Research work “Ants. Research work ants Project on the topic of domestic ants

Irina Kazmina

Short project.

Target: expand knowledge about appearance features ants, their life manifestations; arouse interest in the world around you.

How did this project? On a walk, the children observed how the spring grass turned green and grew, how the buds swelled, etc., they discovered anthill with large ants and became interested. And here's an idea!

Progress:

I tell the children a riddle:

He is a real worker,

Very, very hard working

Under a pine tree in a dense forest

He builds a house from needles. (Ant.)

Sweet smell of pine resin

Heated dark stumps.

From dried pine needles

They are building a forest tower ants.

Efficiently, with working dexterity

They put up beams and lay down logs.

The matter is progressing briskly and deftly,

The house will be warm and cozy!

There will be small children in the mansion

Sleep peacefully to the tunes of the rains.

That's why he gets up at dawn

Hard-working forest worker ant.

Questions for children:

1. What they look like ants?

2. What do they eat?

3. How do they move?

4. What is it called? ant house?

5. From what ants build their house?

6. What enemies do you have? ants?

7. What songs, poems, riddles, tales about ant you know?

8. How to prepare ants for winter?

View pictures with images ants.

At the end of the conversation, the students suggested creating a layout anthill, to be in “Our Beloved Vegetable Garden”. But then a problem arose that ants they can eat our seedlings. The children began to reason and decided to put anthill away from"vegetable garden".

We are working on " anthill"

Target: to cultivate interest in nature, introduce children to a new technique for creating three-dimensional images - papier-mâché (modeled from paper pulp).

We tear the paper into strips, then soak it in the prepared mass (water mixed with PVA glue) and roll into small balls

And so they collected" anthill"

Second day:

Ant The strongest insect on earth, it carries weights 10 times greater than its own weight. It has a thickened abdomen, chest, head, and three pairs of small legs. U ant strong jaws, very mobile antennae that act as organs of touch. Ants are predators, they destroy many insects. They have a lot enemies: birds, bear, ant-eater.

Viewing and reading the encyclopedia.

Practical work. Inspecting our "yesterday" anthill" - DRY (touched each one, continue to work. Paint anthill black watercolor paint on all sides and start sculpting ants.

Target: learn to sculpt small insects, conveying their characteristic structural features and coloring.

For the antennae we used beading wire.

Anthill with ants is ready.

At the end of the work we remembered proverbs:

As is the master, so is the work.

Do it quickly - redo it.

A bird is recognized in flight, a person - in his work.

Grow up quickly and get to work.

The sun paints the earth, and labor paints man.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

Publications on the topic:

Ecological trail. Stations “Green Pharmacy”, “Fruit Garden”, “Elnik”, “Anthill” ECOLOGICAL TRAIL STATION "Green Pharmacy". ECOLOGICAL TRAIL STATION "Green Pharmacy". The goal is to develop the ability to use rationally.

Board game "Ants in an anthill" Rules of the walking board game 1. Place the chips on “Start”. The game is designed for three players.

Career guidance for preschoolers is a new, little-studied direction in psychology and pedagogy. Children take their first steps towards their future profession.

This presentation presents photographs of the progress of the healthy lifestyle project “In the Land of Health” for preparatory children.

As part of the parent meeting "Environmental education in kindergarten and at home," our group "Dreamers" held an unusual master class.

"Vegetable garden on the windowsill." Project: “Vegetable garden on the windowsill” in the middle group “Island”. Relevance of the project: the project is aimed at generalization.

Relevance of the topic. During literary reading lessons we read interesting works by V. Bianki “The Adventures of an Ant” and O. Polonsky “The Ant Kingdom”. Communication with nature always brings us joy. We never cease to admire her amazing creations: animals, plants. There is hardly a person who has not at least once stopped near an anthill, fascinated by such a distant and at the same time inexplicably close to us world of these amazing insects. We especially like to observe the life of small insects, how they live, what do they do when a person does not see their daily life? In order to understand the secrets of nature, in the lessons of the surrounding world we wanted to learn a lot of new things about the ant kingdom. We decided to carry out design and research work on ants and answer many questions of interest: How do ants live? What is an anthill? How does an anthill work? What “rooms” does it have? Why do ants care about aphids? What do ants eat? Why are ants called “forest orderlies”?

The purpose of the work is to study the life of ants, to learn interesting facts about their life. Objectives: Increase the amount of knowledge about insects. Study the types of ant dwellings and the features of their construction. Learn the laws of the ant family. Reveal the significance of ants in nature and for humans. Study the literature on this topic. Analyze the work and add additional material to the class “piggy bank”. Research hypothesis If you learn about the importance of ants in nature and in human life, you can use this knowledge to your advantage. Research methods: - practical work; - observations; - data collection and analysis; - generalization of information; - survey among school students and teachers. Object of study: Anthill, ants’ homes. Subject of study: Ants

Expected results: - formation of ideas about how ants live; - the emergence of ideas about ants and their varieties; - based on research results, establish interesting facts about the benefits of ants; - propaganda about the importance of ants among school students; -use of research results for conducting classroom hours and quizzes. - creation of a collection of riddles “Children's riddles about an ant”, a booklet “The most interesting things about ants”, a mini-album “Our Ants” with the results of a survey, an application “Anthill”, a presentation of the work.

Ant family Ants live in an anthill as one large and friendly family. There are as many ants in one anthill as there are people in a big city. In an ant family there is a clear working distribution. The head of the family is the ant “queen.” And there are ants who are soldiers, scouts, and stonemasons.

What do ants eat? Ants feed on insects, sweet secretions of aphids, plant sap, and seeds. Features of the life activity of ants The German scientist and myrmecologist G. Wellenstein, after more than 25 years of studying red forest ants, established that their “menu” consists of: honeydew (honeydew) - 62%; plant juice – 4.5%; seeds – 0.2%; insects and invertebrates – 33%; mushrooms and carrion – 0.3%.

How does an ant work? If you carefully examine an ant through a magnifying glass, you will see that its body consists of 4 sections: head, chest, stalk and abdomen. Differences in the structure of the head (there are hairs or not), pubescence of the back, differences in color, the structure of the legs - all this divides ants into different species. We will talk about the general signs and characteristics of the life of ants.

How does an anthill work? All ants living in our country live in nests. They build them on the ground. Outside they can be seen by the piles of earth. Inside, an underground gallery leads to chambers that are interconnected. The depth of the nests varies from 30 cm to 2 m, and for desert ants it reaches more than 10 m. Sometimes ants also settle in rotten wood: stumps, logs. The dome of the nest consists of needles of twigs - it has a protective function, it protects from rain, wind, snow. Inside, the dome consists of large branches, where a constant temperature is maintained. And the ants hibernate in the underground part. In deserts, where the earth warms up to 60 o C, ants never build above-ground nests, only underground, where the temperature is much lower.

Benefit or harm? There are no harmful or beneficial ants in nature. Any type is either harmful or beneficial to humans. Ants - harvesters - are useful in the virgin steppe - they disperse plant seeds, but near grain flows where grain is threshed - they are harmful. Red ants are settling in gardens. They breed aphids on fruit trees. As a result, the leaves and shoots of apple and pear trees are severely damaged, leading to crop losses and sometimes death of the trees. In meadows, anthills interfere with grass mowing. But in forests, the benefits of ants are great - they destroy insects that are present in large quantities, for example, caterpillars and bark beetles. In addition, when building nests, ants loosen the soil, making it easier for air to reach the roots of trees. They bring various organic residues into the nest and enrich the soil with microelements. The forest in which ants live is healthier. Therefore, forestry workers are engaged in the protection and breeding of forest ants - they are forest nurses.

