What Group of Animals Do Ants Belong to?
Wouterants belong to the insect order Hymenoptera. This includes bees, wasps, sawflies, ants, and cockroaches.
Ants are eusocial animals. They form colonies and feed on fungi, nectar, seeds, and insects. Their social structures are similar to that of bees and wasps.
A colony of ants may consist of millions of individuals. Depending on the climate, the average life of a worker ant is one to three years. They live on nectar, fungi, and food that is brought back by foraging workers. They also build traps using plant fiber.
The most common species of ants are five to fifteen millimeters long. Some species are red or yellow, while others are black. The body of an ant is formed by a thorax, a head, a abdomen, and six legs. The abdomen is a thin, slender waist that appears at the junction of the thorax and the metasoma.
The ant body is covered with an exoskeleton. This exoskeleton is made of an underlying substance called ectoderm. The exoskeleton is similar to the internal skeletal framework of vertebrates, but it is different. Unlike vertebrates, ants breathe through tiny holes in their exoskeleton.
Ants produce chemicals from their jaws, glands, and mouthparts. They also produce phenylacetic acid, a compound that inhibits bacteria and fungi. Ants also produce pheromones, which are chemical signals that ants use to communicate with one another. They also have a primitive nervous system.
Ants belong to a family called Formicidae. This family has a total of about 22,000 species. They are found in many different parts of the world, including North America, Australia, and New Zealand.
