Honeypot Ants: amazing ant who store honey in its abdomen

The honey pot ant is a species of ant native to the deserts of Africa, Australia, and North America. In the United States, honey pot ants are commonly found in the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona. They get their name from their diet, which consists mainly of nectar and sweet plant fluids.

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Hymenoptera

Family: Formicidae

Subfamily: Formicinae

Tribe: Lasiini

Genus: Myrmecocystus

Only some honey ants become “living larders.” They are part of the “worker” caste of honey ants. Other castes include soldiers, who protect the colony from predators; princesses and drones, who mate to form new colonies; and the queen—usually the mother of all other ants in the colony.

Storage

Like the worker ants, storage ants ingest honey, nectar and plant secretions, but instead of immediately feeding the other ants, the storage ants store the food within their enlarged abdomens. When food is scarce and worker ants cannot find enough food to feed the colony, the storage ants regurgitate their stored food in order to feed the colony. 

Occasionally, other species of ants invade the honey pot ants’ nest and eat the honey pot ants because they are filled with plant fluids. Indigenous peoples of Australia have also been known to eat honey pot ants.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Contacts of PathMaker

Numbers - 8240042490, 9875616291

Social media -

PathMaker YouTube Channel

PathMaker FB page