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How ants make an anthill. Ant, lesson in native nature in the senior group. The internal structure of the anthill

“…They are very similar to us, grow mushrooms, breed aphids like milk cows, send soldiers to war, spray chemicals to scare the enemy, take prisoners, use child labor and constantly exchange information…”

Greetings, dear readers. Who do you think these lines are about? And all this, like a society of people, is able to do a large army of ants. A million family is so self-organized and well-coordinated in work that any modern leader can envy her.

Today, in a simple language, understandable for children, we will try to tell how the anthill works.

Lesson plan:

Meet Ant City

"Plows like an ant!" - this is exactly what they say about the most hardworking, ready to devote themselves to work around the clock, imagining a small bug hurrying somewhere, dragging a real “log” on fragile shoulders that is about ten times larger than the worker himself.

Here this living path of loaded ants stretches, and towards them another, already freed from the load in the house, rushing for a new "portion". And so from dawn to sunset. Have you ever seen such a path? Did you notice the ant house?

It was only in appearance that he seemed to you a bunch of piled twigs, needles, earthen pieces and blades of grass. If you look inside, then this is the most real ant city, where life is in full swing.

Ants settle in huge colonies, the inhabitants of which are adjacent to each other for many years. They can probably be called relatives. If we communicate with speech and gestures, then the ants understand each other through the exchange of smells and food.

Each family has its own "ambre", therefore, according to someone else's incense, the "local population" immediately understands that a strange guest has entered the house. With the help of secreted pheromones, ants are able to report food and danger.

Do you know that?! Ants inhabited our planet 100 million years before us humans, and today there are about 12,000 species of them, and the number of these workers is 20% of all living beings on the planet.

The shape of the ant house in the form of a cone was chosen for a reason: raindrops roll down the walls of the anthill, not lingering on the surface and not seeping into the dwelling. Little architects think over the location and height of their housing, sufficient so that the sun's rays can penetrate through the "roof" and "walls".

The seething life of ants is comparable, perhaps, with a parallel civilization, which has a hierarchy and a strict division of labor.

All works are good, choose to taste!

The ant community has everything, like people. They can be aggressive, they have an entrepreneurial streak and enterprise, they know how to be diplomats and negotiate with each other, they can argue and outlive rivals. Depending on the set of qualities, each inhabitant of the ant city receives a role.

The main "guardian of the family hearth" is the queen.

She establishes a new anthill around herself, tearing out a small underground corridor where she lays eggs - then the future inhabitants of the family hatch from them. The rulers live long enough and can reign up to 20 years.

The most aggressive, always ready to rush into battle, become the guards of the queen and protect the larvae so that strangers do not steal them. Security soldiers stand at the entrances to the anthill.

The builders help the main lady build the house, dig underground parts of the anthill, connect the rooms with passages. Every day, builders bring hundreds of needles and twigs into the house, then shifting them from the lower floors up and back. Why this "monkey labor"? It's simple: this maintains the desired humidity, and inner part the anthill does not rot.

All the "junk" collected by the builders creates the necessary temperature regime. By the way, the ideal climate in an ant house is 25-29 degrees Celsius.

Ant nannies take care of the offspring produced by the queen. It is they who look after the “children”, educate them and take them out of the anthill every day to “breathe the fresh air”. Everything is like in a real kindergarten.

In the family of ants there are miners who collect food and put it in a certain place.

They are helped in this by the intellectual ant elite - scouts who are able to memorize the turns of the path to the place with new food.

Just imagine that ants are capable of farming! They breed aphids and caterpillars, from which they obtain a sweetish liquid called honeydew. Shepherd ants protect their "milk cows" from their enemies and drive " livestock» with them if they wander to a new place.

Some types of ants, such as leaf cutters, are able to grow mushrooms that serve as food for the whole family.

In the anthill there is always a supply of food for "hungry times", in case the hard workers suddenly stop bringing food. Stocks of nectar are managed by keepers.

