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[5] [6] A queen can live up to 30 years, and many colonies survive for 20 years. [ 4 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] A colony inhabits a nest that is up to 5 metres (16 ft) deep. [ 9 ] The queen stays at the bottom of the nest, and workers usually relocate themselves and brood within the nest, capturing safe levels of heat.
Ants are active all year long in the tropics; however, in cooler regions, they survive the winter in a state of dormancy known as hibernation. The forms of inactivity are varied and some temperate species have larvae going into the inactive state ( diapause ), while in others, the adults alone pass the winter in a state of reduced activity.
While no known land animal can live permanently at a temperature over 50 °C, Sahara Desert ants can sustain a body temperature above 50 °C (122 °F), [2] with surface temperatures of up to 70 °C (158 °F). Despite this, if out in the open, they must keep moving or else they will fry.
Slave-making ants or slaver ants are brood parasites that capture broods of other ant species to increase the worker force of their colony. After emerging in the slave-maker nest, slave workers work as if they were in their own colony, while parasite workers only concentrate on replenishing the labor force from neighboring host nests, a process ...
Plerergates can live anywhere in the nest, but in the wild, they are found deep underground, unable to move, swollen to the size of grapes. [7] In Camponotus inflatus in Australia, repletes formed 49% (516 ants) of a colony of 1063 ants, and 46% (1835 ants) of a colony of 4019 ants. The smaller colony contained six wingless queens.
Fire ants sting and bite, particularly little kids since they can come into contact with dirt mounds playing outside. During those rare summer showers, fire ants will immediately turn up.
Most organisms forage, hunt, or use photosynthesis to get food, but around 50 million years ago — long before humans were around — ants began cultivating and growing their own food.
Also, the wrong type of fungus can grow during cultivation. Escovopsis, a highly virulent fungus, has the potential to devastate an ant garden, as it is horizontally transmitted. Escovopsis was cultured, during colony foundation, in 6.6% of colonies. [23] However, in one- to two-year-old colonies, almost 60% had Escovopsis growing in the fungal ...