Guest guest Posted May 17, 2005 Report Share Posted May 17, 2005 ***************************Advertisement*************************** eCentral - Your Entertainment Guide http://www.star-ecentral.com ***************************************************************** This message was forwarded to you by yitzeling. Comment from sender: This article is from The Star Online (http://thestar.com.my) URL: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2005/5/17/features/9923702 & sec=f\ eatures ________________________ Tuesday May 17, 2005 The Little Incredibles By DR ARTHUR Y.C. CHUNG They are not the undercover superhero family out to save the world as featured in cinemas recently. The “Little Incredibles” here refer to ants, the tiny creatures considered insignificant and a nuisance by many of us. I call them the “Little Incredibles” because I am amazed with these little creatures’ superb characteristics despite their size. Although extremely small, they do have brains. It takes a colony of 40,000 ants to collectively make up the size of a human brain. In many ways, this tiny creature is far better than humans. An ant can lift 20 times its own body weight, a feat beyond the capability of humans. If a man could run as fast for his size as an ant can, he would be as fast as a racehorse! Ants have been living on the Earth for more than 100 million years and can be found almost anywhere on the planet. There are an estimated 20,000 different species worldwide but only 9,500 have been described. Ants are one of the most organised animals. They are social insects, living in colonies like bees, wasps and termites. The colony is made up of at least one queen, female workers, eggs, larvae, pupae and drones. Every individual has a specialised function. Some scout for food while others take care of the queen and the brood. The stronger ones guard the nest from attacks by intruders. The queen is neither a commander nor a ruler because she does not give commands to the worker ants. Her task is to lay eggs. There is no king in an ant organisation. After the nuptial flight, the reproductive males have no other tasks in the colony and would eventually die. <b>Team spirit</b> All worker and soldier ants are sterile females. Though unable to reproduce, they carry out their daily specialised tasks for the well-being of the colony. Thus, work wise, every ant is considered equal in the organisation. Teamwork is practised. When the scout ants locate a food source, a few will run back to the nest to get help. Eventually, hundreds of ants will come and carry the food back to the nest. If the food is too big and heavy, they will cut it into smaller pieces. In the battlefield, ants are cohesive and fight as a team. They may be small but it is the number that matters. A bigger intruder such as a beetle may lose out to them because the ants would pull and bite the antennae, legs and other parts of the body, rendering it helpless to defend itself. These tiny insects are creative and great architects too. Some ants construct carton nests from half-digested wood, leaves and soil particles. The weaver ants build their nests from living twigs and leaves, which are held together by larval silk. Some live inside plant structures while others live in the soil. Inside the ant nest, multiple chambers connected by tunnels are used for specific purposes, such as a nursery, queen’s chamber, storage chamber and even a sewage chamber. Ants are important in the functioning of ecosystems, especially in the tropical rain forest. Due to their high abundance in the forest, they play a vital role as decomposers and provider of nutrients, breaking down bigger materials to enable these to be used as nutrients by plants. Like earthworms, ants are one of the chief earthmovers in the tropics. Soil and leaf-litter ants help to loosen and aerate soil. This is good for plants. Some ants help spread seeds after feeding on juicy fruits. It has been estimated that ants disperse the seeds of about 35% of all herbaceous plants. <b>Shared lifestyle</b> Since the 12th century, ants have been used as a biological control agent for citrus pests in southern China. Today in Malaysia, the cocoa black ants Dolichoderus thoracicus are used to suppress the attack of the pests Helopeltis theobromae in cocoa plantations. The common weaver ants Oecophylla smaragdina are also effective in controlling pests that attack mango fruits. Some ants exhibit a mutualistic relationship with plants, meaning that they help each other to survive. One example is the Crematogaster ants and the Macaranga trees. The ants protect the plant from attacks by herbivores and creepers. In return, the plant provides shelter (in its hollow stems and branches) and food (extrafloral nectaries at the shoot) for the ants. Extrafloral nectaries produce sugary secretions that are attractive to ants. Ants also maintain a mutualistic relationship with the ant plant Hydnophytum formicarium which is commonly found in low nutrient environments. The plant has swollen tubers with multiple chambers that are suitable for ants to live in. The ants provide nutrients in the form of waste products. Besides plants, some other organisms also spend parts of their life cycles with ant colonies. They include aphids, scale insects, mealy bugs, treehoppers and some caterpillars. These provide sugary secretions known as “honeydew” to the ants for food. In return, the ants protect them from their enemies. Small yet determined, ants are also organised, creative, hardworking and important in many ways. Indeed, we have a lot to learn from the “Little Incredibles”. The writer is a forest entomologist at the Forest Research Centre in Sandakan, Sabah.<p> ________________________ Your one-stop information portal: The Star Online http://thestar.com.my http://biz.thestar.com.my http://classifieds.thestar.com.my http://cards.thestar.com.my http://search.thestar.com.my http://star-motoring.com http://star-space.com http://star-jobs.com http://star-ecentral.com http://star-techcentral.com 1995-2004 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Star Publications is prohibited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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