desert bugs - Top That! Publishing

How is a colony of ants made up
A colony is made up of lots of small rooms, or chambers, which are joined together by a network of tunnels. The
colony is built and looked after by thousands of worker ants. Worker ants are also known as ‘neuter’ ants, which
means that they can’t breed. As well as maintaining the colony, they gather food, look after the young ants,
defend the colony and look after the queen – the largest ant and the only one to lay eggs in the colony. Most of
the eggs that the queen lays develop into worker ants, but certain ‘special’ eggs develop into ants of separate
sexes, both male and female. Unlike their neuter family members, these males and females have wings, so set off
to mate on what is known as their ‘nuptial flight’. Once mated, each female becomes the queen of a new colony.
How many different types of ant are there
There are over 12,000 known ant species – and
probably many more that we don’t yet know about!
You’ve probably seen black ants before – they are the
most common species in Britain – but ants come in all
sorts of different shapes and sizes. Some are smaller
than a grain of sand, whereas others grow to the
size of a human thumb. The unusual honeypot
ant, with its body swollen with sweet
honeydew, acts like a walking larder, whereas
a bite from the ferocious bullet ant is said to be as
painful as the shot from a gun!
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How do ants communicate
Ants have two ways of communicating in order to pass
on messages about the nest, their food or their enemies.
They do this by creating special chemicals called
pheromones that other ants can smell. If this doesn’t
work, they take a more direct approach and use their
antennae to tap their message on to another ant!
Ants use their antennae to communicate directly.
A honeypot ant.