Interesting facts about ants - Ants are the most ancient insects on Earth. Ant fossils were found more than 100 million years ago. - An ant is stronger than an elephant, because it can lift a load much more than its own weight. - Whenever there is a free minute, the worker ants “play”, grab each other with their paws and roll on the ground. - Ants are able to distinguish their “brothers” from strangers, thanks to the smell produced by special glands. - Sometimes ants’ grain reserves can reach up to 50 kg. At the same time, it does not rot in the nests, because they carefully dry it in the sun. - Stray ants live in South America. They move in columns, sweeping away all living things that come their way, even lizards and snakes.

Sociological survey To conduct a sociological survey, a questionnaire of four questions was compiled. 1. What do you know about ants? 2. What is the importance of ants in nature? 3. Are there ants in your garden? 4. What is the importance of ants in your garden?

My creativity: application "Anthill" I made the application after finishing all the work. When I made the creative composition “Anthill” I remembered summer. Materials we needed: 1. Cut wool threads. 3. Background for the composition. I chose a ready-made image of a clearing with insects. 4. Glue - pencil. Then together I smeared glue on the place where the anthill was supposed to be located, and laid out the threads.

Observations of ants. The anthill that I observed in the summer was located in the forest. This is what I saw. The ants dragged various materials towards him: wood chips, dead insects. I also noticed that most ants move for a reason, but one after another at a distance of about five centimeters, and they move along the same paths, and some ants carry nothing, but every time they return to the anthill, they run again with the others . Then I decided to conduct a little experiment. I placed a small (about 5 cm) stick on one of the ant paths and began to monitor the reaction of the ants. Two ants climbed over it and tried to move the stick from its place, but they failed. Then two more ants approached them, and the four of them dragged the stick to the anthill, but since it did not fit inside, they had to leave it outside.

Conducting research, observing the life of ants, and studying additional literature about ants, I came to the following conclusions: Ants live in families. Each ant clearly knows and performs its specific function. Ants are eternal builders. Ants move along the same paths. Ants treat different insects differently.

Project “Six-legged People” Methodological recommendations for the implementation of the project

Like a real porter
With his family's chest,
The blackest and shiniest
The strongest ant!

Real train stations
Anthills in the forest:
In corridors, doors, halls
Ants carry luggage!

The strongest, the most persistent,
The ant has already arrived
To a wonderful building
Forty-eight floors.

Ant.
Leonid Epaneshnikov
There is a roof in the ant house
It's time to fix it.
He went out for a straw
Ant in the morning.
To her across the road
I got there in no hurry.
Looked around
Touched:
Very good!
I grabbed it with my paws,
Once and dragged...
Under the burdock hats
Little house.
It's not easy,
But to the house
It drags anyway.
For you -
Straw,
And for him -
Log!
Wow, how hot it got
Even my forehead got wet!
I would quit
It's a pity:
The house is not far away!

S. Mikhalkov
There are goosebumps in the forest - ants
They live by their labor

They have their own customs
And the anthill is home.
Peace-loving residents
They don't sit idle:
In the morning, soldiers are running to the post,
And nannies in kindergarten.

Worker ant is in a hurry
The labor path,
It rustles from morning to evening
In the grass and under leaves.

Ant. Sergey Kozlov

Rides on a grasshopper
Kuzya-ant.
Saber at the belt,
Papakha up to the eyebrows.
Horseshoes clicking
Grasshopper horse.
- Where are you going with the rifle?
Kuzya, without me?

In the grass-ant
There is a path.
Right in the saddle Egorovich,
Don't turn off the path.

Won't say anything
He will look silently.
Silent severity
Kuzya is famous
Ah, Kuzma Egorovich,
Serious ant -
Saber at the belt,
Papakha up to the eyebrows.

Ant.
I have never met anyone alive in the forest -
Have you seen an ant standing?
It's pulling a butterfly
The leaf is dragging
It drags the earth
From morning until night.
And I must say
Keeps up around
Because everything does
Just run!

Anthill
Sweet smell of pine resin
Heated dark stumps.
From dried pine needles
Forest ants are building a tower.
Efficiently, with working dexterity
They put up beams and lay down logs.
The matter is progressing briskly and deftly.
The house will be warm and cozy!
There will be small children in the mansion
Sleep peacefully to the tunes of the rains.
That's why he gets up at dawn
A hard-working forest ant.
Educational stories.
"Zhaleikin and the Ants"
I saw Zhaleikin’s poster “Ants are friends of the forest.” I read it and gasped: how did he not know this before! Out of ignorance, I destroyed anthills more than once with my own hands, and out of kindness I fed fish with ant eggs.
And how many times have I seen green woodpeckers digging up anthills? He saw and did not interfere - he felt sorry for the woodpeckers.
Once I found a large brood of grouse on an anthill. The grouse took sunbaths on the anthill and pecked the ants. And he didn’t even drive them away!
“And how winds and heavy rains probably harm open anthills! But now this won’t happen anymore! I will protect the beneficial ants. Let’s get to work!”
Zhaleikin filled all the anthills at the edge with green grass. They began to look like haystacks.
Zhaleikin reliably covered the anthills in the forest with spruce branches. Like huts have become. Woodpeckers and black grouse will no longer reach them, fishermen will not find them, and winds and rainfall will not harm them. Rejoice, ants!
But the ants are not happy about something. Under the spruce branches and grass, dampness and mold appeared on the anthills. The ants began to get sick, their pupae did not warm up in the sun.
- What have you done, Zhaleikin? - the forester caught him by the ear. -Have you not read my posters? Rains and winds are no hindrance to ants: the dome of an anthill is a reliable roof. Birds and animals are not so bad for them. But your haystacks and huts are an irreparable disaster. And if you want good for them, don’t interfere with them living their own way. They are friends of the forest!
(N.I.Sladkov)

"Anthill Stump"
There are old stumps in the forest, all covered, like Swiss cheese, with holes and retaining their strong shape... If you have to sit on such a stump, then the partitions between the holes are obviously destroyed, and you feel that you are a little ass, then get up immediately: from every hole Many ants crawl out from this stump under you, and the spongy stump will turn out to be a solid anthill, retaining the appearance of a stump.
(M. Prishvin)

"About Ants"
One day I came to the pantry to get some jam. I took the jar and saw that the whole jar was full of ants. Ants crawled in the middle and on top of the jar, and in the jam itself. I took out all the ants with a spoon, swept them all around from the jar and put the jar on the top shelf. The next day, when I came to the pantry, I saw that ants had crawled from the floor to the top shelf and crawled into the jam again. I took the jar, cleaned it again, tied it with a rope and hung it on a nail to the ceiling.
When I left the pantry, I looked at the jar again and saw that there was only one ant left on it; it was soon running around the jar. I stopped to see what he would do. The ant ran along the glass, then ran along the rope with which the can was tied, then ran onto the rope with which the can was tied. He ran up to the ceiling, ran from the ceiling down the wall and onto the floor, where there were a lot of ants.
It’s true that this ant told the others which way he came from the jar, because immediately many ants followed each other along the wall to the ceiling and along the rope into the jar, along the same road along which the ant came. I removed the jar and put it in another place.
(Lev Tolstoy)
Sports relay race “Ants are hardworking people”
"Walk the winding path"
Equipment: 5 pins, blindfold.
Progress of the game:
The pins are placed in a straight line 80 cm apart. A blindfolded player stands two steps from the outer pin (behind the line). He must go to the other end of the site, going around each obstacle in turn. Anyone who knocks down or misses at least one item is considered to have failed the task.
"Who can build"
Equipment: small towns, blindfold
How to play: 5 towns are placed in front of each player. They are blindfolded and asked to blindly build a figure from the lying towns. The one who manages to do this wins.
"Who hits harder"
Equipment: ball
Progress of the game: players take turns making 3 kicks with their left and right feet, trying to send the ball as far as possible. The one with the ball that rolls the farthest wins.
"Relay with hoops"
Equipment: hoops
Progress of the game: the players line up in two columns (a line is drawn in front of each). One hoop is placed at a distance of 6-8 meters from the columns. At the teacher’s command, the players standing first in the column run to the hoops, lift them up, climb through them, put them in place and run to their column, touch the hand of the next child and stand at the end of the column. Each subsequent one performs the same task. The team that completes the task faster wins.
Puzzles.
In the forest near the stump there is bustle, running around -
The working people are busy all day.
(Ants)

Call me quickly.
I am a worker…
(ant)

We are forest dwellers
Wise builders.
From needles with the whole team
We are building a house under a spruce tree.
(ants)

Bent under his heavy burden,
He drags a blade of grass into the house...
(ant)

In a forest skyscraper for a thousand families
A hard worker lives - a baby...
(ant)

Small in stature, but hardworking
And the hunter is real.
The house is assembled from pine needles,
Saves the forest from caterpillars.
(ant)

Look at the good guys:
Cheerful and lively,
Dragging from all sides
Material for construction.
One suddenly stumbled
Under a heavy burden
And a friend rushes to help.
The people here are good!
Without a job, for the life of me
Can't live... (ant).

