Ants, Although Admirable, Are Awfully Aggravating by

ARMY ANTS OF THE AMAZON

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This short presentation was created to provide educators and students information to enhance learning about this subject.

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Linda Gorman Hayes

ANTS, ALTHOUGH ADMIRABLE, ARE AWFULLY AGGRAVATING BY,

WALTER R. BROOKS

The busy ant works hard all day And never stops to rest or play. He carries things ten times his size, And never grumbles, whines or cries. And even climbing flower stalks, He always runs, he never walks. He loves his work, he never tires, And never puffs, pants or perspires. Yet though I praise his boundless vim I am not really fond of him.

JUST WHERE DID THESE FIRE ANTS COME FROM? 

Red fire ants came from a place called the Amazon Rain Forest. They traveled on a boat that brought trees from Brazil in South America to the United States.

NORTH CAROLINA FIRE ANT

ipminc.wordpress.com

MAP OF THE AMAZON RAIN FOREST

WHAT IS THE AMAZON RAIN FOREST? 

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The Amazon Rain Forest is an area of land that has many tall trees, a warm climate, and lots of rain. It is located in South America. The Amazon Rain Forest is the largest rain forest in the world. The forest is made up of four layers: The emergent layer The canopy The understory The forest floor

THE AMAZON ARMY ANT

LIFE CYCLE OF AN ANT

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It takes about 8 -12 weeks for an ant to hatch from its egg pupa Adult

larva eggs

Imported Red Fire Ants

Amazon Army Ants

Traveled from South America by Live in the Amazon Rain Forest boat and now live in the in South America southern United States

Workers live about 1- 1 ½ months

Life span 3 – 13 months

Create mounds of nests in the ground and set up their home anywhere

Do not make permanent nests, but build nests by attaching their bodies together

Very aggressive hunters

Attack in large numbers and swarm their prey

Eat leaves, stems, roots, spiders, Eat just about anything bees, birds, and mice Eat other insects that destroys crops

Eat what is dead or dying on the forest floor

Bite and sting

Bite and sting

FACTS ABOUT THE ARMY ANT Since the army ant is very aggressive, they are at the top of the insect food chain- that means there aren’t too many other insects that eat them.  Even though they are blind, they communicate by touch, sound and scent.  They clean the forest floor of the dead and rotten matter. 

BOTH

ANT GROUPS HAVE JOBS

Red Fire Ant

Amazon Army Ant

Queen – lays the eggs

Queen – lays the eggs

Young workers – take care of the brood

Soldiers – protects the colony

Middle age – clean and protect the colony Eldest – forage for food

Workers – forages for food and feeds the soldiers

REFERENCES 

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Slide 2 – Ant poem by Walter R. Brooks http://www.oocities.org/heartland/1133/animalpoems/bugspoems.ht ml Slide 3 – fire ant picture: http://web.biosci.utexas.edu/fireant/index.html Slide 4 – North Carolina fire ant http://ipminc.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/ant1.jpg Slide 5 – South America and the Amazon Rain Forest Image

http://enviro-map.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/amazon_forest.jpg Slides 7 & 10 – Amazon Army Ant http://www.bugaboopest.com/army%20ant.png Glosopedia http://www.globio.org/glossopedia/article.aspx?art_id=7 http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2006/08/army-ants/moffett-text