What Is The Food Of Ants?
Ants are everywhere in the world. If do not find them somewhere as an exception to above, is the very summits of highest snow clad mountains. We can very well imagine now that there are thousands of different kinds of ants. How they live and what they eat depends on the species under consideration.
Now we consider the unusual eating habits of the ants. The harvester ant gathers seed from some grass common to the region. The ant carries them into nest. The seeds are then sorted and stored away as the fire supply.
Other variety are dairy farmer ants. They keep herds of plant lice or “appods”. They milk them by stroking their roots until the sweet liquid which they secrete oozes out. The ant relish this honey dew, or milk, to the extent that they take care of their “cows”.
The other ants grow fungi and live on nothing else. The fungus which they eat must have something to grow on. The ants make a paste in which to raise the fungus, or mold.
There are then miller ants. One variety of ant has a special kind of worker with a huge head. The head holds powerful muscles to work its jaws and do the grinding. This worker ‘ant is really the miller of the colony. It grinds up the grain that is brought in by ordinary workers. After the harvest season, the millers are killed and their heads bitten off. The reason is to reduce the extra mouths on food.
One kind of ant maintains living and store houses of food. The worker ants bring in the nectar of flowers, special ants in the colony take it and swallow it. During winters, the other ants come and receive from their mouths enough of nectar to feed themselves and the Colony until the next season.
