First dinosaurs ruled the Earth. They were erased by the Great Flood or whatever. Then came humans. Now, we expect the Great Flood again followed by the Great Drought – both in this century. Which species will be dominant after we are gone? It could well be the ant. There is little difference between us except that ants are smarter and more innovative. Like us they are city creators and dwellers, farmers, warriors, ruthless despots, engineers, teachers. They use tools, know about medicines, plan and think. If you came across them in Mars, we would know we had encountered an alien race that organizes itself into a complex society complete with social ranks such as nobles, soldiers, workers and slaves.
If the ants were still primitive hunter gatherers they would be just another species which goes when we go, but they have settled buildings and have been farming their own food for the last 50 million years. And they raise cattle. Therefore they have already tamed the Earth. All they need now is for us to get out of the way – which we are in the last stages of doing.
It is their farming that interests me. Ants are the only animal besides humans that farm food. All other creatures hunt or harvest their food where they find it and are dependent on nature for their survival. Wolves exhibit intelligence, cooperation and skill in hunting for food but they do not capture deer and breed them. Deer forage for grasses but have no thought of sowing grass seeds to ensure a permanent supply. Only man and ant have ever thought to keep their prey in captivity or to farm plants in order to feed themselves in the future.
200 known species of Attini and Acromyrmex ants cultivate fungus farms having discovered agriculture 50 million years before humans. They are known as Leaf Cutters.
The leaf-cutting ants carefully select leaves that can be made into funguses, scraping away the plants' antifungal defenses, such as the waxy coating on leaves and carry them to underground nests where they are chewed and planted in soil. With these leaves the ants put down fungal mycelia (like adding a little curd to milk to make it curd overnight) and spit out enzymes that break down the proteins and carbohydrates. As the leaves break down they produce blobs called gongylidia. The ants consume these gongylidia. The ants prevent the fungi from fruiting and clone the fungus. When a new colony of ants is to be created the queen tucks a pellet of the fungal mycelia into her mouth and then uses this to seed a new fungus garden in her new colony.
Like us ants weed out every plant they do not want and keep the garden free of pathogens and parasites. Instead of buying pesticides (I am sure they have shops inside their cities) the ants produce phenylacetic acid and b-hydroxydecenoic acid in their glands and these antibiotics act as pesticides.
The growing of the fungus requires a great deal of planning and forethought: an appropriate chamber must be constructed, the right leaves must be collected, waste must be removed so as not to choke the growing fungus beds, and the leaves must be seeded with the fungus spores. The spores do not grow naturally - the ants must collect them and bring them to the leaves. To understand that by contaminating a new leaf with the fungus spore, it will result in more food later shows the ability to think ahead.
But ants don't just farm, they raise and keep other insects for food, just like humans raise cattle.
They domesticate aphids and act like shepherds by taking the aphids to feed on different plants, while protecting them from other insect predators. The ants then "milk" the aphids by squeezing their abdomens and causing some digested plant juice to be released into the mouths of the ants which will then share this nutritious fluid with the rest of the colony. This closely parallels that of human shepherds and cattle breeders.
Atta and Acromyrmex ants form the most complex and largest animal societies on the planet. Their cities grow to a depth of 30 meters and 98 feet across with the smaller and radiating mounds which extends out to a radius of around 80 meters. These nests can hold around eight million ants. Atta nests have hundreds to thousands of gardens, discrete units, with an average garden size of about 30×20×20 cm. Each colony has both shallow and deep gardens. Shallow gardens are about 0.5 meters deep and depend on seasonal, climatic changes. Deep gardens generally are 1–4 meters deep and evade summer droughts and winter temperatures
In a leafcutter colony, ants are divided into castes that perform different functions - minims, minors, mediae and majors. Minims tend to the brood or care for the fungus gardens. Minors are slightly larger and are the footsoldiers that go out with the foraging ants as the first line of defense to attack any enemies that threaten the foraging lines. Mediae are the foragers, who cut leaves and bring the leaf fragments back to the nest. Majors are the largest worker ants and act as soldiers, defending the nest from intruders, clearing the main foraging trails of large debris and carrying bulky items back to the nest.
These ants bring fresh leaves and plant cuttings into their nests; these are further cut into smaller and smaller pieces and are placed in the fungus garden and treated with ant liquid. Fungus proliferates on these leaves and ants feed on fungus. The leaf cutter ants harvest about 470 kg per colony per year. Size for size no human can harvest and process such enormous amounts of plant material. While bacterial antibiotics like Streptomyces (Streptomycin) are used on the funguses, they are used sparingly and wisely and these substances are not found in the mushroom tissue that the ants eat nor has the fungus built up a resistance to them. The bacterium lives and grows on the skin of the ants. The bodies of the ants are pitted with "crypts" where glands secrete chemicals that in turn nourish the bacteria.
Like human farmers that do grow only single crops and clone them the ants too get into trouble with crop diseases. Human agriculture has problems with banana, sugar cane, potato, wheat for instance; however several defenses against diseases permit such long-term monoculture. First, the Atta workers dedicated to the tending and cleaning of garden monitor gardens intensively, controlling pathogens early during disease outbreaks before diseases can build up. Second, Atta ants sequester their gardens in underground chambers that shelter gardens against influx of pathogens and reduce cross-infection between gardens. The ants seal off an infected garden thus preventing an epidemic spread of a disease throughout a nest. As a last resort, Atta may even move an entire nest to a new location, moving all healthy gardens and leaving diseased gardens behind. Third, the cultivated fungus and the ant farmers secrete antibiotics that help suppress diseases in ant nests.
Ants originated 145 million years ago and have evolved to become the most dominant creatures constituting 25% of the total animal weight on Earth. They occupy every possible habitat found on land from forest canopies, underground tunnels, human walls, from mountain tops to the ocean shores. Next time you look at an ant, say hello to the next king of the world.
Maneka Gandhi
To join the animal welfare movement contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
If the ants were still primitive hunter gatherers they would be just another species which goes when we go, but they have settled buildings and have been farming their own food for the last 50 million years. And they raise cattle. Therefore they have already tamed the Earth. All they need now is for us to get out of the way – which we are in the last stages of doing.
It is their farming that interests me. Ants are the only animal besides humans that farm food. All other creatures hunt or harvest their food where they find it and are dependent on nature for their survival. Wolves exhibit intelligence, cooperation and skill in hunting for food but they do not capture deer and breed them. Deer forage for grasses but have no thought of sowing grass seeds to ensure a permanent supply. Only man and ant have ever thought to keep their prey in captivity or to farm plants in order to feed themselves in the future.
200 known species of Attini and Acromyrmex ants cultivate fungus farms having discovered agriculture 50 million years before humans. They are known as Leaf Cutters.
The leaf-cutting ants carefully select leaves that can be made into funguses, scraping away the plants' antifungal defenses, such as the waxy coating on leaves and carry them to underground nests where they are chewed and planted in soil. With these leaves the ants put down fungal mycelia (like adding a little curd to milk to make it curd overnight) and spit out enzymes that break down the proteins and carbohydrates. As the leaves break down they produce blobs called gongylidia. The ants consume these gongylidia. The ants prevent the fungi from fruiting and clone the fungus. When a new colony of ants is to be created the queen tucks a pellet of the fungal mycelia into her mouth and then uses this to seed a new fungus garden in her new colony.
Like us ants weed out every plant they do not want and keep the garden free of pathogens and parasites. Instead of buying pesticides (I am sure they have shops inside their cities) the ants produce phenylacetic acid and b-hydroxydecenoic acid in their glands and these antibiotics act as pesticides.
The growing of the fungus requires a great deal of planning and forethought: an appropriate chamber must be constructed, the right leaves must be collected, waste must be removed so as not to choke the growing fungus beds, and the leaves must be seeded with the fungus spores. The spores do not grow naturally - the ants must collect them and bring them to the leaves. To understand that by contaminating a new leaf with the fungus spore, it will result in more food later shows the ability to think ahead.
But ants don't just farm, they raise and keep other insects for food, just like humans raise cattle.
They domesticate aphids and act like shepherds by taking the aphids to feed on different plants, while protecting them from other insect predators. The ants then "milk" the aphids by squeezing their abdomens and causing some digested plant juice to be released into the mouths of the ants which will then share this nutritious fluid with the rest of the colony. This closely parallels that of human shepherds and cattle breeders.
Atta and Acromyrmex ants form the most complex and largest animal societies on the planet. Their cities grow to a depth of 30 meters and 98 feet across with the smaller and radiating mounds which extends out to a radius of around 80 meters. These nests can hold around eight million ants. Atta nests have hundreds to thousands of gardens, discrete units, with an average garden size of about 30×20×20 cm. Each colony has both shallow and deep gardens. Shallow gardens are about 0.5 meters deep and depend on seasonal, climatic changes. Deep gardens generally are 1–4 meters deep and evade summer droughts and winter temperatures
In a leafcutter colony, ants are divided into castes that perform different functions - minims, minors, mediae and majors. Minims tend to the brood or care for the fungus gardens. Minors are slightly larger and are the footsoldiers that go out with the foraging ants as the first line of defense to attack any enemies that threaten the foraging lines. Mediae are the foragers, who cut leaves and bring the leaf fragments back to the nest. Majors are the largest worker ants and act as soldiers, defending the nest from intruders, clearing the main foraging trails of large debris and carrying bulky items back to the nest.
These ants bring fresh leaves and plant cuttings into their nests; these are further cut into smaller and smaller pieces and are placed in the fungus garden and treated with ant liquid. Fungus proliferates on these leaves and ants feed on fungus. The leaf cutter ants harvest about 470 kg per colony per year. Size for size no human can harvest and process such enormous amounts of plant material. While bacterial antibiotics like Streptomyces (Streptomycin) are used on the funguses, they are used sparingly and wisely and these substances are not found in the mushroom tissue that the ants eat nor has the fungus built up a resistance to them. The bacterium lives and grows on the skin of the ants. The bodies of the ants are pitted with "crypts" where glands secrete chemicals that in turn nourish the bacteria.
Like human farmers that do grow only single crops and clone them the ants too get into trouble with crop diseases. Human agriculture has problems with banana, sugar cane, potato, wheat for instance; however several defenses against diseases permit such long-term monoculture. First, the Atta workers dedicated to the tending and cleaning of garden monitor gardens intensively, controlling pathogens early during disease outbreaks before diseases can build up. Second, Atta ants sequester their gardens in underground chambers that shelter gardens against influx of pathogens and reduce cross-infection between gardens. The ants seal off an infected garden thus preventing an epidemic spread of a disease throughout a nest. As a last resort, Atta may even move an entire nest to a new location, moving all healthy gardens and leaving diseased gardens behind. Third, the cultivated fungus and the ant farmers secrete antibiotics that help suppress diseases in ant nests.
Ants originated 145 million years ago and have evolved to become the most dominant creatures constituting 25% of the total animal weight on Earth. They occupy every possible habitat found on land from forest canopies, underground tunnels, human walls, from mountain tops to the ocean shores. Next time you look at an ant, say hello to the next king of the world.
Maneka Gandhi
To join the animal welfare movement contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.