are ants the smartest insect?
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In other words, living in a group forces an individual to become smarter, rather than a smart individual choosing to live in a group. “Ants, bees, and termites all have very high intelligence,” says Srour.
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Of the 14,000 or so known ant species, the most domineering, aggressive ones are those that are so well adapted that they are capable of moving freely around the world forming giant colonies of billions of individuals, allowing them to take on and beat much bigger enemies.
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All ants belong to a single family, Formicidae. Within the ants, only three categories are commonly used, subfamily, genus and species. Subfamily is the largest grouping, and determining which subfamily a specimen belongs to is the first step in any identification.
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Considered by many wildlife biologists to be one of the most intelligent land animals of North America, bears possess the largest and most convoluted brains relative to their size of any land mammal. ... Zookeepers and animal trainers consider bears to be smarter than dogs.
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Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. ... Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period, and diversified after the rise of flowering plants.
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Flying ants, also called carpenter ants, are winged swarmers with elbowed antennae, pinched waists and hind wings smaller than their front wings. Their bodies can be black, brown or a reddish color. While worker ants live for a few months, the queens can live for years.
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So why do ants climb trees? ... Ants love to feed on honeydew. To protect their food source, ants will “farm” aphids and scale insects in trees. Ants will protect scales and aphids from natural predators and move pests to better food sources or more favorable microclimates to maximize honeydew production.
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Ants become a garden pest when they eat living plants–usually seedlings, weak, or dying plants–and cultivate colonies of insect pests such as aphids, scale, and mealybugs (these bugs excrete a sugary substance called honeydew which ants eat–ants will farm these insects to ensure their own food supply).
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Ants have an exceptionally high-def sense of smell. Ants have four to five times more odor receptors than most other insects, a team of researchers has discovered. ... They found the industrious insects have genes that make about 400 distinct odorant receptors, special proteins that detect different odors.
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Ants - and most other insects - are actually impressively fastidious. They spend considerable time and effort cleaning themselves and their nest mates of dust and other contaminating particles. Hence, ants are actually quite clean.
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Ants have complete metamorphosis. Queen ants lay eggs. The baby ant that hatches from the egg is a larva, with no legs, just a soft white body like a worm and a small head. The larvae are fed by the queen (in the first generation) and then by workers.
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Are Owls Actually Wise? ... But, it turns out, though they're excellent hunters, owls probably aren't any smarter than a lot of other birds. In fact, they may be significantly worse at problem solving than other big-brained birds like crows and parrots.
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Flying ants, or ‟alates,” as entomologists refer to them, are simply ants that are sexually mature. These are the ‟reproductives” of the colony, created by the ‟queen” and fed by the ‟workers.” The reproductives go through their immature stages developing inside of the colony.
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Ants as a group are beneficial to humans. Their tunneling mixes and aerates the soil, in some places replacing the activity of earthworms. Many species feed on small insects that are serious crop pests.
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1. Flying ants are just normal ants – with wings! The ants we're most used to seeing are female black garden ants, marching around collecting food. But during summer, winged males and new queens of the same species take flight!
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Fact #2: Ants have specific jobs. All other female ants are workers; they feed the larvae, take out the colony's trash, forage for food and supplies, or defend the nest. Male ants' only job is to mate with the queen.
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Can Ants Hear? ... Ants are similar to many other insects in that they possess senses such as hearing, touch and smell. Although hearing is very different in ants than animals that typically have ears, ants do possess the capability to hear.