Читать книгу Extreme Insects - Richard Jones - Страница 16

NAME	honeypot ants Myrmecocystus species, Camponotus inflatus and others
LOCATION	Australia, New Guinea, South Africa, western USA to Mexico
ABI LITY	use their stretched bodies to store sugar and water

For most aboriginal peoples, honey from bees was the only source of sweetness for thousands of years. But in Australia, western USA, Mexico, South Africa and New Guinea, they could raid another source – the hugely bloated honeypot ants.

Honeypot ants have grossly distended abdomens. Their job is to hang immobile from the roofs of nest burrows and fill up with the goodies brought back by their nest-mates, the workers – nectar and honeydew (aphid excrement little changed from the liquid plant sap these insects suck out). This behaviour has evolved in several different genera around the world, usually in desert habitats where the storage of food against hard times allows the colony to survive in the harshest of environments.

The storage ants, called ‘repletes’, can expand their bodies by a factor of many hundreds compared to the normal workers. Their translucent bodies vary in colour from almost clear, through yellow-brown to dark amber. The darker bodies contain the sugars glucose and fructose. The palest and heaviest repletes contain very dilute sugar solutions.

The evolution of repletes is thought to be linked to a system that exploits the unpredictable food sources provided by desert flowers. The volume of the repletes is built up in cool, moist weather, and they are then tapped by the rest of the colony during hot, dry times. The change from building up to tapping happens at about 30-31°C (86-88°F), suggesting that the real purpose of the repletes is to store water against drought.