Ant food
Ants eat a wide variety of foods. Some specialize in
sugary liquids such as honey and aphid and other flowers' "nectar".
Many seek dead flesh and devour other insects and small creatures. Others are
just interested in eating seeds or fungi. Ants acquire their water from dew,
rain droplets, and puddles, as well as from their diet (like nectar).
Many ant species, particularly seed-eating ants, save
food in their nests. Others consume fungus that grows in their nest. When ants
discover a large food supply, they leave a pheromone trail so that their
nestmates may locate it as well. Soon, a bustling column of ants will be
shifting back and forth from the colony to the food supply.
In warm areas, leaf-cutter ants break apart leaves and
bring them down to their nests. The fungus that forms on the leaves is what
they consume. Army ants and driving ants search across jungles and tropical
climates, devouring all they can find. They are large ants with keen teeth, and
a group of them can number in the thousands. They will devour whatever animal
they can catch, including huge ones.
Ants are omnivores, meaning they consume anything. They
eat the milk of aphids and other tiny Hemiptera, as well as insects and small
live or dead invertebrates, plant sap, and different fruits in the wild. Insect
eggs are also eaten by them.
Ants bring a broad variety of sweets, meats, animal
feeds, and fats into our houses and add them to their meal. They consume
practically everything that humans eat. They also go inside our houses to
search for little insects.
When a new queen establishes a colony in the
environment, she nurtures the first larvae with her excess eggs, which are just
nutrition. To live till the workers reach adulthood, the queen must occasionally
consume her eggs. If the colony becomes overburdened, the queen may turn to
cannibalism to protect her own life.
Two stomachs are used by the workers in charge of food
storage. The biggest is a "community stomach," which is a
liquid-filled storage chamber for the ant's food. When it comes back to the
nest, it feeds the queen, the larvae, as well as the other workers. The ant has
a crop, or "single" stomach, in parallel to its huge stomach. When
the ant requires nourishment, it transfers some of the food from its communal
stomach to the crop, which is then digested. The larvae that will eventually
become queens are fed more than the others.
The majority of ants are opportunistic feeders, meaning
they'll consume almost everything. Other ants, dead insects, bits of deceased
animals, cereals, fruits, and vegetables are examples. However, certain ant
species have preferences. Grease ants prefer protein-based diets, but if fatty
foods aren't available, they'll eat anything else. Fungus is a favorite food of
some ant species, whereas sweets are a favorite of others.
There are over 12,000 distinct ant species in the
world, but if you reside in the United States, you're sure to come across a few
popular types:
Carpenter ants have a notoriety for chewing wood,
however, they don't consume cellulose. They build their nests inside the wood,
hollowing it out as they go. They favor sweet meals, such as honeydew (a sugary
liquid released by aphids), but will also devour other bugs and dead animal
tissue.
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