Another species, the yellow crazy ant Anoplolepis gracilipes , is capable of forming so-called supercolonies that house multiple queens. All rights reserved. A leafcutter ant photographed at St. Louis Zoo in Missouri. Common Name: Ants. Scientific Name: Formicidae. Type: Invertebrates. Diet: Omnivore. Group Name: Army, colony. Average Life Span: Several weeks to several years. Size: 0. Size relative to a paper clip:. This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our photo community on Instagram.
Follow us on Instagram at natgeoyourshot or visit us at natgeo. Share Tweet Email. Conservation Ant populations are stable. Fun Fact Ants usually form colonies with one nest and one queen—but some species have formed huge groups called supercolonies, which can have multiple nests and multiple queens.
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Join Ranger Rick Inspire a lifelong connection with wildlife and wild places through our children's publications, products, and activities Learn More. They are social insects so they live, work, and travel in large numbers. Like other household pests, they enter your home wherever they find a way. Here are a few examples:.
They can also hitchhike into your home when you bring something inside from the outdoors. They can be identified by their large heads, elbow antennas, and node-like bodies. Keep your home pest free with simple, effective solutions. Subscribe and save! Each ant colony is made up of different types of ants called castes. A single colony can exist for many years with the same queen ant, but the male ants and female workers have shorter life cycles. When the queen stops producing a certain pheromone, workers begin to raise new queens in the colony.
Ants eat many different kinds of food, and their preferences change depending on the time of the year. There may be more than a million ants in one nest. Each larva turns into a pupa. The pupa is a stage between the larva and adult that doesn't move around and doesn't feed.
Inside the skin of the pupa the body of the larva changes into the body of an adult. In some types of ant the pupa is protected inside a casing called a cocoon, so this change can happen in safety. Ant eggs hatch into immature young, called larvae.
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