Honeypot ants, also called honey ants or repletes, are ants which are gorged with food by workers, to the point that their abdomens swell enormously, a condition called plerergate. Other ants then extract nourishment from them. They function as living larders. Honeypot ants belong to any of five genera, including Myrmecocystus.^[1] They were first documented in 1881 by Henry C. McCook.

Many insects, notably honey bees and some wasps, collect and store liquid for use at a later date. However, these insects store their food within their nest or in combs. Honey ants are unique in using their own bodies as living storage, but they have more function than just storing food. Some store liquids, body fat, and water from insect prey brought to them by worker ants. They can later serve as a food source for their fellow ants when food is otherwise scarce. When the liquid stored inside a honeypot ant is needed, the worker ants stroke the antennae of the honeypot ant, causing the honeypot ant to regurgitate the stored liquid. In certain places such as the Australian Outback, honeypot ants are eaten by aboriginal people as sweets and are considered a delicacy.

Some worker ants turn into honeypots right from their emergence from pupa stage. The young ants stay in the nest, and the worker ants who collect honey feed them. As they feed more honey than they need, the surplus honey gets stored in their abdomen. As their abdomen expand, the ants lose their mobility.

These ants can live anywhere in the nest, but in the wild, they are found deep underground, literally imprisoned by their huge abdomens, swollen to the size of grapes. They are so valued in times of little food and water that occasionally raiders from other colonies, knowing of these living storehouses, will attempt to steal these ants because of their high nutritional value and water content. These ants are also known to change colors. Some common colors are green, red, orange, yellow, and blue.

Honeypot ants such as Camponotus inflatus are edible and form an occasional part of the diet of various Australian Aboriginal peoples. Papunya, in Australia's Northern Territory is named after a honey ant creation story, or Dreaming, which belongs to the people there, such as the Warlpiri. The name of Western Desert Art Movement, Papunya Tula, means "honey ant dreaming".

Myrmecocystus nests are found in a variety of arid or semi-arid environments. Some species live in extremely hot deserts, others reside in transitional habitats, and still other species can be found in woodlands where it is somewhat cool but still very dry for a large part of the year.

References

Further reading

• Crane, Eva. The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting. 1999.

Carpenter ant

The Formicinae are a subfamily within the Formicidae containing ants of moderate evolutionary development.

Formicines retain some primitive features, such as the presence of cocoons around pupae, the presence of ocelli in workers, and little tendency toward reduction of palp or antennal segmentation in most species, except subterranean groups. Extreme modification of mandibles is rare, except in the genera Myrmoteras and Polyergus. On the other hand, some members show considerable evolutionary advancement in behaviors such as slave-making and symbiosis with root-feeding homopterans. Finally, all formicines have very reduced stings and enlarged venom reservoirs, with the venom gland, specialized (uniquely among ants) for the production of formic acid.^{[citation needed]}

All members of the Formicinae "have a one-segmented petiole in the form of a vertical scale".^[1]

Classification

The tribal structure of Formicinae is not completely understood. This list follows the scheme at antbase.org, but there are other schemes and names.

• Camponotini
  • Calomyrmex
  • Camponotus – carpenter ants (Global)
  • Chaemeromyrma
  • Echinopla
  • Forelophilus
  • Opisthopsis
  • Overbeckia
  • Phasmomyrmex
  • Polyrhachis (Asian, African tropics)
  • Pseudocamponotus
• Formicini
  • Alloformica
  • Bajcaridris
  • Cataglyphis
  • Formica
  • Polyergus – Amazon ants
  • Proformica
  • Protoformica
  • Rossomyrmex
• Gesomyrmecini
  • Gesomyrmex
  • Prodimorphomyrmex
  • Santschiella
  • Sicilomyrmex
• Gigantopini
  • Gigantiops (Neotropical)
• Lasiini
  • Acanthomyops
  • Acropyga
  • Anoplolepis
  • Cladomyrma
  • Lasiophanes
  • Lasius
  • Myrmecocystus
  • Prolasius
  • Stigmacros
  • Teratomyrmex
• Melophorini
  • Melophorus (Australian)
• Myrmecorhynchini
  • Myrmecorhynchus
  • Notoncus
  • Pseudonotoncus
• Myrmoteranini
  • Myrmoteras
• Notostigmatini
  • Notostigma
• Oecophyllini
  • Oecophylla – weaver ants
• Plagiolepidini
  • Agraulomyrmex
  • Aphomomyrmex
  • Brachymyrmex
  • Bregmatomyrma
  • Euprenolepsis
  • Myrmelachista
  • Nylanderia
  • Paraparatrechina
  • Paratrechina – crazy ants
  • Petalomyrmex
  • Plagiolepis
  • Pseudaphomomyrmex
  • Pseudolasius
  • Tapinolepis
• Incertae sedis
  • Eucharis
  • Imhoffia
  • Kyromyrma (fossil: Cretaceous)
  • Leucotaphus
  • Protrechina
  • Tylolasius

References

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2011)

Notes

Bibliography

• B. Bolton, A new general catalogue of the ants of the world, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1995.
• Klotz, John H. (2008). "Formicinae". Urban ants of North America and Europe: identification, biology, and management. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-7473-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=Q7T4gg6j7xUC&pg=PA11.