• Some ants, called pot of honey , have specialized workers called replètes who store simply the food for the remainder of the colony; they are generally immobilized by their considerably inflated abdomens. In Africa, America ( Myrmecocystus ) and Australia where they live, one regards them as a delicious mets.

• the ants tisserandes ( Oecophylla ) build their nest in trees by attaching sheets together, initially by uniting them by a bridge of workers then by sticking them together with Soie produced by larvae.

• the cutting machines of sheets ( Atta ) are nourished, for a big part, of a symbiotic mushroom which develops only in their colonies. They continuously collect sheets in which they cut out small pieces which are used to cultivate mushroom. The castes of these ants are organized around cutting of the sheets and according to the size of the pieces with which they are charged.

• the ants charpentières (certain species of the kind Camponotus ) make their nests by digging wood. They vary in the face (polymorphism), they measure, in general, more than one centimetre, they count among the greatest species of Europe.

• the ants reaping-machines ( Messor sp. ) of the Mediterranean basin piles up seeds of Graminée S savages and cultivated, sometimes by tons, in " greniers" undergrounds. The adult ants (working and warlike) peel and chew each grain during several hours, in order to obtain an edible paste from it.

• the ants " pestes" , envahisseuses or vermin, is species come from remote countries which invade a new area and settle in such a way that one cannot drive out them. Most known in France are the ants of Argentina. This particularly remarkable species by its small size (1-3 mm) and very aggressive, formed a super-colony from Barcelona to Milan. The various anthills, contrary to the other species, are allied between them and consequently inarrétables when they form very large colonies. Will know moreover than this species introduced in France by pink pots of Bay-trees from Argentina with already driven out several species of other insects of the south of our country (dorandillula in particular).

• It should be noted that a species is protected in France, Formica rufa . Their presence within a forest, protects the trees from the development of devastating insects. A mature colony does not capture, in summer, less 1kg of insects per day and as much of honeydew . The anthill of these last constitutes a dome of brushwood which can reach more than one meter in height, often in clearing or skirt of forest. The dome allows a perfect temperature control and an optimal exposure to the solar radiations, thus supporting a rapid growth of the couvain. Fact, notable, certain species of russet-red Ants can join in Supercolonie. The use of sheets of coniferous tree or resin particles contributes to the disinfection of the nest.

Concerning the reproduction, the Wasmannia auropunctata with the rather exceptional possibility to have two modes of multiplication: the reproduction or the asexual Multiplication by Cloning.

There exist also Fourmis without queen, quote:

• Dinoponera quadriceps
• Diacamma ceylonense
• Gnamptogenys striatula
• Streblognathus peetersi

The privilege of the reproduction is the fruit of a hierarchical organization, where the gamergate, individual dominating of the colony, occupies this central place. Its reproductive privilege could be called into question by rivals during tournaments phéromonales and of ritualized aggressions.

Behaviors

The ants have a behavior which one finds for example in the bees, consisting in gathering a great number of individuals in order to create a functional and fast colony.

Communication

The principal use of the phéromones lies in the definition and the location of olfactive “tracks” intended to guide the ants towards sources of food (see below). The phéromones are also mixed with the food exchanged by Trophallaxie, informing each one on health and the nutrition of its congeneric. The ants can also detect to which work group (for example the foraging or the maintenance of nest) one or the other belongs. In the same way, a crushed or attacked ant will produce a phéromone of alarm whose high concentration causes an aggressive frenzy in the ants in the vicinity or of which a weaker concentration is enough to attract them. In certain cases, the phéromones can be used to mislead the enemies, or to even influence the development of the individuals. Thus, the queen produces a special phéromone in the absence of which the workers will start to raise new queens.

Certain ants emit sounds, one speaks then about stridulations (friction of grater, formed of alignment of coasts, scratches, teeth, spines, and scraper, which consists of a projection or a sharp edge, which produces the stridulation, a little as would do it a nail scraping on a file or the nail passing on the teeth of a comb). These sounds then make it possible to attract other workers for, for example, to carry a too heavy prey for a isolated individual. This method is however less effective than the track of phéromones, like showed it G.D in its famous experiment of the same name.

Others use also the visual communication, less and less widespread. At the Tetraponera S for example, when the larvae have a requirement for food, they stir up simply the head so that, quickly, a worker intervenes for him ingurgiter of the liquid food of mouth with mouth. At Tisserandes, when a worker launches out in the construction of a new nest, it starts by clutching a sheet to curve it. It will be immediately joined by its entourage which will have saw the scene and which will help it in its task. Thus they will be able to join the edges of two sheets to weave them between them.

