Ants eat plants or food of animal origin. Then they distribute it among themselves.
Food distribution
Larvae get animal squirrels. These are zoological remains, insect eggs. From the house ants drag gelatin, the remains of fried eggs and dairy dishes. For growth and development, larvae require proteins.
Adults consume carbohydrates. These are easily digestible by the body, seeds, nuts, flower nectar and tree sap, the pulp of the fruits and roots of plants. Insects pull out honey, sugar, and jam from a person’s home.
Each type of ants produces a specific feed.
- Only insects and their larvae serve as food for stray ants and cerapahis ants.
- Ants are fed the uterus with chopped food, which they chew on themselves. She eats such a dessert.
- Some species of insects are used pad and honey dew. Such dew forms on the leaves of trees after temperature changes. Paddy is called sugary secretions of aphids and some other insects.
- Red forest ants feed on a paddy. It makes up more than half of their diet. Therefore, they often protect and preserve aphids.
- Carpenter ants extract carbohydrates from gum, that is, from the resin of trees. It appears when the bark is damaged. However, they will not give up the paddy, for they lack one gum.
Dry plant seeds are the food of ants reapers.. This is a tough food, but it contains carbohydrates.Slaves of this type of insect, except for the protection of the anthill, are required to grind hard seeds with strong jaws to form a soft slurry. It is then eaten by other insects, occupying a higher status.
Ant Frequency
Insects eat more than once a day. Foraging ants do not miss an opportunity to dine along the way. Insects left at home also feed on stockpiles.
In addition to the owners themselves, other ants live in the anthill, such as bugs, caterpillars, moths and their larvae. The owners do not drive them away, they even allocate their eggs for their share. Instead, they eat their syrup. To do this, you need to touch the tenant and he will allocate a little tasty syrup.
Ants in winter - how ants winter
In winter, the ant family is forced to starve. Ants living in Russia do not fall into suspended animation, but actively act in a closed anthill. Their meager supply is made up of their former reserves.
Stocks
In southern Russia, reaper ants are capable of harvesting about one kilogram of seeds of different herbs over the summer months. Then they will endure all the winter months calmly, there will be no hunger in the anthill. In winter, there are no larvae in the ant heap. Without protein food, which the larvae need, ants can do.
Reaper ants mainly eat seeds, they make up to 97% of their diet. Northern ants sleep all 9 winter months. They do not need food during hibernation.
House ants
Some nature lovers contain ant homes. They know that food is necessary for the development of ants.In the winter months they store their anthill in the refrigerator. In the insect feeder, the owners always leave them food. When the temperature rises to zero, foraging ants run out and bring food to the anthill.
It is very important that there are trophic eggs in the anthill. The uterus lays them during a period of abundance of food in the anthill. She uses for this not developed larvae. They are eaten by ants when other food ends.
Gourmets Among Ants
Some species of ants, with all the variety of nutritional balance, choose only 1-2 types of food. Such gourmets include the following insects:
- Leaf cutting ants. They are engaged in haymaking.
Foraging ants drag pieces of leaves into the anthill. They themselves grind them to a sticky gruel. She is placed in special cells in the anthill. Like greenhouses. Mushrooms sprout on leaf porridge. Hard grass ants do not eat.
- Ants-centremexes. They feed only on termites;
- Pinerines. In this subfamily of insects, each of its species eats one species of insects.
- Dracula Ant. Interesting insects. They prefer to be saturated with the juice of their larvae without harming their health. They feed larvae to insects.
Nutrition of Ant Larvae
Larvae feed in two ways: independently able to feed and those that can not eat themselves. The latter are more. Adults are forced to saturate them with the trophollaxis method. Ants feed the larvae with food that has already been partially digested in their stomach.
Self-feeding larvae are able to consume non-living insects. Larvae from another anthill, trophic eggs or other protein foods are suitable for them.
Larvae of leaf-cutting ants eat mushrooms grown in the anthill.
From what larvae eat, their further fate depends. Will they, after pupation, be slaves, or a womb. Thus, the anthill can be considered a democratic society. There, the working ants decide for themselves who should be ordinary and who should be the queen of ant.
