Creatures that live in a harsh desert habitat often have to come up with survival tricks. Several species of desert-dwelling ants-called honeypot ants-use members of their colonies as storage devices. These "larder" or "pantry" ants actually store a honey-like liquid in their swollen bodies. When food runs short during the hottest and driest months, the ant colony milks the "storage" ants for nourishment; the ants are unharmed by the process.
Strive Together: When new queens and male honeypot ants hatch, they fly off to start a new colony. Several queens and males work together to build a new nest and produce the colony's first generation of worker ants.
The New Queen: Once the colony is established, it's time to select a leader. The queens "fight" by stepping on each other and making their rivals crouch in submission. Once a would-be queen has crouched and surrendered a few times, the workers chase her out of the nest.
You're Our Honey![]
The swollen bodies of "storage" ants hang from the ceiling of the colony.
In the deserts where honeypot ants live, food can be hard to come by during certain times of the year. These insects survive the droughts by storing food in a unique way. When there's plenty of food available, the ants start filling up some workers, which become living storage containers, called repletes. Repletes take in as much excess food as they can and keep it in their abdomens, which swell to several times their ordinary size. When full, repletes hang from the ceiling until the food they carry is needed to nourish the colony.
Snack Time: The food these ants store in their abdomens is a mixture: honeydew "milked" from insects; nectar and water gathered from plants; and liquid proteins taken from live prey, such as termites.
Honey Wars: Honeypot ants sometimes send armies of workers to start wars with others of their kind in the same region. The victors steal the victims' repletes and grab their larvae to use as slaves.
Drummed Out[]
- While foraging for food in the desert, two worker honeypot ants from different colonies cross paths. Each holds its abdomen high in the air to seem taller than its rival and scare the opponent away.
- Neither backs down, so the ants circle each other and prepare to "fight." The ants kick at each other and drum their antennae on their rival's abdomen. The ant that beats hardest wins. The other, though unhurt, backs away.
Trivia[]
- The honeypot ant is one of two ants in Strange Wonders, the other being the Weaver Ant.