Honey Pot Ant Research Paper

Insects are a class of invertebrates that have been around for 350 million years now. 2

out 3 living things are insects. One of the most common insects that we come across in our daily

lives `is ants. The aim of this paper is to draw attention to a particular specie of ant that is one of

a kind and has intrigued people all over the world. The ant specie that this paper is going to focus

on is Honey pot ants. Six genera of ants bear the common name ‘honey pot ant’ and these are

Camponotus of Australia, Cataglyphis of North Africa, Leptomyrmex of Melanesia,

Melophorus of Australia, Myrmecocystus of North America, Plagiolepis of South Africa and

Prenolepis of North

Honey Pot ants fall into the Hymenoptera order. They

After reproducing, the queen

ant will lose her wings. So, now the colony will have one wingless queen and many virgin

winged queens. The eggs are laid 7 to 10 days after the nuptial fight and the virgin queens and

the worker tend to the eggs.

Trishita Ghosh 2

As mentioned earlier, specialized Honey Pot worker ants store nutritious liquid in

their abdomen. The usually gorge on desert flowers for nectar and also eat smaller insects. They

build their nests underground. These replete ants serve as a food source for the other ants when

there is scarcity of food. When a worker ant requires food, it strokes the replete with its antennae

and the replete regurgitates a mouthful. The greatly distended abdomen where the food is stored

is known as the gaster. This stretched skin cannot shrink back to its original size. Therefore,

these repletes cannot go back to its normal way of living and presumably die after their supply is

drained. The repletes tend to cling to the roof of their nest and fulfill the purpose of storage pots.

If they wall off the roof, the worker ants dismember them and then gradually transfer