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Publié par
Date de parution
18 mai 2021
EAN13
9781647000042
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
10 Mo
Publié par
Date de parution
18 mai 2021
EAN13
9781647000042
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
10 Mo
A N T S
Ants
WORKERS
OF THE WORLD
Ants
ABRAMS, NEW YORK
Photographs by
EDUARD FLORIN NIGA
Text by
ELEANOR SPICER RICE
WORKERS
OF THE WORLD
CONTENTS
1.
A WORLD OF ANTS
7
2.
FROM PLANT TO ANT
13
3.
THE BIRTH OF A COLONY
17
4.
A FEMALE REALM
25
5.
MYSTERIOUS MALES
37
6.
WHERE FORM MEETS FUNCTION
51
INDEX
142
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
144
Gigantiops destructor , Northern South America, worker
7
THEY ALL LOOK LIKE ANTS FROM HERE,
we say of other people, when we
are looking down from up high. Faceless, silent ants, going about their business, without
personality or wants, determined, moving in one direction or another, following paths to a
goal. Of course, once on street level, we see people again, with unique faces and manners of
dressing, distinctive voices and desires. We are not like a bunch of ants after all , we may think,
surrounded by the wondrous diversity of our own human-ness. But most of us have not been
on an ant s street level, have not looked ants in the eyes as we have each other. It s not easy to
do. Even an ant from one of our largest species, Dinomyrmex gigas , standing on tiptoe, end-
to-end, is dwarfed almost seventy times over in length by the most average of us.
Though ants are tiny, we can t help but be aware of them. They are among the most
ubiquitous and successful creatures on earth. Sit still for a moment outside on a warm day.
Watch. Ants will surely reveal themselves. They are always there. They fan out across our
lawns, trail along our stoops, benches, walls, and kitchen counters, march across sidewalk
cracks. Most city blocks house more ants than there are people in the whole city.
Beyond human borders, ants fill niches at every snag of the food web. Endangered red-
cockaded woodpeckers pluck acrobat ants from tree trunks, filling their bellies with workers
of a group that sustains countless species of animals. Winnow ants plant seeds that shape
forests. Asian needle ants creep through fallen trees, hunting for termites. Trap-jaw ants,
smaller than poppy seeds, are lions of the soil, snapping springtails beneath the grass and
leaf litter between their lightning-quick jaws.
1
.
A WORLD OF ANTS
Dinomyrmex gigas , Southeast Asia, worker
8
Without ants in our cities, towns, fields, and forests, life as we know it would stop. They are
soil turners (they turn more soil, as a group, than earthworms), seed planters, belly fillers, pest
destroyers. From root to tip, basement to rooftop, the ants make their way. As they do, they
silently help us make our way, too.
To watch ants work is one thing; to see an ant up close is another. From our usual vantage,
they look to most of us like generic insects, red or black, walking in robotic trails or running
in frenzies. Up close, ants become remarkable creatures, and we can classify individuals by
species. With more than twelve thousand species on earth, each one with its own habits, ants
are astounding in diversity and form. The ants sneaking water from your bathroom sink are
likely not the same species as the ants on your kitchen counter, and both are vastly different
from the ants waving leaves like flags across tropical forest floors. Each of these species, up
close, looks as different as tigers from lions, and lions from house cats.
Spines, hairs, landscapes of grooves and textures give each species its own face. The
shape of its body, stocky or willowy, gentle slopes or armored angles, can give hints about
its habits and lifestyle. To see an ant up close is to receive a gift of introduction, a window
to understanding the nature of these tiny giants that run the world. Come, make their
acquaintance.
Lasius niger , Northern Hemisphere, workers
with three queens, life-size
9
DINOMYRMEX
Like their giant reptilian namesakes, Dinomyrmex gigas are some of the world s largest ants.
Soldiers can easily straddle soda bottle caps (28.1 millimeters/1.11 inches). Though gargantuan
by ant standards, Dinomyrmex aren t fearsome, at least as far as humans are concerned. Instead
of stinging, they spray formic acid on adversaries. These gentle giants roam forests at night,
looking for honeydew to satisfy their constant sugar habit and bird droppings, which they eat to
gain valuable nitrogen.
Dinomyrmex gigas , Southeast Asia, worker
11
13
ALMOST 170 MILLION YEARS AGO -
85 million years before the first tyrannosaurus
gave a toothy yawn-ants made their appearance on earth. Descended from solitary wasps,
they likely rambled through primordial forests before the late Cretaceous. Until the advent of
flowering plants, these ants were relatively inconspicuous compared to other, more dominant
creatures of the forest.
