Ants have existed for over 99 million years and are likely to exist for many more. Much of this is due to the fact that they are extremely adaptable to any type of climate or environment that they find themselves in. They do not survive by being individuals, though. Ants of all kinds work together in colonies as very sophisticated societies. Each type of ant in a colony has a specific job to do and knows how to communicate with other ants as they go about their work.
The Caste system of an ant society is an amazing structure. Ants have classes within their colonies which tend to mimic human class structures. In fact, many species of the 12,500 ant species known have been the subject of careful scientific study for just this reason. Some species of ants vary their colony structure but most ant societies are made up of queens, soldiers and workers. Colonies contain thousands and sometimes millions of ants. The larger the colony, the more the society features female worker ants as well as drone or fertile male ants. The queen ants in colonies are usually single in number but some colonies do have two or three. These ants can live up to 30 years of age, and when they are fertile they can host up to 50,000 ant eggs at a time. You can learn more about the caste system of ants by visiting http://killingcarpenterants.com.
There is no wonder then that the worker, drone and soldier ants have a lot of respect for her and set about doing their work of collecting food and building nests without any hesitation. Ants work together in an organized fashion and are known for being acute at problem solving. The ant life begins in the form of an egg. The eggs develop whether fertilized or not. The eggs that get fertilized become females and the ones that do not become males. During their larva and pupae stages, worker ants are given the task of caring for them while behaving as servants to the queen or queens in the colony. The worker ants usually have stingers. This helps give them the advantage of getting rid of any threats to the eggs or to the queen. Some queen ants have wings which allow them to fly off, usually in the spring, to mate with male ants. This process is done to create new colonies in some cases and is referred to as a nuptial flight.
There are some species of ants that all have stingers such as the Fire Ant, but in colonies where workers do not have stingers they get their protection from fellow soldier ants. Soldiers have much larger heads than the other ants. They also possess more strength which allows them to fend off colony threats and protect the others in their society. Different species of ants have different forms of communication with one another. Most ants have a set of eyes. These eyes only pick up shadows and light. There are other ants like Army ants that do not have compound eyes. They have single eyes which do not function meaning that they are blind. They rely on chemicals like pheromones to communicate with one another mostly using their bent antennae to smell and touch things.
Ants will use either their eyes, if they have ones that are capable of seeing, or their antennae and sense of smell to find one another and deliver food or nesting materials to each other. It is easy to be human and think of ants as pests. However, they shoud command respect for their abilities to use communication and relationships to survive and thrive.