There are invaders in the ant family, whose task is to appropriate a new territory and steal larvae and cocoons from other people's anthills in order to transfer them to nannies for upbringing. Educators make their slaves out of the kidnapped "children", who then work for the anthill.

During skirmishes, warriors and guards often get injured, so there are medical practitioners in the ant family. Experienced surgeons amputate the wounded parts of the body - simply bite them off, and therapists isolate the sick from the healthy population.

Do you know that?! The number of workers in each family is different. Handyman relatives can number from tens to hundreds, and can be in the millions. The working proletariat lives an average of 4-7 years.

From rags to riches, or career growth

Most ants at a young age often try to find themselves in different professions, working either as a nanny, or as a builder, or as a shepherd. They are looking for themselves, so to speak, just like us people! Those who "like a daisy" cannot decide in any way, are destined for the role of laborers, since they do not stand on ceremony with lazy people and losers.

Having worked for about a year - three years, they are experienced and qualified, they fall into the "personnel reserve", always ready to begin the elimination of accidents and disasters. From the reserve they are appointed to other positions.

In the struggle for a place in the sun, they know how to survive a competitor. To do this, ants - contenders for the position jump on each other, trying to be taller, march on outstretched legs and bite with their jaws.

The victor makes the competitor bend in the “suitcase position”, drags him into the anthill and throws him somewhere so that he does not interfere with his career. Doesn't it remind you of anything?

Do you know that?! Workers love and know how to relax. They do it within the walls of the house, falling into nirvana, swaying on their legs in a dream.

Once a plank, two planks, there will be an anthill

So, here's a visual diagram of what the ant tower consists of.

On top of the house - a coating (1) of all kinds of materials at hand, which protects the building from rain, winds and other troubles. It is constantly being repaired by builders.

Entrances (3) are made in the surface, through which residents enter their home. They also serve as ventilation ducts - windows through which Fresh air. There are guards at the entrances.

Inside the ants there is a “winter apartment” and a “summer kitchen”. The winter underground part (5) of the insects serves as a place for wintering, where they survive the cold, and in the summer "solarium" (2) the ants bask in the spring under the rays of the sun.

In the "bread barn" (6) the family keeps the brought grains.

In the "meat department" (10), caterpillars and other prey are stacked.

Dairy aphids live in the "cowshed" (9).

"Queen's Boudoir" (7) - the place of residence of the mistress of the house, protected by guards.

The future generation is housed in a separate "maternity ward" (8).

Deceased relatives are buried with garbage in the ant "graveyard" (4).

Do you know that?! One of the largest anthills was found in the Tomsk region. The ant family built a three-meter-high house with a diameter of five meters in 20 years! Local historians say that the family has already left their tower, and the new queen is building housing nearby.

I never thought that the life of ants is so interesting and informative! And you? I am sure that I will see a lot of comments on this material, since, it seems to me, these hard-working insects also delighted you.

I advise all inquisitive people to watch the scientific and educational program “Dialogues about Animals”, an issue about red ants.

Also, very interesting articles and a butterfly "" have already been posted on the blog. Be sure to check it out, it's also very interesting)

Please check if you are subscribed to the blog news, otherwise you will miss something interesting)

All the best!

Your Evgenia Klimkovich.

Ants are such numerous insects on our planet that there are several thousand of their species. A single ant does not seem to be a complex and dangerous creature with intelligence. But this impression is deceptive, since ants do not live alone, but in a group and in the system of interaction of these insects one can be amazed at their high organization and clear division of responsibilities. In fact, ants can be compared with people, only we can still learn from their tolerance, diligence and coherence in work. “Plows like an ant,” we say about a hardworking person, imagining a small insect that drags an object several times its weight and size.

These insects live in large families that persist for several years; in fact, all ants in such a colony are biologically related, and from a social point of view, it is a city whose population is strictly divided into castes and rigidly organized. In fact, we can say that a parallel civilization is seething and developing under our feet.

We interact through speech, gestures and facial expressions, and ants communicate through the exchange of food and through smells, each ant has its own unique smell, and each family has its own unique shades of smells, thanks to which insects feel that a stranger has entered their home. Also, their interaction is carried out with the help of pheromones, using which insects inform each other about the location of food or danger.

We know from school how the anthill works and how complicated everything is in it, but myrmecologists are engaged in more serious studies of the ant society.

Anthill device

The anthill looks like an ordinary mountain of branches, blades of grass, pieces of earth, but in fact it is a subtly and well-thought-out dwelling, inside of which everything is much more interesting than outside.

The ant house has the shape of a cone for a reason, thanks to it the rain rolls down the blades of grass and needles almost without getting inside. The anthill rises above the level of the grass, so that the sun's rays penetrate inside, with which the ants warm up, and also warm their larvae and pupae. And the deeper layers of the anthill is a refuge for insects on cold days. Thanks to a cunning project, ants spend summer in a summer cone, and winter in earthen passages.

Parts of an ant dwelling

Looking at the picture, you can see the various parts of the anthill, the following describes what each of them serves for:

  1. The top cover, consisting of needles, blades of grass and twigs, protects the ant house from the weather.
  2. A chamber heated by the sun's rays - here the ants warm themselves and their offspring.
  3. One of the many entrances, guarded by soldiers, in addition to being a door, also serves as a channel for ventilation.
  4. Warehouse for garbage and dead ants.
  5. A wintering chamber where ants sleepily wait out the cold.
  6. Storage room for grains.
  7. The queen's chamber, where the queen lives and lays her eggs, which is cared for by worker ants.
  8. Chamber for eggs and larvae.
  9. Aphid chamber.
  10. Pantry for caterpillars and other "meat" prey.

It is interesting! The largest anthill in the world is located in the Tomsk region near the village of Zavarzino. This conclusion was made by Tomsk local historians, who measured this structure. In order to build such an ant house, the ant family, according to scientists, took at least 20 years. The record parameters are 3 meters high and 5 meters in diameter. According to local historians, this anthill is overgrown, but its inhabitants have already started building a new dwelling nearby. It is possible that it will not be inferior in size to the old one.

How is an ant colony organized? Ant life in an anthill

In order to figure out how ants live in an anthill, let's start from birth. Once a year, males and females hatch from eggs, which are ready for procreation, they have wings and scatter in different directions for mating. Males, after fulfilling their main purpose - fertilization, die, and females fly away in search of a place for a new colony. Having found it, the female gnaws off her wings in order to obtain additional nutrients and begins to actively lay eggs.

At first, hungry times await her, she survives only due to the accumulated fat layer, but then, when the first representatives of the offspring hatch, they begin to provide her and the larvae with everything necessary. The ant queen mother mates only once, while her sperm reserve is enough for her entire long (up to 20 years) life to recreate offspring.


These insects are Hymenoptera, males develop from unfertilized eggs and have a single set of chromosomes, and females are endowed with a double set. In this state of affairs, daughters acquire the entire genome from their father, and half from their mother. At the same time, sisters become closer relatives to each other than daughters are to their mother. Even though the word "ant" male, all female worker ants are daughters of the queen, who cannot mate and remain unfertilized all their lives.

Ants and their larvae

Ant social strata

Ants, like humans, have social relationships and hierarchies. Everyone has a set of qualities: intelligence, aggressiveness, reaction speed, enterprise, ability to communicate with others. Depending on what qualities dominate in each, the ant receives a certain profession:

  • invader warriors - the main task is to capture new territories and attack other anthills in order to steal larvae and cocoons in order to later turn them into slaves working for the benefit of someone else's anthill;
  • builders - diligently maintain the structure and condition of the anthill, create new tunnels and communications as the number of residents grows, every day hundreds of builder ants drag needles and twigs from above into the deep layers of the anthill, and from the lower floors to the top. Thus, a stable humidity regime is maintained and that is why the dome of the anthill does not rot and does not grow moldy;
  • orderlies - isolate sick ants from society, if the patient's limb is damaged, they amputate it, biting it off with their powerful jaws;
  • nannies-nurses - take care of the offspring and are engaged in education;
  • getters - get and store food;
  • guards - protect the entrances to the anthill from strangers and ensure the safety of the queen with the larvae;
  • shepherds or milkers - ants have their own pets. Aphids eat vegetation and secrete droplets of a sweet liquid called honeydew. Mutually beneficial cooperation has been established between insects. Ants tickle aphids and get honeydew - for them this is a delicious and nutritious food, which is the main source of carbohydrates. And in the form of a reciprocal service, they graze and protect their dairy cows from the attack of predators;
  • transporters - transfer the pad to the anthill;
  • workers of the maternity hospital - carry eggs in specially designated compartments and are responsible for maintaining the required temperature regime;
  • nectar keepers - necessary in the anthill in case there are suddenly hungry times in it, and the ants-producers will not be able to find food. Then the products that thrifty keepers always have come in handy;
  • scouts - looking for new places where you can get food.

Depending on how many ants are in the anthill, there is a division of labor. In a small ant family, all its members can engage in different activities, observing the principle of interchangeability. But in a large community, specializations appear and individual ants are assigned their own roles.

Ants, just like people, are not born equal, with different genetic predispositions, and the main task of the community is effective use the potential of each family member. So, for example, those who become guards and warriors initially show an aggressive disposition and, without reasoning, rush into battle, they are slightly larger than the rest of their relatives and have strong tentacles. The same story with the intellectual elite of the ant community - scouts. Smart ants have the ability to remember the sequence of turns on their way to a new food site and relay this information to the foragers.

The question of the prestige of the profession

At a young age, ants can change their profession and look for themselves in different types activities, for those who are not determined with specialization, the role of laborers is prepared. No matter how hard they try, newcomers cope with their duties worse than older and more experienced fellow tribesmen. According to scientists in the world of ants there is such a thing as the prestige of the profession. For example, ants do not allow the lower caste - slaves to drag larvae and even in case of danger they take them away and carry them themselves. For them, it's a matter of prestige! Slaves are assigned the role of builders, apparently, this profession is not quoted among ants.

Self-affirmation: “suitcase pose”

In order to secure their place under the sun, insects are forced to show their tough temper. They sometimes behave aggressively towards their fellow tribesmen: they run into each other, rise above the enemy, demonstratively walk on high and tense legs, and bite painfully. The winner in the dispute can grab the loser and force him to crouch in the “suitcase position”, then drag him off the battlefield, he can carry him to the anthill and throw him there so that he does not interfere with his career and does not approach the winner anymore.

It is amazing that ants live so harmoniously and work as a single mechanism for the benefit of their family, while not having one “think tank”. Moreover, the anatomical features of one ant will not allow it to be the sole manager - the capabilities of its nervous system are too small for such a large amount of programs and information that are necessary to control the life of an entire anthill.

The life of ants in an anthill is unique, very interesting and requires a long study to comprehend the new secrets of these tiny but powerful insects.

There is a great quote from Lewis Thomas on this score: “Ants are so much like us humans that it’s even somehow embarrassing. They grow mushrooms, raise aphids as milk cows, send armies of soldiers to war, spray chemicals to scare and confuse the enemy, capture slaves, exploit child labor, and constantly exchange information. In short, they do everything - except that they don’t watch TV ”

This anthill is only in appearance - a bunch of branches and needles, inside it is a real "ant city".

Ants are almost like humans. There is an initial set of qualities: aggressiveness, intelligence, enterprise, speed of reactions, the ability to interact with others. Depending on them, each ant gets his profession.

The queen of ants is the uterus - a sexually mature female. The uterus is able to establish a new anthill. To do this, she digs a small underground corridor, where she later lays her eggs.

Ants have a specialty - a security guard. It is received by those individuals who show aggressiveness early. Of course, they also have intelligence, but not as developed: it is not so important for soldiers to reason - they should rush to protect common resources without any hesitation.

