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Ants
Formicidae
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Their Story
Get your first look at Ant Man’s real life inspiration. Marvel at this real-life ant blown up to the size of a man’s hand. This ant shows man just how amazing ants are and what super powers ants really have. This is where Marvel found its inspiration for Ant Man.
Ants can communicate with a kind of telepathy by using chemicals released into the air. Ants unlike a man, don’t use words or sounds to communicate with each other. Rather, ants have super powers that allows them to communicate with one another across great distances using their antennae and special chemicals called pheromones.
Ants have super strength compared to a man. Ants can carry objects 10 to 50 times their body weight. Ants have super strength in their neck joint which can withstand pressures up to 5,000 times greater than its body.
Ants have a superpower for longevity. In some species of ants, the Queen can live up to 20 years. That’s amazing when you convert ant years into man years.
Ants have the superpower of collaborating between members of a hive and can coordinate their efforts to become a super organism all acting together to complete a task.
There are over 10,000 species of ants know to man. This number represents the species of ants man has studied. What about all the other ant species man has not even discovered yet?
What do they look like?
Ants belong to the same order of insects as wasps, bees, sawflies and allies because they are very similar in their physical characteristics. Most have a tiny narrowing constriction between the thorax and abdomen, as well as mouthparts used for chewing and sucking. Some ants have wings but most do not. Ants with wings are usually only seen in the spring and fall. These ants are sent out to find and start another colony and can reproduce. Mating takes place in the air and sometimes on the ground. Once mating has occurred, the queen pulls off her wings and makes a nest in the ground where the newest hive will reside.
Morphology:
Ants (Formicidae) range in size from very small to very large. An example of a very small ant would be 1 or 2 mm and very large ant would be 30 mm such as tropical ants. Formicidae are characterized by a narrow constriction or abdominal segments called petiole that separate the thorax from the abdomen. The Petiole or basal abdominal segments will have nodes or projections originating from them, which are indicators in species identification.
Ectothermic:
Yes | Definition = cold blooded
Bilateral symmetry:
Yes
Key Terms:
Bilateral Symmetry; Ectothermic:
What key body parts help identify them?
Scientists are able to distinguish ants by looking at 4 key body parts. Experts look at the petiole area between the thorax and abdomen, the antennae, the shape and slope of the thorax, and the shape of the head and jaw, along with overall hairiness.
Diagnostics and Systematic:
To further distinguish species within the Ant (Formicidae) family, experts will look to see if the antennae are clubbed, or if they have two narrow abdominal segments that have a node or projections. The compound eyes are usually small or even absent in some ant species with other species of ants, the female’s ovipositor has been modified into a stinger.
Visual Diagnostics
Compound eyes
Clubbed Antennae**
Mandibles
Ocelli (simple eyes)
Head
Mesosoma
Gaster
Alitrunk
Petiole**
Post-petiole
Stinger
Legs
Funiculus
Scape
Frontal Lobes
Antennal fossa
Clypeus
Anepisternum
Katepisternum
Coxa
Trochanter
Ventral process
Femur
Tibia
Tibia Spurs
Tarsal Claws
Tarsus
II
IV
V
VI
VII
Tergite
Sternite
Propodeum
Propodeal Spiracle
Metaplural gland
Bulla
Orifice
Metanotum
Metathoracic spiracle
Scutellum
Mesonotum
Pronotum
Occiput
Forewing
Hindwing
Setae
Hairiness**
Spines on Thorax**
Antennae segments**
Antennae clubbed or not**
Shape/Slope Thorax**
Shape Head & Jaws**
** key features used to identify ants species.
Will their bite kill you?
The most dangerous are ants that sting. You can generally identify these types of ants by counting the number of nodes on their petiole. If you look down on an ant with two nodes, you can see a longer space between their abdomen and thorax. Fire ants have two nodes, and although they are small, they can pack a punch with their nasty sting. They will grab you with their mandibles and then sting you a number of times with a stinger located at the tip of their abdomen. When fire ants sting they are not only jabbing you with their sharp stinger but they are also injecting you with venom. This venom has formic acid in the mix and formic can cause the body to have a nasty reaction and sever medical problems in some individuals.
The problem with Fire ants is how they strategically carry out their attack. If you accidently step on their nest, they will crawl up your leg. Since they are so small you can’t feel them, so they don’t bite you right away but wait until they have their numbers up by swarming their victims. Once one ant starts to sting, they all start stinging together by releasing a pheromone into the air that signals the attack has begun. So second you feel fine and then bam!….you are being stung numerous times all over by tiny little ants, thus turning your leg(s) into one big inferno of burning pain. The only recourse is to get away from them as soon as possible and sometime this means jumping out of your cloths so you can distance yourself from these tiniest of assault weapons as fast as possible.
