Ant Anatomy


Ants

In this article we will discuss ants. This is a perfect time of year to go outside and find ants to study.

One amazing fact about insects is the fact that they have more than one brain. Ants have a main brain and several smaller brains that run along the length of their bodies called, “ganglia” (GAN glee uh). The ganglia are little assistant brains to the main brain. The brain inside the ants head controls things like smell, sight and touch, but the smaller brains control, to some degree movement of the ant. Have you ever noticed that an ant will continue to twitch if you step on it? Even if the head is separated from the ants body, the legs will still twitch. This is because the smaller brains (ganglia) are still telling the ants legs to move!

Quick fact- Ants “talk” to each other by touching their antennas together.

Quick fact- Ants have a long heart which stretches nearly the length of it’s body.

Ants have compound eyes. This means they have from 12 to several thousand lenses which they see through. Some ants, and other insects, also have ocelli (o SEL eye). The ocelli are eyespots which detect light.

Quick fact- Some ants don‘t have eyes!

I suppose the most important part of the ant is their antennae. Ants use their antennae to smell, taste, feel and talk to each other. These antennae are covered with hundreds of hairs which help them understand what they are touching. The antennae also have nearly two hundred cones which they use to smell what ever they encounter.

Quick fact- The ant species which don’t have eyes tend to have more cones and hairs on their antennae than their sighted cousins. Discuss why this might be so.

Quick fact- ants have claws and sticky pads which allow them to walk up walls and walk on the ceiling.

Ant have a defense system which may surprise you. Many ants will bite their prey or attacker and then spin around and squirt an acid from their abdomen into the wound. This acid (formic acid) will stun or kill the ants prey, but due to it‘s offensive smell also wards off predators. This acid stinks and tells the predator to stay away, this is not something good to eat!

Now might be a good time to ask the kids these questions:

Quick fact- Ants are very acidic, if you eat too many of them you will get acid indigestion!

The copyright of the article Ant Anatomy in Homeschool Science is owned by Lisa Hawkins. Permission to republish Ant Anatomy in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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