Honeypot ant
Honeypot ants,also calledhoney ants,areantswhich have specialized workers (repletes,[1]plerergates,orrotunds) that consume large amounts offoodto the point that theirabdomensswell enormously. Other ants then extractnourishmentfrom them, through the process oftrophallaxis.They function as livinglarders.Honeypot ants belong to any of several genera, includingMyrmecocystusandCamponotus.They were first documented in 1881 byHenry C. McCook,[2][3]and described further in 1908 byWilliam Morton Wheeler.[4]
Behavior
[edit]Many insects, notably honey bees and some wasps, collect and store liquid for use at a later date. However, these insects store their food within their nest or in combs. Honey ants are unique in using their own bodies as living storage, used later by their fellow ants when food is otherwise scarce. When the liquid stored inside a honeypot ant is needed, the worker ants stroke the antennae of the honeypot ant, causing the honeypot ant to regurgitate the stored liquid from itscrop.[4][5]
Anatomy
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Theabdomenof species likeCamponotus inflatusconsists of hard dorsalsclerites(stiff plates) connected by a softer, more flexible arthrodial membrane. When the abdomen is empty, the arthrodial membrane is folded and the sclerites overlap, but when the abdomen fills the arthrodial membrane becomes fully stretched, leaving the sclerites widely separated.[6]
Ecology
[edit]Myrmecocystusnests are found in a variety of arid or semiarid environments. Some species live in extremely hot deserts, others reside in transitional habitats, and still other species can be found in woodlands which are somewhat cool but still very dry for a large part of the year. For instance, the well-studiedMyrmecocystus mexicanusresides in the arid and semiarid habitats of the southwestern United States. Sterile workers in this species act as plerergates or repletes during times of food scarcity. When the plerergates are fully engorged, they become immobile and hang from the ceilings of the underground nests. Other workers drain them of their liquid food stores to feed the rest of the colony. Plerergates can live anywhere in the nest, but in the wild, they are found deep underground, unable to move, swollen to the size of grapes.[7]
InCamponotus inflatusin Australia, repletes formed 49% (516 ants) of a colony of 1063 ants, and 46% (1835 ants) of a colony of 4019 ants. The smaller colony contained six wingless queens. The larger colony had 66 chambers containing repletes, with a maximum of 191 repletes in a chamber. The largest replete was 15 millimetres long and had a mass of 1.4 grams. The nest had a maximum depth of 1.7 metres, and tunnels stretched 2.4 metres from the nest entrance. The workers went out foraging during daylight to collect nectar fromMulganectaries, and meat from the carcass of aTiliquablue-tongued lizard.[8]
Genera
[edit]Honeypot food storage has been adopted in several seasonally active ant genera:[9]
- Camponotusof Australia[9]
- Cataglyphisof North Africa[9]
- Leptomyrmexof Melanesia[9]
- Melophorusof Australia[9]
- Myrmecocystusof North America.[9][10]
- Plagiolepisof South Africa[citation needed]
- Prenolepisof North America[9]
In human culture
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Honeypot ants such asMelophorus bagotiandCamponotusspp. areedible insectsand form an occasional part of the diet of variousIndigenous Australians.These people scrape the surface to locate the ants' vertical tunnels, and then dig as much as two metres deep to find the honeypots.[11]Papunya,in Australia'sNorthern Territory,is named after a honey ant creation story, orDreaming,which belongs to the people there, such as theWarlpiri.The honey ants were celebrated in theWestern Desert Art Movement'sThe Honey Ant Mural,painted in 1971.[12]
Indigenous medicinal use
[edit]Indigenous Australians from theTjupan language groupuse honeypot ant honey to treat sore throats, and as a topical ointment to treat skin infections. A Sydney University study has investigated the efficacy of honey fromCamponotus inflatus,and found it effective against the bacteriumStaphylococcus aureus,and the fungiAspergillusandCryptococcus.The antimicrobial mechanism is significantly different to that ofMānuka honey.[13][14]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^"Replete".Antbase.Retrieved30 July2016.
- ^McCook, Henry C.(1882).The Honey and Occident Ants.
- ^McCook, Henry C.(1907).Nature's craftsmen; popular studies of ants and other insects.Harper and Brothers. pp.96–111.
- ^abWheeler, William Morton(March 1908). "The Polymorphism of Ants".Annals of the Entomological Society of America.1:39–69.doi:10.1093/aesa/1.1.39.(subscription required)
- ^"Honey Ant Adaptations".National Geographic.Archived fromthe originalon 20 January 2021.Retrieved30 July2016.
- ^Gullan, P. J.; Cranston, P. S. (2009).The Insects: An Outline of Entomology.John Wiley & Sons. p. 25.ISBN978-1-4051-4457-5.
- ^Conway, John R. (1986). "The Biology of Honey Ants".The American Biology Teacher.48(6): 335–343.doi:10.2307/4448321.JSTOR4448321.
- ^Conway, John R. (June 1991)."The biology and aboriginal use of the honeypot ant, 'Camponotus inflatus' Lubbock, in Northern Territory, Australia".Australian Entomologist.18(2): 49–56.
- ^abcdefgSchultheiss, P.; Schwarz, S.; Wystrach, A. (2010)."Nest Relocation and Colony Founding in the Australian Desert Ant,Melophorus bagotiLubbock (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) ".Psyche: A Journal of Entomology.2010:1–4.doi:10.1155/2010/435838.
- ^Morgan, R.Biology, husbandry and display of the diurnal honey antMyrmecocystus mendaxWheeler (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)Archived2010-07-17 at theWayback Machine
- ^"Use of Insects by Australian Aborigines".Insects.org.2011. Archived fromthe originalon 25 August 2012.Retrieved21 May2016.
- ^"Papunya Tula art movement of the Western Desert".Australian Government. Archived fromthe originalon 8 August 2016.Retrieved30 July2016.
- ^Ritchie, Philip (2023-07-27)."Western science catches up with First Nations' medicinal use of ant honey".The University of Sydney.Retrieved2024-07-09.
- ^Dong, Andrew Z.; Cokcetin, Nural; Carter, Dee A.; Fernandes, Kenya E. (2023-07-26)."Unique antimicrobial activity in honey from the Australian honeypot ant (Camponotus inflatus) ".PeerJ.11.PeerJ: e15645.doi:10.7717/peerj.15645.ISSN2167-8359.PMC10386826.
External links
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Media related toHoneypot antsat Wikimedia Commons- Empire of the Desert Ants at naturedocumentaries.orgRetrieved 16 July 2023
