What is the weight ant?This question is at first sight a little bit strange.How much can weigh a creature that does not exceed a length of 0.5 centimeters?But, as you know, is relative.The most important parameter that determines the size of the insect, and its weight is determined by membership in one of the three colonies: females, males and worker ants.Each of the castes differ not only in their intended use, but also in appearance.Working individuals tend to have the lowest settings.Females and males - the greatest.Three workers can weigh as much as an ant weighs 1 male.By the way, the life expectancy of workers is very modest - one season, while some of the uterus can live up to 12 years.
second term to answer the question of how much weight the ant - it belongs to the subfamily of any specific entity.To date, scientists distinguish about 12 thousand species of which live in Russia only about 300 representatives of the smallest kind - monomorium - range in size from 1 to 4 millimeters.And the largest species - Gamponotus gigas - represented by the following individuals: workers - 2 cm, males - 1.8 soldiers - 2.8, uterus - 3.2 centimeters.These dimensions are very important.Close Gamponotus gigas-ant weighs up to 150 milligrams.A very large ants in the history of the world are fossils - they died out in the course of evolution.Members of the genus Formicium had a body length of up to 7 centimeters, and the scope of their wings reached 15. What is the weight of this type of ant, alas, can be calculated only mathematically.
These insects - rather small establishment, and the constitution of them consists of "weightless" elements: mustache, segments, stems.Only the head and abdomen are epinotum to calculate body mass certain categories.But with such a small ants settings range from 10 to 25% of the earth's biomass aboveground animals as ubiquitous (not live only in Antarctica and on some islands).This amount is due to the fact that their civilization has a very high level of organization, the kind of insect to easily change and adapt to new habitats, a colony may use different types of resources for life.
In ancient times, the percentage of biomass has not been as high - only 1%.Ants began to prevail at the beginning of the Tertiary period, after adaptive radiation.At this point, the number was up to 40% of the biomass of terrestrial animals.Of those births one-tenth survived to this day, almost unchanged.Ants - one of the oldest creatures on the planet.The oldest fossil specimens found in a piece of amber on the beach in New Jersey, has an age of 130 million years.What is the weight ant Mesozoic era, it is difficult to say, as his body withered and has undergone some chemical treatment.
Ants - a very interesting object for observation.This is a highly social and intelligent creatures.They have their own preferences and rules.Very high strategy and tactics of war.And most importantly, in contrast to the human community, they do not follow fashion, but tradition and therefore were able to spend so many millions of years.
