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Birds that follow ants eat many prey insects and thus decrease the foraging success of ants. [201] Birds indulge in a peculiar behaviour called anting that, as yet, is not fully understood. Here birds rest on ant nests, or pick and drop ants onto their wings and feathers; this may be a means to remove ectoparasites from the birds.
The use of the term "agriculture", which may not be entirely appropriate for mutualistic relationships—particularly in cases where a colony is hosted by a plant, such as a tree, in exchange for protection and aid in its survival and growth—is well documented in the scientific literature for processes where ants create crops and directly cultivate plants or fungi.
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.
Ants eat honeydew, and in return protect the scale insects from their enemies and spread them among trees, an example of mutualism. The honeydew not eaten by the ants drips onto the trees and encourages the growth of sooty mold over the leaves and stems. This gives plants an ugly black appearance and reduces their health and vigor.
"Scout" ants are the first ones out of the mound every morning. They seek food, and mark their path as they return to the mound to alert the worker ants. The worker ants follow the scent trail and collect the food. Other worker ants clean, extend, and generally tend to the mound, the queen, and the brood. All the ants in the colonies are ...
Honey ants are unique in using their own bodies as living storage, used later by their fellow ants when food is otherwise scarce. When the liquid stored inside a honeypot ant is needed, the worker ants stroke the antennae of the honeypot ant, causing the honeypot ant to regurgitate the stored liquid from its crop. [4] [5]
Though workers can also eat the hyphae of the fungi, which is richer in protein, they prefer staphylae and appear to live longer while eating them. [35] [68] [69] Cellulose has been found to be poorly degraded and assimilated by fungus, if at all, meaning that the ants that eat the fungus do not get much energy from the cellulose in plants.
Carpenter ants are considered both predators and scavengers. These ants are foragers that typically eat parts of other dead insects or substances derived from other insects. Common foods for them include insect parts, "honeydew" produced by aphids, and extrafloral nectar from plants. They are also known for eating other sugary liquids such as ...
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