Another profession is honeydew pickers. In a sense, ants have their own pets. Aphids feed on plant sap and secrete drops of a sweetish liquid called honeydew. Mutually beneficial cooperation has been established between ants and aphids. Ants collect honeydew - for them it is tasty and nutritious food, the main source of carbohydrates. And as a return service, they protect their green cows from predators.

There is also a division of labor among honeydew collectors. You can, of course, alone get the treasured drop of sweet liquid and drag it into the anthill yourself. But this is irrational from the point of view of logistics.

Therefore, there are ants that work as shepherds (or milkers): they tickle aphids, providing high milk yields. And the resulting products are transported by others.

Ants carefully monitor the condition of their homes. An average-sized anthill consists of 4–6 million needles and twigs. Every day, hundreds of builder ants carry them from above into the depths of the anthill, and from the lower floors to the top.

This ensures a stable moisture regime of the nest, and therefore the dome of the anthill remains dry after rain, does not rot or become moldy.

Even in the anthill there are hospitals where doctors, for example, surgeons, work. And if one of their inhabitants injured a limb, that is, an arm or a leg, then the surgeons amputate it (bite off).

Also necessarily in the ant family there are "custodians" of nectar. They are needed for that unforeseen case, if there is a famine in the anthill and the worker ants can no longer get food.

Slavery is common in some species. Ants attack someone else's anthill and steal pupae. Raised then in someone else's anthill, the captives work for his good.

Anthill in section

1. A covering of needles and twigs. Protects the dwelling from the vicissitudes of the weather, is repaired and updated by worker ants.

2. "Solarium" - a chamber heated by the rays of the sun. In the spring, the inhabitants come here to warm themselves.

3. One of the entrances. Guarded by soldiers. Serves as a ventilation channel.

4 . "Cemetery". This is where worker ants carry dead brethren and garbage.

5. Winter chamber. Insects gather here to survive the cold in a state of semi-hibernation.

6. "Bread barn". This is where the ants store grain.

7. The royal chamber, where the uterus lives, laying up to one and a half thousand eggs a day. She is cared for by worker ants.

8. Chambers with eggs, larvae and pupae.

9. "Cowshed" where ants contain aphids.

10. "Meat pantry", where foragers bring caterpillars and other prey.

Another thing is surprising: in the ant family, no “think tank” is found that would manage the common efforts to achieve the desired result, be it repairing the anthill, getting food or protecting it from enemies. Moreover, the anatomy of an individual ant - a scout, a worker, or an ant queen - does not allow one to place this "think tank" in an individual ant.

The physical dimensions of its nervous system are too small, and the volume of programs and data accumulated by generations is too large, necessary to control the life of the anthill.

And they saw what an anthill looks like. It is a small hill rising above ground level, covered with many twigs, leaves and blades of grass. Small residents of this house are constantly scurrying around next to him. But not many people know how the anthill works from the inside.

Choosing a place for an anthill

The founder of the anthill and all its future inhabitants is the female -. After that, with the male, she flies away from her native home to establish a new colony. In a wooded area, the ant queen chooses secluded places for nests next to trees, in old rotten stumps.

Having found a suitable place, the uterus pulls out a mink and lays the first clutch of eggs there. Having raised her first offspring on her own, the queen is no longer responsible for the further fate of the anthill. Its task is to constantly reproduce, and worker ants take care of it and future generations.

Gradually, the ants build a hill above the ground, which provides heating of the upper levels of the anthill from the sun. Twigs, leaves, sticks, pieces of earth - what ants build an anthill from. laying down roofing material in a special way, ants protect the roof of the house from leakage and winds.

On a note!

In the steppes and deserts, the anthill does not have a part that rises above the ground. Strong winds and the scorching sun predetermined the need to build houses deep underground.

The internal structure of the anthill

The anthill from the inside is a set of passages, corridors, chambers and compartments designed for specific purposes. The premises located on the upper levels of the anthill, in summer time heated by the sun and used as a solarium for adult insects.

Main building material interior decoration the ant house is a mixture of soil with humus, particles of bark and everything that builder ants bring with them. A large number of passages connecting different rooms to each other provide ventilation in the anthill.

