Small animals essay

They move fast despite the dark. Through narrow corridors hundreds and thousands of ants rush out of the anthill. Droves tiny crawling ant bodies going out of several openings straight into the afternoon sunlight. At least the ant-heroes of the day appear: young males and females, supplied with two pairs of membranous wings. The worker-ants, excited today, weave around them leading the ‘royals’ up to the highest point of the anthill. From where they set of on their first and last flight. These flights are known as swarms. They are easy to observe in the spring. It is the only chance for future ant monarchs to supply themselves. (with seed for the next 10 to 15 years) For most the flight ends in the mouths, beaks, and jaws of hungry predators. Only a few fertilized (American English, )females are given the chance to start a new ant-family.

A young queen depends on herself alone, and so she hides away in some dark niche ,breaks and eats her wings herself. She loses any chance of flying again, but at the same time supplies herself with a tasty meal. She industriously digs a hole into the earth or between two stones. Some of them build their homes in three roots or tree trunks. Later, the young queen gets to work laying eggs. Even a year can pass before the first larvae hatch. During that time the lonely mother has no food, eating her wings alone. There are also mothers who eat the eggs they have laid themselves-I think it’s terrible, although this doesn’t stop them from caring for the other ones, which are still moved from place to place and which the mother delicately licks. The eggs are kept well-aired moist and clean. When at least the first larvae hatch, the queen moves them to a special chamber( a kind of creche), where she feeds them with fresh eggs. The larvae grow quickly until they finally make silken cocoons, where they stay until they are the fully-formed adult ants. The young worker ants almost immediately take over thell duties. Normally the youngest and the smallest workers feed and protect the eggs. Older more experienced ones run beyond the anthill in search of food. They are also building a material necessary to expand the ants’ nest. From here on the queen does not show any interest in In looking after the offspring. However in anthill matters and devotes herself to lying ever larger quantities of eggs. Not every young mother can cope with such difficult work. The enormous almost four-centimetre Carebara takes with her a retinue taking with her a lot of workers on her nuptial flight. Thanks to that she doesn’t have to bother about the matters of the anthill. There are also species where the females try other ways of shirking the hard work of building a nest. The Bothrionyrmex deceptions ant very silently approaches to an anthill of another species, gets to the queen’s chamber, and unnoticed by anybody settles on her back. She then cuts the royal head. The workers accept the slayer, looking after her and her offspring until they die. More perfidious method of „taking power’ has been developed by the Monomorinium santschii. This one doesn’t have to use her jaws muscles. They have got a special thing for a special occasion. Monomorinium santchii produce a special narcotic and feeds the workers from the attacked anthill with it, so next they kill their own queen! The usurper is then placed on the throne. The new queen and her young daughters are staunchly served and protected by the workers. The peaceful hill ants common in our forests have a different approach. The young fertilized females look for a nest of the same species as they are.

The workers breaks off the queen’s wings. They look after her with devotion. Like for example daughters looking at their mother. Sometimes there may be three or more queens at the same time in nests like those, lying eggs together. The extended families can build entire ‘towns’ of inter-connected nests. Sometimes they are covering areas of hundreds of square meters. Larva and pupa-filled chambers, ants themselves, are a great dish for many ant predators. This include a lot of birds specious, the very famous anteaters, and bears, armadillos, frogs and toads, spiders. And also many, many other insects and even other ants. So it’s no surprise for us that many species have their own worker-soldier corps, with strong and sharp jaws. Ants also use special glands on their abdomens in defence, shooting out some kind of ant acid at their attackers. Those supplied by nature with stings cause more than bees or wasps. Ants like having a good feed. One nest of forest brown ants can consume ten thousand insects during one 24-hour time, many of their prey being dangerous pets. The importance of ants as soldiers of the forest was appreciated long ago by the ancient Chinese. They put them under protection two hundreds years ago. Sometimes ants are predacious in pretty scary and terrifying ways. Ants of the Anomm from Africa are known as the Huns of insects. Families of them(living in anthill)is about up to two million in number, are unable to stay in one place for long. They form enormous columns, three meters wide. Up to one hundred and twenty meters long. They move blindly forward eating everything they could find. They have even been noted to eat a leopard. But the truth is, he was locked in the cage, but that’s a quite ambitious feat. The Solenopsis leads a more carefree life. It builds it’s nests under the nests of larger ants. They are known for their regular plundering. The little thief reminds unpunished. Apart from warriors and thieves, there are ants of a more peaceful nature. These, in exchange for the protection afford them, feed the ants with a sweet secretion. Some ant species store their food like corn and grass in special chambers. Fields of corn sometimes grow up around their anthills. The ant story is a never-ending tale. There is only one purpose to all their work, no matter whether to us it seems amazing. Following the warm spring rain, the next generation of young queens will be able to fly into the afternoon-sunlight.