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Pharaoh ant, Monomorium pharonis
Above is the Pharaoh ant, Monomorium pharonis. It was introduced to the UK over 100 years ago from the tropics. It is a small ant, the workers are 2.0 mm long, queens 3.6 mm long, and males 3.0 mm long. It is light yellow in colour. There are usually many queens in one nest, and many of the nests are linked to each other and exist quite happily together. Sexuals are produced throughout the year. Around 300 eggs are laid by the queen in batches of up to 12 at first, but later as few as 4. The eggs hatch in around a week. The larvae take around 18 days to reach full growth. Pupation takes around 9 days, and adult life span is usually 5 - 6 weeks. Mating takes place within buildings, in crevices and cracks. In the UK it is found only in heated buildings. The nests are usually in difficult to locate places and as they are linked to other nests eradication is difficult. |
Ants fast facts
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They have a narrow waist formed of 1 or 2 segments called the pedicel, see the drawing below.
Antennae are strongly elbowed.
All species live socially.
"Ants eggs" sold as fish food are actually ant pupae (usually of the wood ant Formica rufa), in their cocoons.
Ants were the first farmers. Fossil evidence shows they were farming fungus 80 million years ago, and feeding the fungus on insect faeces and dead insects.
Ants create and fertilise the soil by recycling nutrients.
Adults range in length from 1 mm - 25 mm.
There are around 50 species in the U. K.
A queen ant can live for as long as 15 years.
Adult males and queens have wings, but after the nuptial flight the queen removes her wings, and the males die.
In some species the queens and workers have stings, and in other species they can squirt formic acid from their rear end. |
Ant life cycle
In temperate regions there is little visible ant activity during the winter. As the temperature rises sexual - males and queens - are produced, and these have wings. Sexuals from different nest are released at the same time. The conditions at the time of release are usually warm, humid and still air and moist soil. This synchronous release from different nests prevents inbreeding. These mass flights of sexuals provide a good meal for birds, spiders and many other predators.
The males and queens fly off and mate. This is the only time the queen will mate, and the sperm she receives in this mating must last her a lifetime of egg laying, which may be more than 10 years.
After mating the queen lands and searches for a nest site. Before digging into damp soil she breaks off her wings. She will never need them again, and will probably never see daylight again. She digs a small chamber in the soil and lays her first batch of eggs. The energy for this comes from the degeneration of her flight muscles. She tends her batch of white, sticky eggs, and when they hatch she feeds the larvae. During this time she doesn't eat or leave the chamber. Once her larvae have pupated and hatched out as sterile female workers they will take over all the nest duties, and forage for food, leaving the queen free to concentrate on her only duty now, which is egg laying. The first workers are usually smaller than normal size for the species.
This is the typical life cycle, but there are variations. In the more "primitive" species the queen may forage in the early stages of the nest. In other species colonies may bud off the main nest to become satellite colonies. Some species raid other nests for slave ants which they take before the slave has hatched into an adult.
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