In a clearing near the fir trees
The house is built from needles.
He is not visible behind the grass,
And there are a million residents there.
(anthill)

Who in the forest without axes builds a hut without corners? (ant)

It is made from twigs, from pine needles
Will build a real house
No saw and no nails.
Who is the builder? ...
(ant).

Eremka himself is small, but smart.
Walks unnoticed through the forest,
I carry a heavier burden.
(Ant)

The men came without axes,
They built a house without corners.
(Ants and anthill)
I am small, I walk unnoticed, but I carry more than myself (ant)

The house is hidden in the forest,
The residents bring everything to him:
and a blade of grass, and a needle, and some kind of larva.
There is a watchman in that house - his antennae are trembling sensitively.
Guess quickly who lives in it?... /ant/

Whose house is made of needles
On the ground, near old Christmas trees?
(anthill)

The carpenters walked without axes,
They cut down the hut without corners.
(anthill)

Fairy tales
"The Tale of the Ant Rashka and the Aphid Tyup"
Yulia Yarmolenko.

A little ant sat on a leaf and sadly looked after the departing sun. Tomorrow a very important day will come for him - Rashka must choose a profession for himself. Each member of their huge family had some kind of occupation. The little ant's uncle was a hunter - he got food by hunting juicy beetles and spiders. The older brother was a builder. He built new underground castles with many comfortable rooms and halls. My sister babysat the kids in kindergarten, and my grandfather was once a famous scout - he helped the family find places where it was safe and there was plenty of food. Rashka couldn't decide. He liked almost all professions. But there was not one to whom he would have attached his soul.
- Why are you sad? – was heard from Rashka behind him.
The little ant turned around and saw his neighbor.
- Yes, I just can’t decide on a profession...
- Come join us as an observer. We will sit on the highest blade of grass and look out for the enemy. Our profession is very important. And good. I like. And there’s no point in putting it off until tomorrow – you’ll try now.
Rashka agreed. They quickly moved their paws along the ant paths.
It was interesting on the blade of grass. The little ant had never climbed so high before. From here one could see a clear stream, flowers of extraordinary beauty, plants, huge stones, hillocks and... a forest. An hour has passed. During this time, Rashka explored almost everything in the area and began to fall asleep, as the sun almost hid behind the horizon.
“What are you talking about,” his neighbor’s dissatisfied voice woke him up. – You can’t sleep on duty! What if you miss something important?
- But nothing happens! – Rashka was sincerely surprised. - When was the last time you sounded the alarm?
- I do not remember. Probably last year. Or maybe even the year before last.
The little ant slowly crawled off the blade of grass and headed home. This kind of work - just waiting - seemed incredibly boring to him.
In the morning, the sleepy Rashka was patted on the shoulder by his older brother:
- Get ready! I think you'll make a great builder!
The ant liked it at the construction site. There are hundreds around – no, thousands! - people like him, and not one of them sits idle. Everyone was working on a new anthill, into which their huge family was supposed to move closer to winter.
The brother showed Rashka the construction plan, numerous rooms, shelters, a kitchen, a library, a school and even a nursery for the little ones. He handed me a shovel and took it deep underground.
- And how long do you need to work here?
- Until the evening. And when it gets dark, go home and sleep.
- So, I will no longer be able to see beautiful flowers, admire the sunrise, the shine of dew and warm rain?
Raska realized that he did not want to be a builder.
His dad was already waiting for him upstairs.
- Well, son, will you go foraging? Together we will collect tidbits of fruit, bread crumbs and juicy bugs. Let's prepare a lot of food for the winter, so that in the cold we don't starve, but feast!
The little ant agreed. He followed his father, but he clearly lacked the agility.
“Don’t worry, you’ll soon gain experience and run better than me,” he winked at Rashka.
The baby quickly moved his legs, looked at various objects, sniffed them, when suddenly something turned white under a plantain leaf. Rashka came closer and saw a melted fragrant piece of sugar.
- Dad, dad! – the little ant shouted joyfully. But there was no one nearby.
Rashka became sad, took a piece of sugar and went to look for his father.
More than an hour passed, but on the way he did not encounter any ants or beetles. “Lost,” flashed through my head. But at that moment a cute green bug jumped out onto the road.
- Hello! – Rashka was delighted. - Who are you?
“Hello,” she said, embarrassed. - I am the aphid Tulya. Lost?
“Uh-huh,” the ant hummed.
Tulya smiled.
- I'll show you the way. Your house is behind those two flower fields and a birch tree.
Rashka was so incredibly grateful to his savior that he handed her a piece of sugar.
- Sorry, I have nothing else.
Tulya smiled, took the sweet treat and swallowed it instantly. Then she tore off a tiny blade of grass, made a plate out of it, scratched her side and poured some fragrant milk for the ant.
- Drink! You'll like it!
Raska was surprised how tasty it was.
“Come on, I’ll show you our stream, I’ll introduce you to my brothers and friends,” the ant pulled the aphid by the leg.
- No I can not. Our family is constantly in danger, we have many enemies, so we can’t go far.
- But we can protect you, and the aphids will give us tasty and nutritious milk for this!
The little ant thought for a moment.
- Yes, I would like exactly such a profession! And then you and I could watch the sun set at least every evening!
A few days later, thanks to Rashka, a new profession appeared in the ant family - shepherd. And Rashka was appointed chief - for his resourcefulness. And now, together with Tulya, they were inseparable.

"One for all and all for one"
Irina Pivovarova
It was a long time ago. Back then the ants still lived alone...
One day two ants met on the path and began to complain to each other.
“Yesterday a beetle crushed my leg,” says one Ant to another.
- And the Caterpillar offended me. She pushed my house so hard that it fell apart,” says another. - It’s bad for us ants to live in the world. We are small, anyone can offend us. And there is no one to intercede.
- You know what, let's live together. Stand up for each other, help each other.
The ants began to live together.
...There's a beetle crawling along the road. The Ant tells him:
- Come on, beetle, try to step on my foot now!
And the beetle sees: there are two ants. You can't handle them together.
And he crawled away quickly. The Caterpillar crawled.
“Well,” the ants tell her, “now try to push our house.”
And the Caterpillar sees: there are two ants. They'll bite you again!
And she crawled away quickly.
The third Ant learned that life had become easier for two ants.
“Take me to live with you,” he says.
The three of the ants began to live together. The three of us became even stronger.
And then the fourth came to them, and the fifth.
And finally, all the ants began to live together.
First of all, they decided to build a big, big house. And everyone got to work. Some ants carry sticks, others lay down sticks. If one person is having a hard time, everyone helps him. If one is offended, everyone defends him. One for all and all for one.
This is how the first anthill appeared in the world.