Many species of plants and insects have coevolved, yielding strong-but-delicate relationships
that endure and proliferate, life with life, abundance with abundance, change with change.
Our natural areas disclose these ancient bonds. A profusion of plant species offer shelter,
protection, and sustenance to as many ant species. They nest in our forests, on our lawns, in
our house plants, and in the boughs of trees that line our city streets. Peonies beckon ants to
their buds with extrafloral nectaries, and the ants protect the buds from pests like caterpillars,
eager to eat tender petals, until they bloom. In fact, more than two thousand plant species
have such nectaries to request ant protection of blooms. In the tropics, cecropias proffer ant
food from their tender leaves and stems. Acacia trees have hollow shelters for ants, while
violets and trillium, among others, coat their seeds with elaiosomes, a sort of ant candy, to
entice ants to disperse, plant, and fertilize their seeds.
With blooms came a wealth of food resources and habitats for ants. Fossil records reveal that,
as flowering plants spread in diversity and abundance across the planet, so did ants. By about
50 million years ago, ants were dominating other species across the planet. Their small colony
structures became as diverse as their physical forms. Some species had one queen and a few
workers while others had countless queens and countless workers. Some species had queens
much larger than their workers, and for others it was hard to tell the two apart. Some species
could reproduce parthenogenetically-that is, without mating.
2
.
FROM PLANT TO ANT
Pachycondyla
species (extinct), queen with two males
trapped in Baltic amber, 45-50 million years old
14
They filled every niche and corner they could squeeze into. Some became specialists-even
extreme specialists, tied to one species of plant for life-while others evolved generalist
behaviors, with catholic diets and flexible nesting habits. With each niche carved, ants helped
carve the earth s ecological path. Today, they have colonized every corner of the earth, save
Antarctica, and are dominant creatures in every habitat.
Through fossils and ants preserved in amber, we can watch ants evolution unfold. Their
physical forms are saved forever, three-dimensional, nearly perfect. As two ants are locked
in an embrace or arrested while foraging, we can see their eyes and waists, wings and legs.
These specimens, millions of years old, don t look much different from ant species today.
Their last act-trundling one by one over tree bark-is frozen in time, covered in sap, and
preserved for millions of years.
TOP LEFT: Formicinae family, queen trapped in Mexican amber, 25-30 million years old
TOP RIGHT: Pachycondyla species (extinct), male trapped in Baltic amber, 45-50 million years old
OPPOSITE: Possibly Dolichoderinae family, two workers trapped in Baltic amber, 40-50 million years old
17
TO TELL THE LIFE CYCLE OF AN ANT
is to tell the life cycle of a whole colony.
Individual ants act as cells of the great living being, the colony. Ants represent the highest
social organization in the animal kingdom: eusociality. Their societies operate to preserve
and protect the colony, often at the expense of the individual. If a worker ant dies, her nest
can persist; her mother will continue to provide her sisters with others to take her place.
Within their reproductive division of labor, queens make new cells-workers and males-
and workers help the body move, stay clean and safe, and eat. All workers are female, and for
most ant species, all workers are sterile. Males mate with queens. Overlapping generations
of sisters share the nest, and sisters cooperate to care for the young. The result is a group of
complex, resilient societies with unparalleled success on the planet.
Ants have complete metamorphosis. That means that, like butterflies, flies, and beetles,
when the young hatch from eggs, they look very different from adults. Butterflies have
their caterpillars. Flies have maggots. Beetles have grubs. And ants have legless, faceless,
pearlescent larvae, covered in stiff little hairs. These hairs lend a grip to their sisters, who
carry them about tenderly between their jaws. They also offer balance to the larvae, who can
do little more than wiggle and open their mouths to receive food from their sisters mouths.
A haircut would result in a tumbling larva.
After a span of eating and resting, larvae pupate. Some species spin silken cocoons like
moths, while others simply pupate inside their last larval skin. Though silent and still,
pupae undergo remarkable transformations. The creatures inside grow legs and antennae,
eyes, spines, hairs, claws, jaws. Their bodies become segmented; their brains develop to
accommodate the new lives they will soon lead. After a few days, they emerge as ants.
3
.
THE BIRTH OF A COLONY
Messor barbarus , Western Mediterranean, queen