Daily Celestial Challenge: The Animal Kingdom -
Hi everyone, on today's #celestialchallenge initiated by @sirknight. I would be focusing my writeup on the hardworking ant, that's right you read correctly, THE ANT.
When we hear about ants our mind usually goes off to urban legends like ants in the brain or ants lifting up to a hundred times their own weight. Well sit tight as i take you all into the miniature world of this tiny creature.
Ants are widely known as one of the most hardworking creatures on the planet despict their little size. They have civilizations and are so advanced to the point they have been able to deligate work among themselves hence practicing division of labour.
The ant basically passes the message of hardwork, diligence and unity. When i see an ant what goes through my mind is, "You are stronger than you think! Sure things are tough right now but KNOW that you will soon be reaping the rewards of all your hard work."
SOME FACTS ABOUT THE ANT.
There are over twelve thousand species of classified ants in the world.
Ants are social creatures, hence they live in colonies which can consist of up to millions of ants.
There are three kinds of ants in a colony, the queen, the female workers and the males. Only the queen and the males have wings.
Ants dont have ears😲. They 'hear' by feeling vibrations in the ground through their feet.
When ants fight, its more than often to the death🗡
When ants conquer another colony they take the unhatched eggs and these become 'slave' ants when they hatch.
Ants don’t have lungs. Oxygen enters through tiny holes all over the body and carbon dioxide leaves through the same holes.
Though it is widely believed that ants can lift a hundred times their own weight, it is actually just about twenty times their own weight. But this is still alot, if a 10year old boy could do that then he could lift a car💪
When foraging, ants leave a pheromone trail so that they know where they’ve been.
Some ant species are Asexual. Rather than going down the traditional route of reproduction, some Amazonian ants have taken to reproduce via cloning. It is reported that the queen ants copy themselves to genetically produce daughters, resulting in a colony with no males. Amazing isnt it😎
Ants rear other creatures. Just like we raise cows, sheep, pigs, chicken and fish in order to obtain a food source, ants will do the same with other insects. The most common occurrence of this is with aphids. Ants will protect aphids from natural predators, and shelter them in their nests from heavy rain showers in order to gain a constant supply of honeydew.
Ants have two stomachs, and it’s not because they are greedy. One of their stomachs is for holding food for their own consumption, whilst the second one is to hold food to be shared with other ants. This process is known as trophallaxis and allows a colony to work extremely efficiently. It allows for the ants who forage for food to feed those which stay behind and tend to the duties of the queen and the nest.
So thats basically all i know about ants. If you have a correction, comment or addition please feel free to indicate in the comment section. THANK YOU FOR READING.......