"The Ant and the Grain of Wheat"
Leonardo Da Vinci
The grains of wheat remaining on the field after the harvest were impatiently waiting for the rain to bury themselves deeper into the damp earth in anticipation of the coming cold weather. An ant running past noticed him. Delighted with the find, he, without hesitation, put the heavy prey on his back and crawled with difficulty to the anthill. In order to get to the house before dark, the ant crawls without stopping, and the luggage puts more and more pressure on its weary back.
- Why are you straining yourself? Leave me here!” the grain of wheat begged.
“If I leave you,” answered the ant, breathing heavily, “we will be left without food for the winter.” There are many of us, and everyone is obliged to earn a living in order to increase the reserves in the anthill. Then the grain thought and said:
“I understand your concerns as an honest worker, but you also need to understand my situation.” Listen to me carefully, smart ant!
Satisfied that he could catch his breath a little, the ant threw the heavy burden off his back and sat down to rest.
“So know,” said the grain, “there is a great life-giving power within me, and my purpose is to give birth to new life.” Let's make an amicable agreement with you. - What kind of agreement is this?
- Here's what it is. If you don’t drag me into the anthill and leave me here in my native field,” the grain explained, “then in exactly a year I will reward you.” The surprised ant shook his head in disbelief. “Believe me, dear ant, I’m telling the absolute truth!” If you give up on me now and wait, then later I will reward your patience a hundredfold, and your anthill will not be at a loss. In exchange for one you will receive one hundred of the same grains.
The ant thought, scratching the back of his head: “One hundred grains in exchange for one. Yes, such miracles only happen in fairy tales.”
“How will you do this?” he asked, bursting with curiosity, but still not believing.
“Rely on me!” answered the grain. “This is the great secret of life.” Now dig a small hole, bury me, and come back again in the summer.
At the agreed time, the ant returned to the field. The grain of wheat kept its promise.

“Why does an ant have a thin abdomen?”
Altai folk tale
Do you know why ants have a thin abdomen, as if pulled by a thread? Listen here. This story must begin from afar...

Once upon a time there lived a frog in a large round lake. One day she leaned out of the water, looked back and forth and - jump! hop!
I went for a walk along the shore. From bush to bush, from tree to tree - jump! hop! - and got lost. And then there’s another problem - the frog got into an ant’s path.
The ants attacked the frog from all sides and began to sting it in the back, and in the belly, and in the paws in order to drive it away from the road.
“Oh, poor me!” the frog cried. “I lost my home, I haven’t eaten anything all day, and you’re still torturing me!” - The ants became ashamed. They said: “Please forgive us and be a guest in our house!”
The frog was happy and jumped! hop! - went with the ants to their house. The ants fed her, gave her sweet honey to drink, and then put her to bed.
In the morning the frog woke up, looked here and there, but didn’t understand where its home was.
- “Oh, am I really going to remain homeless?” - the frog cried.
“Don’t cry,” said the ants, “we won’t leave you in trouble.”
Then one ant climbed onto the highest larch and said: “In the direction where the sun sets, a large lake shines. This is probably your home. Do you want me to accompany you?”
“Oh, I will be so grateful to you,” the frog was delighted. “And when we arrive, I will treat you to glory!” - But the ant said: “No, I won’t go to visit you alone, we always stick together - we work together, we feast together.”
- So I ask you all to come visit me! - said the frog. And they set off. A frog splashed in front, and behind it a whole horde of ants.
So they reached a large round lake. “You wait here on the shore,” said the frog, and I’ll go and prepare everything for our dear guests!” - And she - plop! hop! - disappeared into the water.
And the ants remained waiting on the shore. The sun rose above the forest - they waited. The sun hid behind the lake - they waited. The day has passed. And another day passed. The ants waited for seven days, but the frog did not appear.
Finally, the oldest ant said: “It’s enough to sit here. We’ll die of hunger this way.” - She tightened her belt and went home.
And all the ants also pulled their belts tighter and crawled after her. Since then, the ants have remained with a constricted abdomen. This is because they still haven't eaten after visiting the greedy frog.

“About an ant who was not afraid of thorns or spiders.”
Ondrej Sekora
At the edge of the dark forest there grew a rosehip bush, strewn with pink flowers from top to bottom. The flowers smiled and tenderly beckoned: “Look at us, how beautiful we are!” - and they smelled wonderful, wonderful. But their branches also had thorns. They threatened: “Be careful, we’ll inject you,” and bristled angrily in all directions. A breathless ant was making its way between these terrible thorns. He hurried up the branches, hurried as if someone was chasing him. The ant was all black, and only had a red scarf with white polka dots tied around his neck.
- You see, I'm in a hurry! I'm in a hurry to get to the top. I, my dears, must see where my anthill is. After all, I got lost today. I'm completely, completely lost.
Deftly dodging the thorns, the ant climbed higher and higher. And now the ant is already at the top, where the most beautiful flower has bloomed. He will be an observation tower! From here you might be able to see an anthill.
Hop! - the ant jumped onto the smooth petal of the flower. But, in a hurry, he suddenly slipped and crashed headfirst into the stamens, covered with delicate yellow pollen. Well, there was pollen there! And how it immediately fell apart! The pollen got into the ant's eyes and nose, and the ant: “A-a-a-pchhi!” - he sneezed so hard that the flower swayed. And as soon as the flower swayed, the ant’s legs gave way, and he flew down along with the stamen, which he managed to grab onto.
- I'll give you a million pebbles for a safety net! - the ant screamed in horror. As soon as he said this, a net miraculously appeared under him, and he fell on it, as if on a feather bed. But here’s the problem: it turned out to be not a safety net, but a cobweb; along its threads, thick as ropes, a spider was already descending and laughing: “Ha-ha-ha! Got the ant! What if I eat you, little ant?!” - And he attacked the ant. The ant was small. Compared to him, the spider seemed like a giant. But the ant did not want to be eaten at all.
First, he pushed the spider away with his feet, and then punched his astonished enemy in the teeth so hard that sparks fell from his eyes. And then the ant jumped up and, waving the stamen like a sword, shouted:
- Do you think that if you are a spider, then I am afraid of you? Do you think that if you are big and I am small, I will give in to you? You're wrong! It is for you! It is for you! - and he stabbed the spider in the stomach, in the chin, in the nose. The spider swung away with all eight paws, but the ant fearlessly - once, once, once! - struck him blow after blow.
Every time he stabbed the spider in the stomach or chin, the spider became so ticklish that it even jumped. When the ant, having contrived, hit the spider on the nose with its stamen, pollen fell and got into the spider’s eyes, mouth and even nose! The spider could not stand it and - “A-a-a-a-pchhi!” - he sneezed ten times more than the ant.
And then this is what happened. The web broke, an ant slid to the ground along one rope, and a spider along the other. The spider kicked in all directions with its paws and became increasingly entangled in its own web, and the ant took off running - quickly, quickly, away from the treacherous web!
He didn’t find his anthill - he never managed to see anything from the top of the bush. But he escaped from the spider, although the spider was ten times larger and thicker than him.

