Ant Taxonomy Family – Formicidae

Ant Mania > Family

About Formicidae, fourmis

Ants are related to a single brood, the Formicidae. At the same time, these little animals reside in the order Hymenoptera (Which includes wasps, bees, sawflies, and parasitic wasps).

An aspect of most formids is the possession of an organ known as the metapleural gland. This gland develops phenylacetic acid, which combats fungi and bacteria. It comprises two sets of cells that lead to 2 chambers at the back of the ant’s body. Although the gland is the most diagnostic characteristic that separates ants from other Hymenoptera, it is not global among Formicidae. Multiple tree species lack the metapleural gland (due to the drier and cleaner environment). Another characteristic that distinguishes ants is their body design. A slim neck ties the ant’s head to the thorax, which is then joined by a thin “waist” to the abdomen. Although this is the general composition of many insects, ants are characterized by their waist, which is tightened posteriorly at its connection with the belly.

Members of the family Formicidae are likely to be found in all regions except Antarctica, Iceland, Greenland, parts of Polynesia, and several remote islands in the Atlantic seas. Within this extensive scope, 8,800 species have been registered, although it has been argued that there are well over 20,000 species. An exact figure could be drastically hard to determine as many species are difficult to tell apart. Ants can reside in almost any habitat and land area, including deserts, beaches, walls, and abandoned pipes. Several species have even been known to prevail underwater for up to 14 days, entering an anesthetized state. The oxygen reserve is reduced twenty times below the ant’s needs once it sleeps.

Formicidae has a highly structured social system, a feature that only a few insects have evolved, including termites, bees, and wasps. 2 or more generations exist side-by-side, with the grown-up ants caring for the young. Ants have castes with reproductive queens, kings, and unproductive workers (all females). Ant structures vary significantly in their social design, but there are 3 main phases in the development and life of the colony. The first is the fundamental phase when the young virgin queen (late female) leaves her mother’s nest. She flies until she meets and is inseminated by certain males. Males quickly pass. After that, the female finds a suitable place on the ground or a rotten tree to build a nest. She feeds and cares for her first calf until it becomes an adult. After this, the colony enters a second phase, successful as an ergonomic phase. The queen is now busy laying eggs while the workers feed, care for the young, and grow the nest. This phase, which coincides with the colony’s growth, lasts 4 to 5 years, depending on the type of ant. Once a colony is fit, it eventually enters the final phase, the reproductive phase. New queens and males are generated, leaving the nest to create new colonies, starting the period anew.

Ants manifest many behaviors and phenomena typical to other insect families and species. For this reason, investigations have been done on topics including:

• Kin selection
• The effects of competition among individuals of the same territory or anthill
• Hierarchy
• The nature of behavioral regulatory functions in social organization.
• The shaping of castes by natural selection contributes to the genetic wellness colony as an entire

Ants are of powerful importance in the world of insects. They have elaborate and frequently obligatory relationships with diverse plants, which rely on the ants for their well-being. These have seed dispersal, pollination, protection by ants against aggression by herbivores, and enrichment of ground through soil turning. Ants also contribute substantially to the massive biodiversity of insects, and their richly complex lives and associations have provided scientists with considerable insights concerning evolutionary and ecological phenomena.

Numerous ants have been flawlessly preserved in amber. By observing this precise fossil record, much can be discovered about Formicidae evolution, such as the growth of ants from a primal form of wasp. Sphecomyrma seems to be the connection between modern ants and primitive wasps. Sphecomyma was the first known arthropod to possess the metapleural gland, an essential ant characteristic.

Taxonomy and evolution

The Formicidae lineage belongs to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from a family within the aculeate Hymenoptera.

Following the proliferation of flowering plants about 100 million years ago, they diversified and took a prevalent ecological place about 60 million years ago.

During the Cretaceous era, a few species of primal ants included a wide distribution on the Laurasia supercontinent (the Northern Hemisphere). They were occasional compared to other insects, making up approximately 1% of the insect population. Ants became dominant following the adaptive radiation at the origin of the Paleogene. During the Oligocene and Miocene, they already defined 20-40% of all the insects discovered in the principal fossil depositions. Of the species that resided in the Eocene period, around one genus in ten prevails today. The genera that survive today include 56% of the genera located in Baltic amber fossils (Early Oligocene) and 92% of the genera in Dominican amber fossils (apparently Early Miocene).

Diversity and Distribution

They occupy all continents, excluding Antarctica and some big islands, such as Greenland, Iceland, and the territories of Polynesia. The Hawaiian Islands also lack native ant families. They inhabit diverse ecological niches and can use different food resources, working as direct or indirect predators, herbivores, and scavengers.

It is calculated that between 1 billion and 10 billion Formicidae reside on Earth. Their biomass measures their ecological superiority: Estimations made in different conditions show that they represent, on average, 15-20% of the whole biomass of terrestrial creatures, rising to almost 25% in the tropical zone. According to these calculations, the biomass of all current ants in the world would be equivalent to the total biomass of all human beings.

Morphology

They have morphological attributes different from other insects, such as metapleural glands, elbowed antennae, and muscular compaction of their second abdominal segment into a node-shaped petiole. The head, mesosoma (the thorax and the first abdominal part connected to it), and metasoma or gaster (the abdomen minus the abdominal part of the petiole) are its three differentiated body segments.

Like the rest of the insects, ants own an exoskeleton. Insects do not own lungs; Oxygen and other gases such as carbon dioxide move through the exoskeleton via tiny valves named spiracles. Insects also lack closed blood containers (open circulatory system); instead, they have a long, thin, perforated tube (called the “dorsal aorta”), which extends through the upper part of the body and acts as the heart and pumps hemolymph to the head, thus governing the circulation of internal fluids. The nervous system is formed of a ventral nerve cord that drives the length of the body, with different ganglia and branches getting the ends of the appendages.

An ant’s head has numerous sensorial organs. Like most insects, they have compound eyes formed of multiple tiny lenses. Their eyes are good at detecting activity, but they do not offer a significant resolution. They also have three little ocelli (simple eyes) on the top of their heads, which catch light level and polarization of light.

The Formicidae has six legs attached to the mesosoma (thorax). Hooked claws at the end of each leg and pads between the claws permit these arthropods to climb and stick to surfaces as smooth as glass. Ants’ metasoma (abdomen) shelters vital internal organs, including those of the respiratory (trachea), reproductive, and excretory systems. Worker ants of numerous species have the ovipositor adjusted into a stinger that they utilize to suppress prey and guard their nests.

Next, we will have a list of all the Subfamilies of ants discovered.

Subfamilies Of Ants