Ant meals

Ants carry 2,400 insects to their nest every day

A large anthill of Formica yessensis accumulates about 2,400 insects per day. Most of these are fed to the larvae. Some garbage-clearing ants remove the residual insect exoskeletons from the nest after the flesh is eaten.

Ants cooperate to cary food together

When an ant finds a large piece of food, it returns to the nest and collects its fellow workers. On the way back home, it leaves a trail of odors as landmarks, so that it can find its way precisely to the place where it had earlier located the food.

A group of Pheidole nodus ants carrying a spider

‚P The dead body of a cricket near an ant nest.
  • Insects transportation by Crematogaster osakensis

    This ant is carrying the body of a cricket, moving backwards while holding the insect's body with its mandible. Because many ants are swarming near the nest, the food is finally dragged towards the nest.
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    ‚Q After 1 minute, a worker ant has found the mantis. ‚R After 3 minutes. Other workers have swarmed from the nest. ‚S After 5 minutes and 30 seconds. Fellow workers have successively gathered around the mantis.

    ‚T After 10 minutes. Gradual movement of the body towards the nest begins. ‚U After 30 minutes. Although some ants have pulled the insect in the opposite direction, because the number of ants pulling in the direction of the nest was larger, the insect's body was dragged in the direction of the nest.

    ‚V After 35 minutes. The yound mantis has been carried to the entrance of the nest. ‚W After 1 hour. The food was split into pieces at the entrance of the nest. ‚X After 48 hours. The food has finally been taken into the nest by widening the entrance.