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Ants communicating through touch. Ant communication in most species involves pheromones, which is a method using chemical trails for other ants or insects to find and follow. [1] However, ants of some species can communicate without using pheromones or chemical trails in general.
Tapinoma sessile is a species of small ant that goes by the common names odorous house ant, sugar ant, stink ant, and coconut ant. [1] Their colonies are polydomous (consisting of multiple nests) and polygynous (containing multiple reproducing queens).
As predators, scavengers, and herbivores, ants have a variety of food sources, for which they may journey as far as 200 meters from their nest, spraying a scent trail as they go. [3] To lead their kin to new food sources, ants demonstrate one of the few examples of interactive teaching outside of the mammalian class.
Ants can produce a trail of defensive secretions that trigger an alarm response within their nestmates. [7] In regards to foraging, an ant can communicate the quality of a food source to its colony; the more rewarding a food source is, the higher the concentration of the trail produced. [8]
Image credits: ZZGooch #3. I didn't know people can't smell ants, bugs, and other scents. First time I walked into a friend's apartment I said "whoa dude you got an ant problem!"
Many ant-dispersed seeds have special external structures, elaiosomes, that are sought after by ants as food. [180] Ants can substantially alter rate of decomposition and nutrient cycling in their nest. [181] [182] By myrmecochory and modification of soil conditions they substantially alter vegetation and nutrient cycling in surrounding ecosystem.
Weaver ants or green ants are eusocial insects of the Hymenoptera family Formicidae belonging to the tribe Oecophyllini. Weaver ants live in trees (they are obligately arboreal ) and are known for their unique nest building behaviour where workers construct nests by weaving together leaves using larval silk . [ 3 ]
The workers emerge to forage and the location of the nest can be identified by watching ants carrying food back to the colony. The ants are omnivorous and feed on seeds, dead invertebrates, honeydew, plant secretions, fruit, and a range of household scraps. Large food items may be moved by several ants working together.