ants guard the aphids from being harmed by ladybugs or other predators, and occasionally stimulate the abdomen of the aphids with their antennae to keep them secreting "honeydew" - just like herders raising cows. When the aphids on a branch multiply too much, the ants will move them to new branches and leaves, just like herders looking for new pastures.

Additional information:

Ants are divided into three categories according to their feeding habits: lower species are carnivorous, feeding on insects, small animals and even sick or dead large animals; higher species in the subfamily of stink ants, the subfamily of leaf-cutter ants and the subfamily of myrmecophaga, can feed on both plants and animals, and especially like the "honeydew" secreted by aphids and scale insects; most other ants are omnivorous, feeding mostly on seeds, fruit, insects, etc.

For example, the two-toothed polyrhabditis ant is a highly omnivorous species that can be fed rice bran, wheat bran, beans, sugar, fruits and vegetables, and animal feed such as fish meal, silkworm pupae, bones, eggs, dead or living insects, etc. It can also be fed chicken feed or self-prepared feed.

Ants of the subfamily Myrmecinae and Myrmecinae feed exclusively on meat.

They spend the winter in the cave. They have made preparations long before winter. They carry weed seeds for next year's sowing, and also carry aphids, scale insects, cicadas and butterfly larvae to spend the winter in their own nests, sucking the excrement from these insects as food (milk and honey).

Ants have an extraordinary ability, which is to "herd" aphids to get delicious food. Aphids are also called honey bugs. They suck the sap of plants and excrete a sticky and transparent sweet liquid - honeydew, which is the "milk" that ants love very much.

The ants guard the aphids from being harmed by ladybugs or other predators, and occasionally stimulate the abdomen of the aphids with their antennae to keep them secreting "honeydew" - just like herders raising cows. When the aphids on a branch multiply too much, the ants will move them to new branches and leaves, just like herders looking for new pastures.

Additional information:

Ants, like other insects, rely on their antennae to identify smells. The first segment of the antennae is swollen, knee-like and very flexible. Since they have a pair of antennae, they can both identify the intensity of smells;

They can also distinguish the direction and distance of the source of the smell. Adult insects exchange food with each other and use the smell to understand each other's health and nutritional status, the food found by each other, and other information.

At the same time, they can also distinguish which group the other party belongs to, such as those responsible for digging holes and building nests, or those responsible for collecting food. The older worker ants will be sent out of the nest to work.

To spend the winter in the cave, the ants have made preparations long before winter comes. They first carry weed seeds to prepare for sowing next year. At the same time, they carry aphids, scale insects, cicadas and butterfly larvae to spend the winter in their own nests, and absorb the excrement of these insects as food (milk and honey).

Among the Hymenoptera, the social organization of ants that raise aphids is the most complex.

Additional information

Living habits

Temperature and humidity

Ants can grow normally in the range of 15-40℃, but the best temperature is between 25-30℃. In winter, they will go into caves when the temperature is below 10℃, but they will not hibernate. They just stop moving around frequently and eat the food stored in autumn in the caves.

The soil moisture for ants should be controlled between 10% and 20%; the relative humidity of the air should be controlled between 70% and 90%.

nest

Ants are social insects that live in groups and are very nest-loving. Most species build their nests underground or on trees, and they have a mixed diet, generally including both plants and meat.

Like other ants, Polyrhachis dives usually live in a nest as a family. There are one or dozens of queen ants (female ants) in a nest. Worker ants are responsible for building nests, foraging, raising young, etc., and they are the largest in number.

In the wild, when harvester ants build their own nests, they separate their daily habitats from the storage chambers where they store seeds. The storage chambers are located higher than their daily habitats, keeping the environment in the chambers dry and making it difficult for the seeds to germinate [3].

feeding habits

Ant Nest

Ants are divided into the following categories according to their food habits: lower species are carnivorous, feeding on insects, small animals, and even sick or dead large animals; higher species within the subfamily of stink ants, the subfamily of leafcutter ants, and the subfamily of myrmecophaga, feed on both plants and animals, and especially like the "honeydew" secreted by aphids and scale insects; most other ants are omnivorous, feeding mostly on seeds, fruits, insects, etc.

For example, the two-toothed polyrhabditis ant is a highly omnivorous species that can be fed rice bran, wheat bran, beans, sugar, fruits and vegetables, and animal feed such as fish meal, silkworm pupae, bones, eggs, dead or living insects, etc. It can also be fed chicken feed or self-prepared feed.

Reference source: Baidu Encyclopedia - Ant

Ants prepare for winter long before it arrives. They first carry weed seeds for next year's planting, and also carry aphids, scale insects, cicadas, and butterfly larvae to their nests for the winter, and use their excrement as food (milk and honey) from these insects.

Among the Hymenoptera, the social organization of ants that raise aphids is the most complex.

1. Their nests are all on the ground.

2. Some have developed a self-defense method instead of an aggressive stinger. For example, the acid ant (Formicinae) will bite its enemy fiercely, then bend its abdomen and spray a stream of pungent formic acid at the injured part of the enemy, causing an extremely uncomfortable stinging sensation.

2. The most terrifying thing is that a whole group of ants gather together, like a large army, and set out in a mighty manner, carrying out destructive activities along the way. The primitive marching ants (Army Formicinae) bite other creatures while marching. The "sweep" of these marching ants is quite amazing, and they really win by numbers.

3. The young army ants grow up in the camps that the worker ants build with their bodies. When they grow up, they line up in teams and start the long march, killing any animals that block their way along the way.

Before winter comes, they will move a lot of food to the cave, and then hide in the ant nest to spend the winter.

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