1 Ants What’s the big deal about ants? Before you dive in, let’s start with some basic ant biology and a little natural history... Photo by Alex Wild
What’s the big deal about ants? We might not notice them, but ants surround us, occupying nearly every type of habitable nook and cranny across the globe. Right now, ants snuggle up to your house, lay out their doormats in front of the trees in your yard, and snooze under your park benches. Some even nest inside the acorns littering the ground! We might not notice them, but they’re there, and they shape, literally shape, our world. Look at the colossal trees in your forest, the plants around your lawn. Ants like winnow ants plant the forest understory, ultimately contouring plant distribution that becomes those giants of trees, animal homes, abounding green life. Other ants help turn soil (more than earthworms in some places!), break up decomposing wood and animals, and keep the canopy healthy. Ants creep across our yards taking care of business for us in much the same way. They eat termites and chase caterpillars out of our gardens. Even though some people think of ants as the tiny creatures that ruin their picnics, of the nearly 1,000 ant species living in North America, fewer than 30 are true pests, and fewer still actually can hurt us. Most ants spend their time pulling the threads together in the quilt of the natural world. Without these threads, the quilt would fall apart, becoming disconnected pieces of fabric. In this book, you will meet our most common ants. Odds are you can see these ladies tiptoeing all around you. See how beautiful they are, with their spines and ridges, their colors and proud legs, each feature lending itself to the individual’s task. See their work, how they build the world around us as they move about our lives. Before you dive in, let’s start with some basic ant biology... Like all insects, adult ants have three body segments: the head, thorax, and abdomen. Heads up Their windows to the world, ant heads are packed with everything ants need to detect their environments. With tiny eyes for detecting light, color, and shadow; brains for memory and decisions; mouths for tasting; antennae for touch and smelling, ant heads are one-stop shops for sensory overload. Thorax Ant thoraxes are mainly for moving. While an ant’s nerve cord, esophagus, and main artery course through its thorax, connecting head to bottom, thoraxes are mostly all legs and muscle. Every one of an ant’s six legs sticks out of her thorax, and when queens 16
- Page 2 and 3: Introduction by Rob Dunn Nearly a d
- Page 4 and 5: & Order knows, when you push aside
- Page 6 and 7: up what scurried away. Sure enough,
- Page 8 and 9: students had found. As James stared
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- Page 12 and 13: A word cloud of ant species collect
- Page 14 and 15: Credits About This Interactive Book
- Page 18 and 19: and males have wings, those wings s
- Page 20 and 21: Shorn larvae fall over like little
- Page 22 and 23: While ant nests differ greatly, whe
- Page 24 and 25: Meet the Black Carpenter Ant The bl
- Page 26 and 27: Movie - Black Carpenter Ants I used
- Page 28 and 29: 3 Lasius Ant Lasius Lasius ants are
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- Page 32 and 33: School of Ants Map - Lasius Ant hea
- Page 34 and 35: Meet the Pavement Ant Wars happen i
- Page 36 and 37: Pavement ants are not native to New
- Page 38 and 39: Meet the Odorous House Ant People a
- Page 40 and 41: These creatures depend on odorous h
- Page 42 and 43: We know they love to nest in mulch.
- Page 44 and 45: Meet the Crazy Ant Crazy relatives.
- Page 46 and 47: Once they move in, they gobble up a
- Page 48 and 49: 7 Winter Ant Prenolepis imparis Win
- Page 50 and 51: All that depth serves a purpose. Wh
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- Page 54 and 55: Meet the Field Ant Formica ants, us
- Page 56 and 57: Sometimes their partiality for pudg
- Page 58 and 59: School of Ants Map - Field Ant Nort
- Page 60 and 61: Meet the Asian Needle Ant The Asian
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- Page 64 and 65: Our forest is a lot like the car fa
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Meet the Winnow Ant Aphaenogaster r
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Seed planting is a successful busin
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Meet the Big Headed Ant The first t
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Photo Gallery - Big heads, little h
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12 Little Black Ant Monomorium mini
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In our ant stalkings, Will and I qu
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13 Thief Ant Solenopsis molesta Nev
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they feel their way to and from foo
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Argentine ants and yellow crazy ant
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Meet the Acrobat Ant One summer, I
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Photo Gallery - Acrobat reproductiv
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15 Honeyrump Ant Brachymyrmex depil
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School of Ants Map - Brachymymex An
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Agricultural and Forest Entomology,
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eetle (Coleoptera : Scarabaeidae) i
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(Hymenoptera : Formicidae) and Lasi
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Milford, E. 1999. Ant communities i
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Nygard, J. P., Sanders, N. J. & Con
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Naturwissenschaften, 98, 651-659. d
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Muscedere, M. L., Traniello, J. F.
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Predation and Parasitism of the Soy
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Menzel, T. O. 2012. Interactions Be
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