“Like an ant hurrying home.”
V.V.Bianchi.
An ant climbed onto a birch tree. He climbed to the top, looked down, and there, on the ground, his native anthill was barely visible.
The ant sat on a leaf and thought:
“I’ll rest a little and then go down.”
The ants are strict: only when the sun sets, everyone runs home.
When the sun sets, the ants will close all the passages and exits and go to sleep. And whoever is late can at least spend the night on the street.
The sun was already descending towards the forest.
An ant sits on a piece of paper and thinks:
“It’s okay, I’ll hurry: we’ll go down quickly.”
But the leaf was bad: yellow, dry. The wind blew and tore it off the branch.
The leaf rushes through the forest, across the river, through the village.
An ant flies on a leaf, sways - almost alive from fear.
The wind carried the leaf to a meadow outside the village and dropped it there. The leaf fell on a stone, and the ant knocked off his legs.
He lies and thinks:
“My little head is gone. I can’t get home now. The place is flat all around. If I were healthy, I would run straight away, but here’s the problem: my legs hurt. It’s a shame,
even bite the ground."
The Ant looks: the Land Surveyor Caterpillar lies nearby. Worm-worm, only in front there are legs and in the back there are legs.
The ant says to the Land Surveyor:
- Land surveyor, Surveyor, carry me home. My legs hurt.
- Aren’t you going to bite?
- I won't bite.
- Well, sit down, I’ll give you a ride.
The ant climbed onto the Land Surveyor's back. He bent in an arc, put his hind legs to his front, and his tail to his head. Then he suddenly stood up to his full height and lay down on the ground with a stick. He measured on the ground how tall he was, and again hunched himself into an arch. So he went, and so he went to measure the land.
The ant flies to the ground, then to the sky, then upside down, then up.
- I can’t do it anymore! - shouts. - Stop! Otherwise I'll bite you!
The Surveyor stopped and stretched out along the ground. The ant got down and could barely catch his breath.
He looked around and saw: a meadow ahead, in the meadow there was mown grass. And the Haymaker Spider walks across the meadow: his legs are like stilts, his head swings between his legs.
- Spider, and Spider, take me home! My legs hurt.
- Well, sit down, I’ll give you a ride.
The Ant had to climb up the spider's leg to the knee, and from the knee down to the Spider's back: the Haymaker's knees stick out higher than his back.
The Spider began to rearrange his stilts - one leg here, the other there; all eight legs, like knitting needles, flashed in Ant’s eyes. But the Spider does not walk quickly, his belly scratches along the ground. Ant is tired of this kind of riding. He almost bit the Spider. Yes, here, fortunately, they came out on a smooth path.
The Spider stopped.
“Get down,” he says. - Here the Ground Beetle is running, she is faster than me.
Ant's tears.
- Zhuzhelka, Zhuzhelka, carry me home! My legs hurt.
- Sit down, I'll give you a ride.
As soon as the Ant managed to climb onto the Ground Beetle's back, she started running! Her legs are straight, like a horse's.
A six-legged horse runs, runs, does not shake, as if flying through the air.
We quickly reached a potato field.
“Now get down,” says the Ground Beetle. - It’s not with my feet to jump on potato beds. Take another horse.
I had to get down.
Potato tops for Ant are a dense forest. Here, even with healthy legs, you can run all day. And the sun is already low.
Suddenly Ant hears someone squeaking:
- Come on, Ant, climb on my back and let’s jump.
The Ant turned around - the Flea Bug was standing next to him, just visible from the ground.
- Yes, you are small! You can't lift me up.
- And you’re big! Climb, I say.
Somehow the Ant fit on Flea's back. I just installed the legs.
- Did you get in?
- Well, I got in.
- And you got in, so hold on.
The flea picked up his thick hind legs - and they were like collapsible springs - and click! - straightened them. Look, he's already sitting in the garden.
Click! - another. Click! - on third.
So the whole garden snapped away right up to the fence.
The ant asks:
-Can you go through the fence?
- I can’t cross the fence: it’s very high. You ask the Grasshopper: he can.
- Grasshopper, Grasshopper, carry me home! My legs hurt.
- Sit on the scruff of the neck.
The Ant sat on the Grasshopper's neck. The grasshopper folded its long hind legs in half, then straightened them all at once and jumped high into the air, like a flea. But then, with a crash, the wings unfolded behind his back, carried the Grasshopper over the fence and quietly lowered him to the ground.
- Stop! - said the Grasshopper. - We've arrived.
The ant looks ahead, and there is a river: if you swim along it for a year, you won’t be able to cross it. And the sun is even lower.
Grasshopper says:
- I can’t even jump over the river. It's very wide. Wait a minute, I’ll call Water Strider and there will be a carrier for you.
It crackled in its own way, and lo and behold, a boat on legs was running through the water.
She ran up. No, not a boat, but a Water Strider-Bug.
- Water meter, Water meter, carry me home! My legs hurt.
- Okay, sit down, I’ll move you.
Ant sat down. The water meter jumped and walked on the water as if it were dry land. And the sun is very low.
- Darling, quick! - asks Ant. - They won’t let me go home.
“It could be better,” says Water Meter.
Yes, he will let it go. He pushes off, pushes off with his legs and rolls and glides through the water as if on ice. I quickly found myself on the other side.
-Can’t you do it on the ground? - asks Ant.
- It’s hard for me on the ground, my legs don’t slide. And look: there’s a forest ahead.
Look for another horse.
Ant looked ahead and saw: there was a tall forest above the river, up to the sky. And the sun had already disappeared behind him. No, Ant won't get home!
“Look,” says the Water Meter, “there the horse is crawling for you.”
The Ant sees: the May Khrushchev is crawling past - a heavy beetle, a clumsy beetle. Can you ride far on such a horse? Still, I listened to the Water Meter.
- Khrushchev, Khrushchev, take me home! My legs hurt.
- And where did you live?
- In an anthill behind the forest.
- Far away... Well, what should we do with you? Sit down, I'll take you there.
Ant climbed up the bug's hard side.
- I sat down, or what?
- Sat down.
-Where did you sit?
- On the back.
- Eh, stupid! Get on your head.
The Ant climbed onto the Beetle's head. And it’s good that he didn’t stay on his back:
The beetle broke its back in two and raised its two stiff wings. The Beetle's wings are like two inverted troughs, and from under them other wings climb and unfold: thin, transparent, wider and longer than the top ones.
The Beetle began to puff and pout: “Ugh, uh, uh!” It's like the engine is starting.
“Uncle,” asks Ant, “quickly!” Darling, live up!
The Beetle doesn’t answer, he just puffs:
"Ugh, uh, uh!"
Suddenly the thin wings fluttered and began to work. "Zhzhzh! Knock-knock-knock!.." -
Khrushchev rose into the air. Like a cork, the wind threw him upward - above the forest.
The ant from above sees: the sun has already touched the ground with its edge.
The way Khrushch ran off took Ant’s breath away.
"Zhzhzh! Knock-knock-knock!" - the Beetle rushes, drilling the air like a bullet.
The forest flashed beneath him and disappeared.
And here is the familiar birch tree, and the anthill under it.
Just above the top of the birch the Beetle turned off the engine and - plop! - sat down on a branch.
- Uncle, dear! - Ant begged. - How can I go down? My legs hurt, I’ll break my neck.
The beetle folded its thin wings along its back. Covered the top with hard troughs. The tips of the thin wings were carefully placed under the troughs.
He thought and said:
- I don’t know how you can get downstairs.
I won’t fly into an anthill: you ants bite too painfully.
Get there yourself as best you can.
Ant looked down, and there, right under the birch tree, was his home.
I looked at the sun: the sun had already sunk waist-deep into the ground.
He looked around him: twigs and leaves, leaves and twigs.
You can't get Ant home, even if you throw yourself headfirst!
Suddenly he sees: next to him on a leaf the Leafroller Caterpillar is sitting, a silk thread
he pulls and pulls out of himself and shakes it on a twig.
- Caterpillar, Caterpillar, take me home! I have one last minute left - they won’t let me go home to spend the night.
- Leave me alone! You see, I’m doing the job: I’m spinning yarn.
- Everyone felt sorry for me, no one drove me away, you are the first!
Ant couldn't resist and rushed at her and bit her!
Out of fright, the Caterpillar tucked its legs and somersaulted off the leaf - and flew down.
And Ant is hanging on it - he grabbed it tightly. They only fell for a short time: something came from above them - jerk!
And they both swayed on a silk thread: the thread was wound on a twig.
The Ant is swinging on the Leaf Roller, like on a swing. And the thread keeps getting longer,
it is made longer and longer: it is unwound from Ltstovertka’s abdomen, stretches, and does not tear. The Ant and the Leafworm are falling lower, lower, lower.
And below, in the anthill, the ants are busy, hurrying, closing the entrances and exits.
Everything was closed - one, the last, entrance remained. The Ant tumbles from the Caterpillar and goes home.
Then the sun went down.

