The Living Landscape: The secret life of ants
- KATHLEEN SCAVONE
- Posted On
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Who knew that ants were such fascinating creatures?
I enjoyed a Zoom talk hosted by the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority's Merav Vonstak, PhD recently, who related that there are 12,000 to 15,000 ant species worldwide.
When I think of the masses of ants that had silently invaded my home during an extended vacation years ago, it looked as if every one of the 15,000 ant species had congregated in my kitchen!
They had chosen a houseplant as their home base where their ant excavations were taking place in the planter's soil. Needless to say, that plant now lives far away from the kitchen!
Dr. Vonstak pointed the Zoom class towards an ant data website called www.antmaps.org.
If you hover the cursor over California it shows that we have 281 native ant species in our state; and by moving the cursor “around the world” it gives you an idea of the diversity of ant critters worldwide.
Ants are highly organized in their social structure, or “eusocial.” They display cooperative brood care and they have an organized division of labor where some ants “empty the trash” that may have accumulated in the nest, while some ants are fighters and will defend their domain.
The life cycle of the ant includes egg, larva, pupa then adult metamorphosis. Each colony contains at least one queen who is distinguished by her large eyes and large thorax and abdomen.
The queen may live up to two years unless it's a harvester or carpenter ant, then she may reach the ripe old age of 30 years. Male ants also possess large eyes which enable him to find a mate.
Worker ants are sterile; they cannot lay eggs. The workers, who may live only weeks, vary in size since there are minors, medians and majors.
Most ant species are omnivores, however, some species specialize, and prefer fruit, nectar or seeds. Some ant species are a boon to the garden as they dine on pesky aphids.
If you want to sneak a peek at ant life, they can easily be found in most habitats, nesting under rocks or downed tree limbs.
Harvester ants will be busily gathering seeds near grasslands, while big carpenter ants live inside decomposing logs or in dead trees.
The ants around my deck will want to watch out for fence lizards that I've seen gobbling them up like Pacman!
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, freelance writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.”