What do ants eat? Detailed answer

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What do ants eat? Detailed answer

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What do ants eat?

The only place where you won't find ants is on the tops of very high mountains. It is hard to imagine that there are thousands of different kinds of ants.

Let's talk about some unusual gastronomic features of ants. The reaper ant collects the seeds of some grass common to the area and carries them to the nest. Here the seeds are sorted and stockpiled as food supplies.

Other ants are dairy farmers. They contain herds of plant lice, or "aphids" as they are called. They milk them by striking their flanks until the sweet liquid they produce oozes out. Ants take great pleasure in honeydew, or milk, and therefore take great care of their "cows".

And there are ants that live in mushrooms - and nowhere else. The mushrooms they eat must grow on something. And the ants take special care of their soil.

There are also miller ants. One species of ant has a special kind of worker with a huge head. Powerful head muscles allow you to work the jaws and engage in grinding. These worker ants are truly the millers of the colony. They grind grains brought by ordinary workers. After the harvest season, the millers are killed and their heads are bitten off. This is done so that there are no additional eaters.

One species of ant maintains household food supplies. When worker ants bring flower nectar, special colony ants take and swallow it. In winter, other inhabitants of the colony come to them and get enough food from their mouths. So they eat until the next season.

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

Why there are seasons?

Since ancient times, people have wondered about the change of seasons. Why is it warm in summer and cold in winter? Why are the nights long in winter?

We know that the Earth rotates around the Sun, and at the same time it rotates around its own axis. As it revolves around the sun, it still spins like a top. If the Earth's axis (an imaginary line from the North Pole to the South Pole) were at right angles to the Earth's orbit around the Sun, we would have no seasons and all days would be the same.

But the Earth's axis is tilted. The fact is that various forces act on the Earth. Firstly, this is the attraction of the Sun, secondly, the attraction of the Moon, and thirdly, the rotation of the Earth itself. As a result, the Earth revolves around the Sun in an oblique position. This position is maintained all year round, so the Earth's axis is always directed to one point - to the North Star.

This means that part of the year the North Pole is turned towards the Sun, and the second part is hidden from it. Because of this inclination, the direct rays of the Sun sometimes illuminate the area of the Earth's surface north of the equator, sometimes on the equator, sometimes south of the equator. This is a different effect of direct sunlight on parts of the earth's surface and causes the change of seasons in different parts of the globe.

When the Northern Hemisphere is turned towards the Sun, in countries north of the equator it is summer, and to the south it is winter. When the direct rays of the Sun fall on the Southern Hemisphere, summer comes here, and winter in the Northern Hemisphere. The longest and shortest days of the year are called the winter and summer solstices.

All over the world in every year there are two days when the day is equal to the night. This happens in spring and autumn, exactly between the solstice days. In autumn, this happens around September 23 - this is the autumn equinox, in the spring around March 21 - the vernal equinox.

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