How do ants spend the winter?

Ants are one of the most common animals in our lives. As long as we lean down in front and behind the house, we can always find two small ants. It is said that this kind of animal also has the function of predicting the weather. As long as it is going to rain, there will be a strange phenomenon of ants moving, so how do ants get through the winter?

First, how do ants spend the winter

Before winter comes, ants will carry all kinds of food back to the nest and hoard it for the winter. When the temperature drops to a certain extent, ants no longer go out to look for food and stay in the nest with little activity, in order to reduce the consumption of various functions of the body, reduce metabolism, and eat hoarded food when they are hungry. In addition, ants may also spend the winter in a cave with money insects, shell insects, gray butterfly larvae and other animals, which can secrete honeydew so that ants can eat some nutritious sweets in winter.

Ants can grow normally within 15-40 ℃, but the optimum temperature is between 25-30 ℃. But every spring, when the hoarded food is consumed, the ants also come out at low temperatures. But the first thing that ants do when they leave the nest is to divide their sphere of influence to prevent the invasion of other nest ants. For ants, land is the most important source of food, and ants may even wage war in order to carve up the land in search of food.

Second, the characteristics of ants

Ants have a strong social nature, and the division of labor in an ant nest is very clear. Generally speaking, the ants in the nest are divided into queens, males, workers and soldiers. The main duties of the queen are to lay eggs and reproduce. When the colony is small, it also serves as the function of defending the nest, feeding and taking care of the eggs. Males are mainly responsible for mating, but die soon after mating, leaving the "widow" queen to live a lonely life. Workers are infertile females whose main duties are to build and expand nests, collect food, feed larvae and queens, and so on. Soldier ants can cut food, become a combat weapon in defending the colony, and serve as a tool to store food in the colony.

Ants are known to have appeared as early as the Cretaceous and may have evolved from the primitive wasps that appeared in the Jurassic. There are many species, and dozens of species are known in China. It has high medicinal value nowadays, and the drinks made of ants and wine can play the role of skin care and anti-inflammation, anti-aging and anti-asthma.

The above is some relevant knowledge about ants. The powerful sociality of ants can be said to be a reduced version of the human dynasty. If they were smarter, there might be nothing wrong with human beings.