10 facts that prove that ants are like people!

Ants civilization reveals all the secrets of human society ...

Between scientists around the world have long disputes about whether the intellect possesses insects that are clearly not similar to higher mammals. Because of their size, habits and life cycle, most people do not even get the idea that they are developed and live according to laws that are close to the principles of human society. At present, specialists have found at least 10 proofs that insects are frighteningly similar to the human race!

1. Development of an ant civilization

Just as the society of people evolves, life in an anthill changes. In the early stages of its appearance, the ants are confused and chaotically build the "foundation", using for this all the footprints. The longer the anthill is in one place, the more thorough its repair and reconstruction. Ants modify their dwelling, adjusting to the direction of the wind or the growth of nearby plants.

2. Availability of various professions

At the dawn of their appearance tribes, and then states were created on the basis of the division of labor. Just as the same person can not simultaneously be good at once in all existing professions, ants are also unable to replace each other in daily work in an anthill. "Leaf cutters" collect leaves, produce compost and grow mushrooms, which feed on their brethren. "Barrel ants" are capable of several times increasing in size, because their abdomen serves as a storehouse of honey syrup "for a rainy day." "Reapers" grind grain and feed them larvae.

3. Only ants and humans are able to keep pets

In all the diversity of nature, only two creatures can have pets and care for them. Just as a person keeps a cow or a sheep, ants "tame" aphids - they cut their wings and graze every day. Aphids produce a sweet, viscous mass, which insects eat. For the winter, aphids are pushed into the depths of the anthill to prevent their death from the cold.

4. Uprising of ant slaves

The human and the ant are united by one more quality - freedom-lovingness. Ants-slave owners colonize other species of relatives and enslave them. "Slaves" take care of the offspring of the winners, but periodically raise uprisings. The reason is surprisingly reminiscent of the relationship between rulers and slaves in ancient states: in times of hunger or overpopulation of the colony, it is the "slaves" who are infringed upon what they begin to oppose. The initiators of the uprising among the ants are killed or driven out of the anthill.

5. Continuity of power

Insects approach rulers more responsibly than some people do. Each ant-hill is ruled by the "womb" - the queen, to which ants of any level are subject. It has an important function - reaching puberty, the queen, which is distinguished from other insects by the presence of wings, flies away to found a new anthill. Having mated with a male, she bites her wings and lays eggs. She spends several months waiting for the appearance of the larvae of the working ants who will serve her and build a large anthill.

6. Elections

Often in a colony there are several queens. This phenomenon is called polygyny: for some time they manage to manage the anthill together, but sooner or later there are conflicts. Once the skirmishes become regular, the worker ants arrange fights for them, of which only one queen is the winner. The rest are expelled or killed, considered unfit to rule.

7. Pathological laziness

Both among people and among the ants, about 20% of individuals are born free from initiative, unwilling to strive for work, to achieve any benefits. They do not change, even if they are deprived of food and support from their fellows, so society condemns their useless existence. If people simply avoid contact with such acquaintances, then the ants act according to the popular way in their kind of punishment - expulsion.

8. Collective hunting

Primitive people drove mammoths and other large animals, uniting in groups. Ants are familiar with this style of attack: in Africa live a large race, which is called a stray. They travel across the continent in many thousands of colonies and are not afraid to hunt elephants or crocodiles. In Mexico, a similar kind of migration makes people in fear leave their homes, so as not to be seriously bitten or eaten alive.

9. Plant cultivation skills

South American ants seem to have learned from people to grow edible cereal crops, controlling the level of moisture and loosening of the soil. They painstakingly fill the ground with cracks in the trunks of trees, collect the seeds in the fields and "plant" them on improvised plantations. For sowing, not only trees are used, but also the free area around the anthill. The harvest is collected by "reapers" or slave ants.

10. Construction of cities

Ants do not just live in colonies - they ennoble their habitat. In North America, a species lives like Atta, who builds underground cities with tunnels and roads. Outlets on the street they adorn the canopies, protecting the approaches to the city from flooding in the rain.