"Ant and Dove"
Translation by Vadim Pak
Somehow an ant fell into the water. “Save me,” he shouts, “I’m drowning!” The dove heard it and became alarmed. He tore a leaf from a tree and threw it to an ant.
“Hold on tight,” he says and slowly drags him to the shore. The ant grabbed a leaf and forcibly crawled to the shore. He began to thank the dove: “Thank you, Uncle Dove!”
You saved my life! The dove was glad that he did a good deed and flew away to his mountains. One day a dove was sitting on a tree, and a hunter crept up to the tree, and at any moment he would shoot with a gun. An ant saw this, crawled up to the hunter, and bit him on the leg. The hunter screamed in pain. A dove looks - there is a hunter with a gun near the tree.
A dove took off and said to the ant: “Thank you, you saved me from certain death!.. So the ant repaid the dove with kindness for the kindness.”

Folk signs.
If ants are hiding in a group, expect strong winds, rain, or thunderstorms.
If ants enlarge the anthill, wait for a cold winter.
If ants suddenly start moving to a dry place with hard soil, then this portends heavy rains.
If ants are looking for dark, moist depressions for housing, expect drought.
In the anthill, the passages are open and the brisk movement of ants on the heap is noticeable - this means good weather.
If during good weather most of the passages in the anthill are closed and few ants are visible, expect bad weather.
Ants hide in nests - in anticipation of a thunderstorm or heavy rain.
If the ants take wings (fly), it will rain (Chuvash).
If ants drag eggs from place to place, wait for rain,
If winged ants circle in the air in large swarms, then
we have to wait for the rain (Latvian).

Proverbs and sayings
The ant is not big, but it digs mountains. The ant is small, but it digs mountains. Goosebumps are glad.
The ant has a head the size of a grain of millet, and a mind as big as a millet grain.
Go to the ant, lazy one, learn prudence from him.
There are no more eloquent preachers than the ant who lives without uttering a sound.
The ants work together to defeat the lion.
The ant is weak, but the stone destroys.
An ant is small in body, but great in deed.

Okhotnikov Alexander Sergeevich

The goal of the project is to observe the life of ants, collect the necessary information about these amazing insects from popular science literature, gain new knowledge about the structure of an anthill, and find out the importance of ants for nature and humans. The topic is relevant in our time, since there are now a lot of ants and anthills destroy without thinking about the consequences. Although ants have brought and continue to bring great benefits to nature and humans.

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MUNICIPAL AUTONOMOUS EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

GENERAL EDUCATION SECONDARY (FULL) SCHOOL No. 3

Beloyarsky

Project in nomination No. 11 “First steps”

Project topic

"THESE AMAZING ANTS..."

Okhotnikov Alexander Sergeevich

4b class

Scientific director of the project:

Karpenko Inna Vladimirovna

MOSH No. 3

Primary school teacher

Beloyarsky

2013

These amazing ants...

annotation

There is hardly a person who has not stopped at least once near an anthill, fascinated by such a distant and at the same time inexplicably close to us world of these amazing insects. The distance separating us is enormous. The concerns of these busy creatures may seem to some simply unworthy of serious conversation. But there is something in these worries that makes us look at our smaller brothers more carefully and with respect.

Goal of the work: carry out research based on real observations of the life of an ant family; find confirmation of theoretical knowledge acquired through the study of popular science literature; gain new knowledge about the structure of an anthill, find out the importance of ants for nature and humans.

Tasks : get to know the ant family; study the structural features of the anthill; find out what types of ants exist; analyze the benefits ants bring to plants and humans.

The following were used methods research: observation method, analysis of theoretical literature and encyclopedic sources.

The work gives characteristics of a large family of insects - ants, describes in detail the structure of an ant, an anthill, which is a labyrinth with many passages and chambers, located underground, as well as ants living in a nest and performing various functions. The author provides information about various types of ants living throughout our land, which differ from each other not only in color, size, but also in professions. It also indicates the enormous role of ants in nature, which are very closely related to other living beings.The structure of the work allows us to trace the entire life of a family of ants.

Conclusions: The ant is the most gifted insect. Even the man himself finds his rival in him. We build cities, and so does the ant; we keep domestic animals and he has them, in the form of aphids, which give him sugar; we keep our herds in the fence and he does the same with his aphid cows; We freed our slaves, but he continues to use slavery.

The work consists of an introduction, four chapters and a conclusion and contains 16 pages of main text, 13 photographs. The bibliography includes 9 titles.

Page

I. Introduction 4

II. Main part.

1. Who are ants? 6

2. Anthill and its inhabitants. 8

3. Types of ants. eleven

4. The ant is a wildlife orderly. 17

III. Conclusion. 20

IV. Bibliography. 21

These amazing ants...

1. Introduction

“Having become familiar with the life of ants, it is impossible

not experience extreme surprise and confusion"

P.D.Uspensky

My name is Okhotnikov Alexander, I am a 4th grade student. I really like studying our planet, our surrounding world, observing animals and insects, flowers and trees. When I was very little, my mother and I watched the nature around us every walk: clouds that looked like horses, flowers of unusual beauty, a busy bee, a bug that we met on the way...

Now I can observe and learn something new myself. It is very interesting!!!

And now I want to tell you a story that happened to me. During the summer holidays I visited my grandmother. One warm summer day I went into the garden to pick ripe apricots. There were a lot of them, and they began to fall to the ground. I was slowly collecting them from the ground, when suddenly, unexpectedly for me, I saw a whole horde of ants. There were so many of them that it was impossible to count them. They interested me so much that I, forgetting about the apricots, squatted down and began to examine them and observe them. These were small black ants, very mobile and nimble. When I looked closely, I noticed that each ant was busy with its own business: some of the ants, heading in one direction, were dragging some caterpillars, bugs, insects, the other part, moving in the opposite direction, were dragging lumps of earth, twigs, leaves. And they all made up endless streams of ants. Then I began to wonder - where are they all running? And after walking a few steps behind them, I saw a dome-shaped pile of earth, twigs, leaves, blades of grass, with many passages and exits. It was an anthill - their house. This, it turns out, is where these workers are rushing! While watching a family of ants, I did not notice how time flew by. Every day I came to this place to see what had changed in the life of these amazing insects, what they were doing. So I had a great desire to learn everything about the life of ants: how they live, how they build their anthills and what’s inside, what they eat, what types of ants exist and how they are useful for plants and humans. Therefore, I decided to take the topic of my research work - these amazing ants... I believe that this topic is relevant in our time, since now a lot of ants and anthills are destroyed without thinking about the consequences. Although ants have brought and continue to bring great benefits to nature and humans. An ant is small, but the anthill is large, and the benefits brought by ants are great. Caring for them is caring for human well-being. It is necessary to learn how to protect and most effectively use some of our most reliable allies and helpers in nature.

Perhaps my research has no scientific significance, but I made a lot of discoveries for myself.

I set myself the following goal:conduct observation of the life of ants, collect the necessary information about these amazing insects from popular science literature, gain new knowledge about the structure of the anthill, find out the importance of ants for nature and humans.

The tasks that I set for myself:

1. Find out who ants are: what they look like, what their body structure is.

2. Study what anthills ants build and what functions they perform in it.

3. Familiarize yourself with the different species of the ant family.

4. Analyze what benefits ants bring to plants and humans.

These amazing ants...

II. Main part

1. Who are ants?

This is the largest family of insects. There are now approximately 6,000 species of ants, but many species have not yet been studied.

