The weather is warming up and you see a line of black dots on the floor headed to the kitchen and pet food. What are they?? Ants! Learn more about 3 different types of ants – they are more than just household pests! Thank you to Liz for creating the script! #STEMinASL
[Video Description: Alicia, an Asian woman wearing a ¾-sleeved black shirt, is standing in front of a gray background.
0:52 – image of a honeypot ant with a swollen abdomen full of sugary liquid
01:29 – a nest with many honeypot ants hanging upside down with swollen abdomens
02:07 – a tree branch with three leafcutter ants in a row carrying a small piece of leaf.
02:48 – soil with a white dusting of fungi and ants walking over it to take care of the fungus
04:05 – a large leaf covered in tiny aphids that are either a pale white or black and an ant watching the aphids
04:29 – green leaf with a black aphid on top excreting a white liquid known as honeydew.
06:14 – A full screen image: This video is sponsored by RIT/NTID Regional STEM Center. Below is a logo of RIT on the left with National Technical Institute for the Deaf on the right.]
#STEMvee #deaf #stemeducation #stem
Transcript: You may think of ants as a household pest, but there’s so much more to know about them. Ants have been around since the dinosaurs, and they’ve colonized almost every landmass on earth! They can be found everywhere except the poles, Antarctica (the word ant in Antartica but no ants!), Greenland, a few isolated islands. There are tens of thousands of different ant species, and different types of ants have adapted to thrive in all kinds of ecological niches. Here are just three examples, and the strategies they’ve developed: (1) Honeypot ants. In dry areas like deserts, ants use their own bodies to store sustenance when food becomes scarce. These group of ants are called “repletes,” hang vertically from the ceiling of their nest. Their nest-mates go out foraging and then produce a sugary liquid that they transfer from their own mouths into the mouths of the repletes. The repletes’ abdomens swell and expand to the size of a small grape as more and more liquid is added. When the emergency supply is needed, nest-mates will stroke the repletes’ antennae to let them know it’s time to regurgitate some of the liquid. The repletes remain suspended for the rest of their lives, or until predators like badgers (or humans!) snap them up for a sweet treat. (2) Leafcutter ants. Found in tropical areas, leafcutter ants use their mandibles to bite off little pieces of leaves from trees, which they carry in large numbers back to their nests. The ants don’t actually eat the leaves (although they do get nutrients from drinking leaf sap). Leafcutters are farmers! They discovered agriculture long before humans! They use the leaves as fertilizer to cultivate a fungus that they feed to their larvae. Fungus-farming ants carefully tend their underground gardens by monitoring the crops and clear any debris. Their nests have elaborate chambers and tunnels to ensure proper temperature and humidity, like a greenhouse. Certain parasitic fungi threaten to invade and overtake their crops. In the evolutionary arms race between leafcutters and parasitic fungi, the ants have a special defense. Their thoraxes house a bacteria which produces a specific antimicrobial that keeps the unwanted fungi at bay. (3) Aphid herding ants. Not only did ants become farmers before humans, they’ve also been ranching! Several species of ants, including the common black garden ant, are known to keep aphids (another type of insect) as livestock. Aphids feed on plant sap, and they excrete a sweet liquid called “honeydew.” Ants, in turn, feed on the aphids’ honeydew. In order to maintain a steady supply of honeydew, ants will claim a group of aphids as their own. Like cattle ranchers, the ants care for and protect their herds by guarding them from predators (like ladybugs) and moving them to new “pastures” (plant stems) to feed. They even “milk” the aphids, stroking the aphids with their antennae to induce them to secrete honeydew on demand. In fact, scientists have observed ants using their own pheromones to manage their herds by secreting the chemicals onto the aphids. Ant pheromones can prevent the aphids from wandering too far, speed up their reproduction, and inhibit their wing growth. Ants serve many essential ecological roles in different environments around the world. The next time you see an ant, remember that it’s so much more than a pest!
