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    Page 46 LECTURE 02-05 Listen To Part of A Lecture in A Zoology Class

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    Certain female honey ants called storage ants can store food in their bodies for later consumption by other ants in their colonies. These storage ants hang from the colony roof with swollen abdomens filled with food. Over time, their abdomens shrink as they regurgitate the stored food for other ants. The storage ants store a variety of foods like nectar, honeydew, and dead insects to provide nutrients and protein for the colony. Their abdomens can expand greatly to store large amounts of food to help the colony survive times when external food sources are scarce.

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    Page 46 LECTURE 02-05 Listen To Part of A Lecture in A Zoology Class

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    Certain female honey ants called storage ants can store food in their bodies for later consumption by other ants in their colonies. These storage ants hang from the colony roof with swollen abdomens filled with food. Over time, their abdomens shrink as they regurgitate the stored food for other ants. The storage ants store a variety of foods like nectar, honeydew, and dead insects to provide nutrients and protein for the colony. Their abdomens can expand greatly to store large amounts of food to help the colony survive times when external food sources are scarce.

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    Certain female honey ants called storage ants can store food in their bodies for later consumption by other ants in their colonies. These storage ants hang from the colony roof with swollen abdomens filled with food. Over time, their abdomens shrink as they regurgitate the stored food for other ants. The storage ants store a variety of foods like nectar, honeydew, and dead insects to provide nutrients and protein for the colony. Their abdomens can expand greatly to store large amounts of food to help the colony survive times when external food sources are scarce.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    39 views2 pages

    Page 46 LECTURE 02-05 Listen To Part of A Lecture in A Zoology Class

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    변경남
    Certain female honey ants called storage ants can store food in their bodies for later consumption by other ants in their colonies. These storage ants hang from the colony roof with swollen abdomens filled with food. Over time, their abdomens shrink as they regurgitate the stored food for other ants. The storage ants store a variety of foods like nectar, honeydew, and dead insects to provide nutrients and protein for the colony. Their abdomens can expand greatly to store large amounts of food to help the colony survive times when external food sources are scarce.

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    Page 46 LECTURE 02-05 Listen to part of a lecture in a zoology class.

    u <Honey ant>

    u Honey ants have an unusual capability. They can store food in their bodies so that it can later be used by

    other members of their colonies . Not all honey ants can do this though. Only certain

    females can. What happens is that some ants go out, gather food from various sources, and then carry the

    food back to the colony. Then, they pass this food on to certain females, who store the food in their

    bodies for a long period of time .

    u These females hang from the interior roof of the colony. Hundreds—even thousands—of ants in one colony

    will store food for the benefit of others. In fact, the bodies of the honey ants that store food typically

    become so swollen that those ants can neither leave the colony nor even move through the colony’s

    tunnels for that matter. Over time, however, their abdomens shrink as the food

    they’ve stored internally is regurgitated and then consumed by the other ants in the colony

    u how some of these ants with swollen abdomens are amber in color while others are more whitish. They all

    look as if they’re ready to burst open, but, in fact, their abdomens are incredibly strong.

    u W: Honey ants eat a variety of foods. They enjoy sugary carbohydrates that come from the nectar of

    flowers . They also consume honeydew, which is produced by aphids. This

    sugary food accounts for the amber color in most of the swollen abdomens of the storage honey ants

    .
    u Additionally, honey ants need to provide protein for the growing larvae, the baby ants, in the colony. To

    obtain this protein, the food foragers often drag the bodies of dead insects back to the colony

    . The ants sometimes even form groups that attack other insects.

    u Honey ants lack stingers like many ants, but they can spray a substance that’s similar to caustic acid

    . This disables other insects and let the honey ants kill them. Later, the

    dead insects are offered to the storage honey ants.

    u Finally, a few storage ants consume and store water, which accounts for the whitish color on some of their

    abdomens . The abdomen of a storage honey ant is rather unusual. It

    contains many layers of a soft membrane that remains hidden under the hard outer plates, or segments, of
    the abdomen.

    u When a honey ant starts to gorge on food, the plates move, and the soft membrane begins to expand. The

    abdomen is like a mammal’s stomach in that it’s flexible and has the ability to expand to a great size in

    order to store large quantities, of food. But the food is not digested, as it would be in the stomachs of

    mammals. Instead, it’s stored for others to use .

    u Interestingly, these honey ants are frequently subject to attack .


    The storage ants are considered a delicacy by some predators, such as, badgers, and even humans are
    known to eat them. Seriously. You should try it sometime. It’s quite good.

    u Honey ants often attack other honey ant colonies to try to capture their food storage ants. The victors drag
    the storage honey ants back to their own colonies as if the ants were spoils of war.

    u You’re probably wondering what the motive behind the gathering and storing of food is, right? It’s not too

    complicated. Many honey ant species live in dry climates such as the American Southwest
    . In desert-like conditions, food becomes scarce at times.

    u So the food preserved by the storage honey ants enables the other colony members to survive

    . Without the benefit of the storage honey ants, it’s likely that many species of

    honey ants would have gone extinct by now.

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