Most of us are small, uninteresting and sometimes annoying, but they are just as important as the rest of us. 2.5 million ants are used for every person on the planet, according to scientists.
One of the most diverse and specialist groups of animals on the planet are the 12,000 known species of ants. Slave-making ants capture broods to increase their work force, while wood ants herd aphids to the juiciest parts of a plant to harvest their honey
A global map of ant abundance has been drawn up by Dr. Nooten and Dr Patrick Schultheiss, of the University of Wrzburg, and they are looking at how climate, habitat destruction and other factors affect ant abundance.
Does any of these things affect the number of ants? We can look into the future to see if the environment will change again.
If ant numbers in a place aren't known, nothing else about those ants will be understood. It is possible that there is diversity in social structure, genetic or chemical diversity.
There are colonies of ants that live in mounds or in trees. Each army of ants is headed up by a queen that lays thousands of eggs and most ants seen above ground are the female workers. A new colony will be started by the new queen.
According to experts, ants play a key role in decomposing organic matter, recycling nutrients, improving soil health, and removing pests and seeds. Crop pollinators such as bees and ants have more of an economic value than ants. Soon, that bias could change. The pest control potential of some predatory ants could work better than some agricultural chemicals according to research published in August.
Ants are going to be one of the critical systems to study to understand the impacts of climate change
There are a lot of other possibilities that can be found in ant biology. Queen ants that live more than 30 years have the same genetics as a short-lived worker ant. Despite colonies living in different climates, nobody knows how queens store sperm for decades inside their bodies. The research into ant navigation could help build models for a robot that searches for missing people.
The evolution of ants can shed light on a lot of other plants and animals. If ants are wiped out, the butterflies that rely on them could go away.
When Edward O Wilson studied myrmecology, he discovered that ants are related to plants. As flowering plants spread across the globe, ants took advantage of this amazing ecological niche to start hunting new insects, while plants developed specialist structures to keep the ants there.
She is following a new path of inquiry because of the observations she has made while examining ants. The ants that were the hardest to break open, with the toughest armour, were either predatory or herbivorous.
It is possible that this research will shed light on our own gut flora. It is not possible to experiment on humans with antibiotics and see what happens. We can manipulate ants' gut system, but we need to watch what happens. It is possible to introduce a pathogen and see how quickly it can spread. Is there a place in a social system where people can get infections if it hits them? Is there a way to limit the transfer of those organisms? ants can be used to ask those questions
The impacts of climate change will be studied by ants, not just because of what disappears, but because of what is resilient. We have just begun to realize how important they are.
The large brown ant in the Australian desert is nothing special, but they can use the position of the sun as a compass, and learn to use visual landmarks like we do. Patrick said they are fascinating.
"These ants live in hollow twigs up in the canopy and soldiers block their nest entrance with their giant dish plate heads and only move to the side when another individual from their nest is available to take over."
The green-head ant is bright in green-blue-violet. It is so brave if you go on a picnic.
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