ANTS

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Ants are a group of social insects from the Formicidae family. Ants can be easily distinguished from most other insects by their elbowed antennae and tight constriction of their second abdominal part, creating a node-like petiole. They share this morphology with a recent relative of theirs, the wasp. Ants live together in nests and have a well-developed social structure. In the nests, there will be one or more queen ants whose main role is to lay eggs, a few males known as 'drones' that mate with the queens, and a very large number of worker ants which are all sterile females. With some species there are also specialised soldier ants, which are actually workers that have developed more pronounced mouthparts for defending the colony. As well as these adult stages, there will also be eggs, larvae and pupae in the nest, which are cared for by the worker ants. Ants have managed to colonise the entire the world. The only places that do not have any species of ants are Antarctica and a few small remote, inhospitable islands. Their success to surviving in so many different environments can be attributed to their ability to modify their nests to suit their surroundings, to utilise potential resources and defend themselves. These attributes have led to parallels being drawn with human societies. There are a large number of ant species, with the following species being common in Myanmar: