Flash Post 279!

Yuck! What’s this?

These are ants, Button. Creepy, crawly, stinging ants.

If they walk over you, you get that itchy feeling. Where do you get this yucky visual from?

I found them scrambling up and down like real busy-bodies in our terrace garden one afternoon and clicked this picture to show to you.

That’s very sweet of you but could you, please, click some pleasant pictures? Pictures that will not give me goose bumps!

Here are some interesting facts about ants that I found interesting:
1. There are over 10,000 species of ants.
2. Ants live for 40-60 days.
3. They can lift objects that are 20-50 times their body weight.
4. Ants have powerful jaws that open from one side to the other. They can’t chew food, instead they swallow the juice from the food while chewing.
5. Each ant colony has one or more queens. The only job of the queen is to lay eggs.
Worker ants are sterile. Their job is to look after the queen, take care of the eggs and larvae, search for food, clean up the nest and protect the nest.
6. Fertile males have only one job and that is to mate with the queen. They usually die shortly after.
7. Ants have an amazing ability to communicate with other ants. They use their antennae for tactile communication as well as for smell. They use chemicals (pheromone) to alert other ants of danger or to lead them to a promising food source.
8. Some ants live in a mutually beneficial relationship with plants. The acacia ant lives in the huge thorns of the acacia tree and, in return, protects the plant from being eaten by herbivores.
9. Ants evolved 130 million years ago and lived in the time of the dinosaur.

Interesting. Actually very interesting. But what is the black stuff they are flocking around?

That’s a dead earthworm they got lucky in capturing. May be carrying it away for a mid-night feast!