Medical Intervention:
A small group of people who are anaphylactic might be at risk of having an anaphylaxis response to a fire ant bite and will need to seek medical attention within 20 minutes of being stung. Many people in this situation will have had a history of this type of allergy that has coincided with a previous history of wasp or fire ant bites.
Symptoms:
Sever anaphylaxis response, whole body itches, difficulty breathing, and weakness.
Emergency:
Sever anaphylaxis response seek medical help within 20 to 30 minutes
Type of treatment/ inoculation:
Sever anaphylaxis response check for antibody called V-IgE for venom allergy in hospital emergency.
Key Terms:
anaphylaxis, V-IgE, inoculation
**All the information provided in this site is for educational purposes only and is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice.
What countries of the world can you find them?
You can find ants in every country around the world. Ants make up almost one third of all animal biomass in the Amazon rainforest. Ants are very important to nearly all terrestrial habitats all around the world.
Distribution:
Formicidae are found in terrestrial habitats all around the world excepted for Antarctica, Iceland, Greenland and even a few remote islands.
Geological Range:
all continents except Antarctica, Iceland, Greenland
Biogeographic Regions:
Nearctic, Palearctic, Oriental, Ethiopian, Neotropical, Australian, Oceanic islands.
Key Terms:
Terrestrial habitats, Nearctic, Palearctic, Oriental, Ethiopian, Neotropical, Australian, Oceanic islands.
How do they behave?
Ants are extremely social. There are species of wasps that are not social and live outside of a colony, but all ant species know to date live within a colony. They are so social, that scientists have found an ant separated from the colony and forced to live life in isolation will die faster regardless of all other factors like food and water. So ants really do need each other. Ants do not use their eyesight as much as they use their sense of touch and smell. Pheromones are extremely important as a means of communication between ants. Next time you see an ant, watch how much it uses it antennae for environmental input.
Phenology:
Depending on their job, Ants (Formicidae) are physically different on what job/task they are responsible for within the colony. Most Formicidae we see running about are actually females or the workers; while other ants within the colony have huge heads and mandibles are soldiers responsible for protecting the nest. The queen is responsible for egg production.
Key Terms:
arboreal, terricolous, fossorial, caste
How many different kinds are there?
There are about 660 known species of ants in North America and around 10,000 documented across the globe. They come in so many shapes and sizes it’s hard to keep track. Some are covered in hair, some are covered in spikes, even some are without eyes. It’s amazing how the simple little ant can be so amazingly diversified in how it looks and how it acts and forages for food.
Classification Tree
Animalia
Bilateria
Protostomia
Ecdysozoa
Arthropoda
Hexapoda
Insecta
Pterygota
Neoptera
Holometabola
Hymenoptera
Apocrita
Aculeata
Vespoidea
Formicidae
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Animal
With a Front and Backend
Bilateral symmetry with three germ layers
Insects, Chelicerata, Crustaceans, Myriapoda, Nematoda
Exoskeleton, segmented body, jointed appendages
With six legs, Arachnids, Myriapoda, Crustaceans
Insects
with wings
Can flex their wings over their abdomens
go through distinctive larval, pupal, and adult stages
Order comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees and ants
Suborder includes wasps, bees, and ants
Subclade Hymenoptera; ovipositor now a stinger
Superfamily of Hymenoptera
Taxonomic family Ants
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References
Bland, Roger G and Jaques, H.E. How to Know the Insects: Third Edition. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 1978. Print.
Eaton, Eric R. and Kaufman, Kenn. Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America: The easiest guides for fast identification. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007. Print
Gullan, P.J, and Cranston, P.S. The insects. An Outline of Entomology : Third Edition. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. Print.
Marshall, Stephen A. Insects, Their Natural History and Diversity: With a photographic guide to insects of eastern North America. Fourth Printing. New York: FireFly Books, 2006. Print.
Ruskin, Dan. Mother Nature is Trying to Kill You: a lively journey through the dark side of the natural world. Fourth Printing. New York: Touchstone, 2014. Print.
Papers
Sean G. Brady and Philip S. Ward. Morphological phylogeny of army ants and other dorylomorphs (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). copy write 2005 The Royal Entomological Society.| http://entomology.si.edu/staffpages/brady/2005_brady_ward.pdf
William H. Gotwald, Jr., Comparative Morphological Studies of the Ants, with Particular Reference to the Mouthparts (Hymenoptera: Formicidae. copy write 1969 Cornell University.| https://archive.org/stream/ants_04898/ants_04898_djvu.txt
Websites
ASU School of Life Sciences | https://askabiologist.asu.edu/explore/ant-anatomy
Encyclopedia of Life | http://eol.org/pages/699/overview
BioKids | http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Formicidae
Encyclopaedia Britannica | http://www.britannica.com/animal/ant
Wikipedia | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant
Wikipedia |https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scheme_ant_worker_anatomy-en.svg
American Osteopathic College of Dermatology | http://www.aocd.org/?page=FireAntBites
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