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Six Legs Good DW

Ants play a crucial role in maintaining ecological balance, aiding in soil health and plant reproduction. With over 14,000 known species, they exhibit complex social structures and behaviors, functioning as a superorganism without a leader. Their evolutionary success and diverse roles as scavengers, hunters, and waste collectors highlight their importance to life on Earth.

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1 views2 pages

Six Legs Good DW

Ants play a crucial role in maintaining ecological balance, aiding in soil health and plant reproduction. With over 14,000 known species, they exhibit complex social structures and behaviors, functioning as a superorganism without a leader. Their evolutionary success and diverse roles as scavengers, hunters, and waste collectors highlight their importance to life on Earth.

Uploaded by

ishtiakahmed1978
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Six Legs Good

Without ants, the world would be in chaos. Soil would be unable to sustain much life.
Dead leaves, insects and small animals would litter the earth’s surface. Thousands of
species of flowering plants would disappear into extinction, with no creatures to
transport their pollen.

Like mobile dots, ants can suddenly appear in sugar bowls, crawl into neat lines over
shoes or ruin an otherwise perfect picnic. They are silent, and often annoying,
specimens of one of the most successful forms of life on Earth. There are14,000
species of ants, with probably an equal number yet to be discovered, whose combined
weight is more than that of the world’s entire human population. They have perfected
a life that is more social than anything achieved by humans. Ants were building their
own homes and colonies millions of years before humans had even considered
walking on two legs.

Ants have fascinated philosophers, writers and naturalists for thousands of years. But
in the last decade much new information has been revealed about the natural history
of the insects. Scientists have supplied many details of how the insects survive and
communicate and, most surprisingly, how the millions of ants make group decisions
without having a leader. That study has put ants at the centre of what many leading
biologists say is a new phase of biology –understanding how groups of individuals can
behave as a single superorganism.

A scientist who has studied social insects for more than 50 years emphasises the
importance of ants to life on Earth. “They are more important than earthworms for
turning over the top layer of soil. They are also the principal collectors and clearers of
waste,” he says. “They capture and feed on other small insects and remove dead
creatures such as small birds, mice and rats.”

Since the first ants emerged more than 150 million years ago, the insects have
colonised every continent except Antarctica. They have acted as hunters, scavengers
or farmers, and have evolved into thousands of shapes and sizes. The smallest ants
are less than 1mm in length and look like tiny particles of pepper dust; the biggest
can grow to 5cm, each one having a deadly sting for its victims.

Ant colonies range from a dozen individuals to millions of insects, mostly consisting of
ordinary females with specific jobs, as workers, soldiers or caretakers. There are also
one or two other females, called queens, which are responsible for the reproduction of
the species. Others serve as scouts, finding essential sources of food or searching out
new homes when required. Males, called drones, are kept only long enough to fertilise
the queen’s eggs, then driven out of the nest or killed quickly afterwards.

This system has worked well for them. Through the process of evolution, the ants
have discovered the principles of living and working in harmony. Perhaps we humans
have a lot to learn from ants.

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DIRECTED WRITING QUESTION:


Prepare an article for your school magazine on the title “Amazing Ants”, telling some of the amazing
information about ANTS, and their importance to the world. Make your article persuasive and
interesting. (Word limit, 300 words)

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QUESTION AUTHENTICALLY PREPARED BY
Ishtiak Ahmed.
English
Language Teacher.
Contact: 01715 -
254 -182.

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