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A black drongo in a typical anting posture. Anting is a maintenance behavior during which birds rub insects, usually ants, on their feathers and skin.The bird may pick up the insects in its bill and rub them on the body (active anting), or the bird may lie in an area of high density of the insects and perform dust bathing-like movements (passive anting).
Most species are diurnal, and forage on the ground or onto low vegetation in search of food, but a few are nocturnal and only forage at night. [98] [115] Most Myrmecia ants are active during the warmer months, and are dormant during winter. [116] However, M. pyriformis is a nocturnal species that is active throughout the whole year.
The ants counter this by preventing meat ants from leaving their nest by blocking their nesting holes with debris, a behaviour known as nest-plugging. [ 70 ] [ 71 ] If meat ant nests are encroached by trees or other shade, banded sugar ants may invade and take over the nest, since the health of the colony may deteriorate from overshadowing. [ 72 ]
Truthfully, it was a blessing in disguise that these biting, wood-loving ants fell on Andrew and his wife that night: Had they not been there, the colony could've easily done a lot of damage to ...
O. glaber attacking a green-head ant (Rhytidoponera metallica) O. glaber is omnivorous, forming long trails on tree trunks to seek sweet substances such as honeydew and to hunt insects. [12] [19] The ant is both active during the day and night. Activity increases during the night or on overcast days, peaking during early mornings and late ...
Myrmecophilous (ant-loving) caterpillars of the butterfly family Lycaenidae (e.g., blues, coppers, or hairstreaks) are herded by the ants, led to feeding areas in the daytime, and brought inside the ants' nest at night. The caterpillars have a gland which secretes honeydew when the ants massage them.
Sugar bait with a toxicant, such as boric acid, typically works well, since many ant species that enter homes are sweet-loving ants. This will work slowly as foraging ants take food back to the queen.
Because of this, ants are a popular source of inspiration for design in software engineering, robotics, industrial design, and other fields involving many simple parts working together to perform complex tasks. [2] The most popular current model of self-organization in ants and other social insects is the response threshold model.