Collective behavior

At the majority of the species, the colony has a complex social organization and is able to achieve difficult tasks (to exploit a source of food as well as possible, for example). This organization appears thanks to the many interactions between ants, and is not dirigée  -- contrary to an idea répandue  -- by the queen. One then speaks about collective Intelligence, to describe the way in which this collective behavior complexes appears, thanks to relatively simple individual rules.

In the colonies of ants, the “total behavior” is thus not programmed at the individuals, it is said that it emerges of the sequence of a great number of local interactions between the individuals and their environment.

A traditional example of car-organized collective behavior is the exploitation of the tracks of phéromones. An ant alone does not have the intelligence necessary to choose the shortest way in a complex environment. In fact, it is the colony as a whole (at least, individuals implied in foraging) which will choose this way.

In 1980, Jean-Louis Deneubourg could check in experiments that a colony of ants (of the species Lasius Niger ) having two ways different lengths to rejoin a source of food, more often chose the shortest way. It describes this phenomenon thus

“ (...) a “scout”, who discovers by chance a source of food, returns to the nest by tracing a chemical track. This track stimulates the workers to be left the nest and the guide until the source of food. After being itself fed there, the ants thus recruited return to the nest by reinforcing in their turn the chemical track. This communication attracts towards the source of food an increasingly many population. An individual who discovers a source of food there “attracts” in a few minutes congeneric N (for example 5); each one of those attract there in their turn congeneric N (25), and so on. ”

One knows since other examples of this type, like the construction of the nest, the distribution of the couvain in this one, the accumulation of the corpses of the colony, the organization in “Supercolonie S”, etc

Chorology

Distribution

The ant and the man

With the universalization of the commercial exchanges and transport, several species became invasive. A certain species, called tueuse ant, tends to attack animals much larger than it in its search of food or the defense of its nests. The attacks on the man are rare, but the punctures and the bites can be very painful and stun if they are repeated, with a possible Choc anaphylactic for some dangerous species. The ants can also cause problem when they are introduced into geographical areas where they are not indigenous (like Linepithema humile , the ant of Argentina, forming the supercolonie which goes from the Italian coasts to the Spanish coasts while passing by France, that is to say more: 6000 km, and exterminating the indigenous species). The ants of fire can for example attack and kill out of young alligators of the Mississippi to leaving egg.

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The ant was the topic of a certain number of cultural creations:

• of the fables: the Cicada and the Ant of Jean of the Fountain;
• of the novels: the Ants of Bernard Werber; Formiciens of Hubert de Rienzi;
• of science fiction films: giant ants , When Marabunta thunders ;
• of the telefilms: Marabunta: the underground invasion ;
• of films of fiction: the besieged Citadel , tells the attack of ants magnans on the citadel of the termites; the Country where dream the green ants (in German Wo die grünen Ameisen träumen ), of Werner Herzog (1984), evokes a conflict between tribes aboriginals and a mining company in Australia;
• of cartoon films: 1001 legs of the studio Pixar, Fourmiz of the studio DreamWorks and Lucas, ant in spite of him of the studios Warner Bros.
• of the video games: the Ants and its extension Wars of the West (Microids inspired of Bernard Werber) as well as the play of management Sim Ant of Maxis.

A sourate of the Coran is called the ants , it acts of the reference to a parabola which evokes the ants

See too

Related articles

• Edward Osborne Wilson, entomologist and sociobiologist, celebrates for his work on the ants;
• Eusocialité, name given to the lifestyle of the social insects the such ants
• Wasmannia auropunctata, or Small ant of fire: very aggressive species beginning its invasion of the world.
• Ant of red light, or Large ant of fire, Solenopsis invicta : species also invading and even more aggressive.
• Myrmécologie : the study of the ants.
• Animal Plants Myrmécophile S.
• myrmecomorphists.
• Bernard Werber, French novelist, author in particular of a series of works of fiction to successes which use the topic of the ants: the Ants (attention, information of this series has to take with precaution, the book is at the origin of full with information interpreted like true…)
• the algorithms of colonies of ants are Métaheuristique S inspired by the behavior of the real ants.
• Ant of Langton, cellular automat with the unforeseeable behavior.
• Ant full gallop
• Liver fluke: parasite of the liver of the sheep making use of the ant

External references

External bonds

• Key of identification simplified of the French ants a simplified key of determination of the ants of France carried out by the site AcideFormik
• ants - The Ants, Site on the ants of France (in French and English) accessible for all
• BelgAnt myrmecology in Belgium
• AcideFormik All on the behavior and the breeding from the ants
• French Section of the International union for the Study of the Social Insects, information scientist, press articles, portraits of researchers, bibliography.
• myrmecos.net, database photographic on the species of formicidae.
• AntBase.org Database (approximately 12.000 species) (in)