Ants are tiny creatures, usually less than two centimeters in length. They can be of different colors: black, brown, red, yellow and even striped. Ants, like other insects, have 6 legs. The head is mobile, with highly developed gnawing jaws. On the head there are eyes and antennae. They have a thin waist - a stalk that divides the body into 2 parts. The legs are attached to the first part, and the second is the abdomen, at the end of which there is a sting that sprays poison. This poison is not at all dangerous to humans, but is fatal to insects. Having found their prey, some ants grab it by the paws, holding it motionless, while the rest bite it and inject deadly poison into its wounds. Having killed the victim, some begin to push the prey forward, while others clear the way for it.

Ants constantly communicate with each other. You can see ants touching each other with their antennae. This is how they talk. The language of ants is the language of smells and gestures. By releasing special chemicals, they can raise the alarm or cause a stampede; they also point the working ants in the direction to the food source, mark the path to it with odorous marks, and scare away other ants from the food they find. They distinguish their own from strangers by smell.

Ants have a very good memory. They are capable of learning and do it much faster than other insects. They distinguish geometric shapes well. Ants are capable of the most complex collective actions. Together they build a dome-shaped nest with a rounded dome and use the same paths for many years. Together they drag the prey to the nest.

Ants are the smartest insects. They are capable of learning throughout their lives, and when they find themselves in an unexpected situation, they know how to make a reasonable decision. For example, they have an amazing rescue plan from the water elements. Some ants react to even one drop of water that gets into the entrance of the anthill: they begin to run around the nest, announcing the alarm, and then run to other open entrances. By leaving a scent trail, they show other ants the way to unblocked passages leading outside, and sometimes lead them out of the nest altogether. And other ants, during a flood, rise from the bottom of the anthill to ground level, stick together into a large lump and stay afloat. This is how many ants survive. Over time, the living lump settles somewhere on the grass or bushes, and when the water recedes, the surviving ants return to the anthill.

How amazing these ants are!!!

2. Anthill and its inhabitants

Ants live in nests - anthills in an organized manner, in large communities - colonies. There are several thousand individuals in the colony. They build their nests, the height of which can reach up to a meter or more. Ants build chambers from soil, leaves, blades of grass, and twigs. The chambers are supported by columns and connected by tunnels. This is a real labyrinth. To warm the nest in cold weather, ants line the outside of it with twigs and leaves, and in hot weather they dismantle this covering.

At the top of the anthill they live and perform their serviceants are soldiers. They guard all entrances and exits in the anthill. They have a very large head and very strong jaws, and are larger than ordinary ants. With their heads they block the entrance to the anthill. The returning worker ant approaches the closed entrance, knocks its antennae on the head of the soldier, who, after this sign, lets the ant in. These are very strong ants; if an anthill is attacked by enemies, they are the first to meet them and often drive them away in shame.

A little deeper - ants are workerswho are engaged in the construction and repair of an anthill: some pull out needles, twigs, leaves from it, others pull exactly the same ones inside so that mold does not form in the anthill, andants are foragers- food gatherers. They get food for all the inhabitants of the nest. As soon as a signal is received from the scouts, they, according to their instructions, go to the source of food and deliver it to the anthill. They have a very good memory. They know their hunting area and the way home very well. Forager ants will always find their way home and will remember this path for another 4 days, even if the weather was bad and they did not go hunting.

Ants feed on various insects, mushrooms, plant seeds, sugars on flowers, tree sap, but the most delicious food is honeydew, which they take from aphids.

Lives in the very center of the anthillant queen.She lays eggs. And they live around herants are nannies. Ants - nannies look after the “queen”. They monitor its cleanliness, and also protect eggs and larvae. They constantly transfer them to dry places with the right temperature. When the larvae grow up, the ants also begin to give signals - the nannies rush to them, tear the cocoons and release the young ants outside. They still live in the nest for some time, and then begin to leave it. On warm autumn days, especially after rains, whole clouds of winged young ants rise above the anthill. From a distance, it seems as if light smoke is rising from the ground. Usually this journey lasts very little, and the young ants return to the ground. The males die, and the young female breaks off her long shiny wings and sets off to look for a place for a new home. She herself digs a small hole and lays the first portion of eggs. When the eggs hatch into larvae, she begins to feed them. In most ants, the female never leaves the nest until the end of her life, and she feeds the larvae with secretions of the salivary glands. Finally, the first worker ants emerge from the pupae, and the female retires to a well-deserved rest. She settles down in a deep chamber, in the middle of the anthill, and does only one thing - laying eggs. This is now the queen ant. The ant family grows and grows. The queen ant can live up to 20 years. A family of ants can be considered practically immortal, if external catastrophic factors are not taken into account.

But the anthill does not end in an ant heap. He still has thousands of passages underground. These passages end in wide cavities. They are used as a dumping ground, in others young people develop, and still others serve as wintering grounds for ants, the temperature in which does not drop below +5 degrees in winter. And when severe frosts rage above, the ants are not afraid and not cold in their anthill.

This is a multi-storey building - a fortress that ants build for themselves!!!

3. Types of ants.

There are many types of ants living all over the earth, and they not only come in different colors and sizes, but also many types of ants have many professions - these are ants - carpenters, and leaf cutters, and reapers, and honey keepers and many, many others.

SODDING ANTlives in sandy glades in central European Russia and in gardens and forests in the south. It is a small (2-4 mm long) dark brown or black ant. It feeds on dead insects, carrion, seeds, and flower nectar. In the south it often lives in houses.

FOREST ANT. Ants in forests are one of the most beneficial insects. A family of one medium-sized anthill protects a forest over an area of ​​a quarter of a hectare, and of large anthills, which sometimes reach a height of two meters, protects an area of ​​more than a hectare. The nesting domes of red wood ants are a marvel of insect construction technology. Constant humidity is maintained in the domes. The shape and size of the dome determine a certain temperature regime in the nest and therefore do not change for a long time, however, the nesting material circulates all the time: the ants lift up needles and twigs from the depths of the nest. Therefore, in a healthy nest there is never mold, but as soon as the ants leave it, the entire dome sprouts with fungal hyphae.

HONEY ANT reached the greatest development of the ability to store honey. In the special chambers of the nest of these ants there are living “honey barrels” - workers with a huge swollen abdomen. Thus, these ants store food. Clutching the ceiling with powerful jaws, peculiar tanks hang. The entire population of the anthill periodically comes here to sip sweet syrup or give their drop to the “common pot”. It happens that the guardian ant cannot withstand the weight of the honey and falls onto the hard floor. The abdomen bursts, the liquid spills and the ant dies. Worker ants lick up the spilled honey and load it into other hanging tanks.

GARDEN ANT YELLOWit is slightly inferior in number to the black garden ant, but it is more difficult to detect, since the pale yellow workers of this species with tiny eyes appear on the soil surface only during the flight of winged individuals. They hunt insects living in the soil and breed root aphids.

BLACK GARDEN ANT.The massive flight of this ant occurs everywhere in early autumn. This is the most numerous ant in the central zone of the European part of Russia. At this time, wingless fertilized young females run everywhere in large numbers in search of a place to build a nest. I just can’t believe that females can live for about a year without eating, and care for the young, dig the ground and even feed the larvae. In nature, they appear by mid-summer. The black garden ant is the most widespread species in the European part of Russia and Siberia. It builds nests in the ground or rotten wood. These ants can be found in forests, meadows, gardens, fields and old wooden houses. In gardens, fields and vegetable gardens, this ant can cause harm by guarding and breeding aphids that harm cultivated plants.

