Ants Essay

Ant like insects have been inhabiting this world for over 130 million years, evolving into the insects that we recognize today from their wasp-like ancestors. Ants are one of the planet’s most successful insect species at adaptability and have even been referred to as super-organisms. Their adaptive success is due to their hive-mind like structure. This hive-mind like structure allows ants to not only defend themselves effectively from predators but it also allows them to exploit resources and modify their habitats efficiently. Ants inhabit almost every land mass on the planet with an estimated 12,500 discovered species. (Dvorsky 2012)

Army ants prefer tropical and subtropical regions mainly being found in Brazil, Peru and Mexico. Army ants prefer these hot and humid climates because of the rain forests where they nest at the base of trees. Army ants are temporary nesters and will move when their food source runs low. Because of their large colony sizes, which range from 150,000 to 2 million in established colonies, army ants can be heard marching along the forest floor when moving to new nesting sites. It has even been recorded that the worker ants will link themselves together creating a bridge when moving over holes, cracks and streams. Army ants use their hive-mind and aggressive mentality to tackle large prey such as tarantulas, scorpions, beetles, frogs, snakes, and lizards. Each colony has a queen, workers, major workers, and drones. The queen, who can lay up to 30,000 eggs per day, is considerably larger as well as wingless. The workers start their day at dawn where they demolish almost all living life that gets in their way. The worker ant’s spread out into a fan shaped swarm and move at speeds up to 20 meters per hour....

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...Ants have evolved over the past 135 million years to be one of the most adaptive species on the planet. From their wasp like ancestors to the insects that we know today they have shown an evolutionary path that has lead them to be one of the most abundant insects to date. Ants have been estimated to account for 15-25% of the animal biomass on the planet (Dvorsky 2012). Their hive-like mind allows them to hunt with precision overtaking prey much larger then themselves. Their strong grasping mandibles allow them to tear their prey apart, carrying pieces back to the nest. Their social behavior allows for advantages such as genetic diversity and the decreased susceptibility to pathogens thanks to serial mating and the evolution of strong flight in the male sex. All of these factors and more have contributed and will further contribute to the ant’s evolutionary success.