At the middle levels of the ants' dwellings, there are rooms with food, pantries with food supplies, compartments for collecting garbage, and there is even an ant cemetery where dead tribesmen are brought. The main entrances to the anthill are also located on the middle level, that is, at the foot of the outer hill.

Interesting!

The lower tiers contain the most valuable compartments, which are very difficult for enemies to reach. In the most secluded place is the so-called "maternity hospital", where the queen lays her eggs. In different chambers of the lower level there is an incubator where the eggs of the uterus are stored, "nurseries" with larvae and pupae. All these compartments are under the constant protection of ants.

A large area is covered by a special chamber designed for. In the lower layers of the soil, they take refuge from frost, providing themselves with everything necessary for the summer period.

Strict hierarchy

In the sectional photo inside, the anthill looks like a labyrinth. But in this labyrinth everything happens according to the algorithm. Each insect has its own duties, which are assigned to it immediately after its birth. An adult can choose a role for herself according to her preferences:

  • builder ants;
  • nannies;
  • workers in the maternity ward;
  • transporters;
  • warriors;
  • guards;
  • scouts;
  • food getters.

The most responsible and valuable profession among ants is caring for offspring. It is awarded only to ants close to the uterus. Stronger and more aggressive individuals become good warriors and home guards. Insects with orientation skills become scouts for new territories in search of food. Strong and hardy members of the colony carry food and cargo along the countless anthill passages.

The construction of dwellings is carried out by the lowest classes. An anthill is often built by individuals who were enslaved during the next raid on neighboring colonies. During such military campaigns, insects can enter the enemy cell with pupae and steal them. Ants hatched from pupae may even be of a different species, but this does not prevent them from becoming lifelong slaves from birth.

An anthill with ants demonstrates a highly organized form, where each inhabitant contributes to the common cause. Scientists still do not understand what controls all the members of the colony, because they do not have a think tank. But this does not prevent the ants from running their household, raising offspring and arranging life within the walls of a huge house.

Every nature lover knows how the anthill works, as well as schoolchildren who carefully listen to the teacher. A thorough study of the structure is carried out by scientists - myrmecologists. A single ant seems to be the simplest creature. However, looking at their life inside the anthill, you can see the opposite.

External view of the ant house

From birth, there is a division into castes.

  1. Most of the family are worker ants. One half provides cosiness, comfort inside the structure, the other half - from the external environment, is engaged in the construction of a house outside.
  2. At the head of the hierarchy is the female, who is also called the uterus, the queen. Once fertilized at a young age, it gives offspring all of its own. Finds a place for the future anthill. In 14 days, full-fledged ants appear from the eggs, mainly a working clan. Taken as a building.
  3. A small part of society - young males. Their fate is not so happy. After fertilization, the young females die within 2 weeks.

Each ant has its own individual scent. All the inhabitants of a single anthill differ in a specific aroma. By smell, society distinguishes its inhabitant from a stranger. With the help of specific aromas, they report finding food, danger, heterosexual individuals find each other for fertilization.


There are more than a dozen "professions" in the ant society:

  • scouts;
  • warriors-invaders;
  • guard soldiers;
  • builders;
  • orderlies;
  • nannies;
  • miners;
  • shepherds, milkers;
  • transporters;
  • nurses;
  • guardians of food, nectar;
  • midwives.

Interesting!

On mutually beneficial terms. They provide her with food, she, eating plants, releases a special sweet substance. Ants deliberately tickle the insect so that there is more substance. This is the best delicacy for them, as for a man to arrange a feast with all kinds of goodies. Responsibilities are assigned to shepherds, milkers.

Continues for years. If there is a threat of collapses, damage, the ant family starts building other housing in the immediate vicinity, in order to more conveniently drag supplies, eggs, and larvae.

The structure of the anthill resembles a big city with a developed civilization, division into societies, and a clear distribution of responsibilities. The simple structure on the outside is the most complex structure on the inside.