Social Behavior of Ants Writing Assignment

Name
Instructor
Course
Date
Social Behavior of Ants
Animals normally vary in their social behaviors. There are some that prefer to live solitarily, but there are others, such as humans and ants that prefer to form large societies. Ants have piqued the interest of several researchers. Today, ants are the most researched social animals. They usually live in a colony that can contain up to several thousands of them. They prefer to work and live together while performing different roles (Mikheyev & Linksvaye, n.p). The role of the queen ant is normally to lay eggs while the worker ants would perform everything else, such as protecting the colony, taking care of the young ones, and collecting food (Mikheyev & Linksvaye, n.p). One of the best-known researchers of ants is E.O Wilson. Throughout his studies, Wilson has collected up to 14,001 species of ants. In this paper, I am going to look at the social behavior of ants.
Wilson (2) performed a study to determine the trail sharing by the ants. The author established that ants normally form a close nest for their association, their nest chambers are often kept separate. However, they are typically interconnected by openings that can be passed. It was the workers that foraged a large along a “common odor trail. Wilson looked at two species; Camponotus and e Crematoyaster. He noted that while the species were different, they attended membracids together during instances of food gathering. Wilson argues that associations such as this is common among the ants. Regardless of the species they belong to, ants are always tolerant with each other even in competitive circumstances. They can remain in good terms no matter the situation they find themselves. This is not something that is common with other species. Competition is known to divide people, but ants have a different kind of social behavior.
Giehr, Heinze & Schrempf (n.p) observed the way ants communicate with one another. The authors established that ants communicate with one another through smell and tapping of the antenna. Together with the bees, the author argues that ants are considered to be the most socialized animals. As noted earlier, ants have a good social organization where each has their duty, and they do it perfectly. Together, ants are thought to have a collective intelligence. Every ant is normally considered as an “individual cell of a bigger organism.” In a colony, it is common to find one or more queens but several worker females. On two or three occasions every year, th...