Have I ever told you guys about this amazing creature we have living on this very planet? Our planet Earth? You see them all the time, but you might not know how cool they are. I like them so much, I got a tattoo of one a couple years ago.
And I dressed as one for Hallween last year. This is the best photo I have.
If you haven't guessed already, I am talking about ants.
Here are some interesting facts that you may not know:
The sense of smell of an ant is just as good as a dog's.
Ants can lift an object up to fifty times their body-weight and carry it over their heads. They don't do this with their feet, but with their mouths.
A leaf-cutter ant queen mates only once - just before establishing a new colony. She can then keep the sperm viable for up to 15 years and produce as many as 300 million offspring.
Ants are the longest living insect. Workers, on the average, live about one year. In some species they can live for four to five years. Some queens live longer than 20 years.
In the Amazon rainforest, ants and termites make up nearly a third of the total animal biomass.
Ants love nothing better than to protect, groom and even raise aphids, scale bugs and bark lice. They want the "milk" that they excrete which is called honeydew. Ants will also protect them, carrying them around in their jaws similar to a mother cat and her kittens.
Oh, and I have photo evidence of the above statement, taken from my own garden.
There is so much more, but I don't want to bore you. So here are some videos for the short attention spanned;
One of my dreams is to someday travel to the Amazon rainforest to study insects and other invertebrates. First I am going to get my BA in Environmental science, which may or may not lead me to the rainforest, but I might someday go back to school and pursue a degree in entomology.
And I dressed as one for Hallween last year. This is the best photo I have.
If you haven't guessed already, I am talking about ants.
Here are some interesting facts that you may not know:
The sense of smell of an ant is just as good as a dog's.
Ants can lift an object up to fifty times their body-weight and carry it over their heads. They don't do this with their feet, but with their mouths.
A leaf-cutter ant queen mates only once - just before establishing a new colony. She can then keep the sperm viable for up to 15 years and produce as many as 300 million offspring.
Ants are the longest living insect. Workers, on the average, live about one year. In some species they can live for four to five years. Some queens live longer than 20 years.
In the Amazon rainforest, ants and termites make up nearly a third of the total animal biomass.
Ants love nothing better than to protect, groom and even raise aphids, scale bugs and bark lice. They want the "milk" that they excrete which is called honeydew. Ants will also protect them, carrying them around in their jaws similar to a mother cat and her kittens.
Oh, and I have photo evidence of the above statement, taken from my own garden.
There is so much more, but I don't want to bore you. So here are some videos for the short attention spanned;
One of my dreams is to someday travel to the Amazon rainforest to study insects and other invertebrates. First I am going to get my BA in Environmental science, which may or may not lead me to the rainforest, but I might someday go back to school and pursue a degree in entomology.
VIEW 20 of 20 COMMENTS
morgan:
Fallout is so good it should be illegal!
starla:
I like ants too. Did you know it's illegal to kill ants in Germany?