TAILOR ANT.Half the body of adult larvae of these ants is occupied by huge arachnoid glands. The web secreted by them serves as threads that sew the nest together. In this case, some workers grab one leaf with their legs, and drag another with their jaws and thus can hold the leaves for a long time. When the leaves are pulled back, workers emerge from the nest carrying larvae. Touching the heads of the larvae first to one or another leaf, they “stitch” the leaves together with a web. The nests are almost spherical, up to half a meter in diameter. A family often lives in several nests, but there is only one “queen”. She lives no more than 12 years, and after her death the entire nest dies. Tailor ants hunt and collect secretions of aphids and scale insects only on trees and descend to the ground only to move from one tree to another

LEAF CUTTER ANT.If the path of these ants extends to any tree, then after some time the tree remains without leaves. The ants cut off pieces of leaves with their jaws and carry them to the nest. But leaf cutters do not feed on leaves. The ants carefully chew the leaves brought to the nest, mix them with their excrement and saliva and put the resulting mass in special large chambers. Fungal hyphae grow on these “beds”. Leaf-cutter ants feed themselves and feed their larvae with fungal conidia. When leaving the nest, young females carry pieces of mycelium with them to grow mushrooms in a new place.

REAPER ANT. Up to a dozen long trails branch off from the nests. In a minute, more than a hundred workers leave the nest on the path. At the end of the path, the ants scatter and collect seeds, for which they often climb onto plants. In reaper nests, seeds are stored for a long time in deep underground chambers. In damp chambers, the seeds germinate and enzymes are released that convert starch into sugar. But as soon as the sprouts appear, the ants gnaw them. Then large workers grind the grain into the finest powder and, moistening it with saliva, feed it to the larvae.

THIEF ANT. One of our smallest ants, it settles next to the nests of large ants. Its workers are yellow, 1-2 mm long, with tiny eyes of only a few facets. Penetrating into the chambers of the nest, thief ants carry the testicles and small larvae of host ants, which cannot penetrate their thin passages.

Carpenter ant.This is the largest of the European ants: workers reach a length of 1.5 cm, and females - 2 cm. Carpenter borers make their nests in the wood of diseased or dead spruce, fir or, less commonly, pine trees, and hunt insects and collect honeydew in the crown trees. Sometimes nests in different trees are united into colonies, and then roads, often underground, stretch from tree to tree. Woodpeckers love to feast on carpenter ants, especially woodpeckers, who sometimes pierce huge hollows in order to get to the passages in the center of the trunk. Although carpenter ants do not damage healthy trees, they can cause damage because they damage already harvested wood with their moves.

AMAZON ANT.This ant has no workers, but only soldiers with large sickle-shaped jaws. All work in the nests of these ants is performed by workers of other species, most often the brown forest ant. From time to time, soldiers called “signalmen” begin to scurry around at the entrance to the Amazons’ anthill. The whole nest quickly becomes excited, and now a powerful column of red-haired soldiers sets off on a campaign. The length of the column can be over 10 m. Having discovered a nest of a brown forest ant, the Amazons rush inside and begin to pull out pupae and adult larvae. And now the column is already returning, and each ant carries a larva or pupa in its jaws. From them, ants will be hatched in the nest, which will perform the same work as in their native nest.

PHAROAH ANT.These heat-loving ants live in the north, exclusively in houses. We have a lot of them, especially in new houses with hollow floors and hidden steam heating radiators. Tiny (2-2.5 mm long) ants penetrate everywhere and climb into all products. Their presence in hospitals is especially unpleasant, since they can serve as carriers of the disease and, penetrating into operating rooms, disrupt sterility. Controlling pharaoh ants is very difficult.

PHAETON ANTlives in the deserts and steppes of Asia and North Africa. These ants are quite active predators, but also feed on berries, seeds, nectar and aphid secretions. Phaeton ants are the best runners among insects. As they run, they lift their belly up. In some runners, in the nests, in addition to normal workers, there are workers - “honey guardians” with an enlarged abdomen, through which a crop filled with sugary liquid is visible.

4. The ant is a wildlife orderly.

And some ants raise butterflies when they are still in the caterpillar stage. Without them, the butterfly cannot complete its life cycle. In the caterpillar stage, it feeds its hosts with sugary secretions; the ants, in turn, protect the butterfly from enemies - pests and give the butterfly the opportunity to emerge from the pupa into the world. And when this happens, she flies out of the ant’s home, safe and sound.

Individual ants live in harmony with plants, which provide them with shelter and food. In exchange for this, insects pollinate their hosts, disperse their seeds, and contribute to the extraction of nutrients. Ants that settle in the thorns of acacia even destroy climbing plants that are harmful to it, which they come across on their way while protecting their tree. For such protection, the acacia treats its guards with sweet juice.

Many earth ants are useful soil builders, mixing, loosening and fertilizing the soil. They mix the soil and improve its composition. By making tunnels, ants lift soil particles from the lower layers to the upper ones. This improves air access to plant roots. Red forest ants, tailor ants and some others fight plant pests. For example: Forest red ants protect the forest well from insect pests. Where the path of ants passes, growing mushrooms are always less affected by pests.

Reaper ants play a large positive role in natural pastures: after harvesting, ants begin to collect crumbled grain lost during the harvest, so they spread the seeds of many plants and improve the soil.

Ants are active predators. They quickly switch to new, abundant food sources and thus can suppress pest outbreaks. They bring great benefits to plants: in one hour, ants destroy more than 100 thousand aphids and 2 thousand caterpillars, in one day one ant family destroys 1 kilogram of caterpillars, and in one month – 1 million caterpillars.

Where there are many anthills, there will never be outbreaks of mass reproduction of most harmful insects. Therefore, it is simply necessary to protect anthills.It is so long and difficult for ants to build them and so easy for some people to break it. Someone came up and just kicked the anthill or picked at it with a stick to see how the ant people would start running and getting angry. And what a grief for the ant people, because their whole country is dying. In one anthill live several million ants - forest orderlies.

I will never destroy anthills and I will not allow other guys to do this, because now I know everything about the life of ants, and I know what hard workers and real orderlies of wildlife they are!!!

These amazing ants...

III. Conclusion.

I really enjoyed researching this topic. How much these small and amazing creatures do! Nature has revealed to me many interesting things about the life of ants. After conducting research, observing the life of ants, and studying additional literature, I learned who ants are, what the living conditions of ants are, what anthills are built from, and what relationships develop within it, what functions each ant performs, and what types of ants exist on our earth, as ants relate to various insects. Studied their role in nature. I found out that the ants that interested me so much in the garden belong to the family of garden black ants, as they fully correspond to the description of this species.

Ants are a shining example of hard work and mutual assistance. They are interesting for their complex social behavior. One can only envy their intelligence! Ants know how to build and sew, find water in the desert and give signals to each other, navigate by the sun, but they just don’t know how to live alone, like any person.

The importance of ants in nature and human life is enormous: they participate in the distribution of seeds; Their role in soil formation is great - by making tunnels underground, ants contribute to the penetration of water and air into the soil, necessary for plants, and participate in the regeneration of the forest. A forest is healthy if there are 4 anthills per hectare. If forests were left without ants, the damage caused by pests could be compared to fire. Where ant fortresses rise, the forest is healthy and clean. If we do not save small things, ants and anthills from destruction, then in the future we may lose clean water, clean air and part of the cultural and historical environment. Therefore, ants and their anthills must be protected and protected!!!

These amazing ants...

IV. Bibliography

1. Babenko V. Family of ants. – ONYX 21st century, Moscow, 2003.

2. Dlussky G.M., Bukin A.P. Meet the ants! - M.: Agroproizdat, 1986.

3. Sergeev B. Ant close-up // Young naturalist, 1988.

Encyclopedias

4. Everything about everything. Amazing animals: encyclical / Transl. from English N. Lednevoy; Designed ser. I. Salnikova. – M.:AST: Astrel, 2001

5. Animals from amoeba to chimpanzees: encyclical/B. Vasiliev, O. Krasnovskaya, V. Bologova and others - M., MAKHAON Publishing House, 2012

6. I explore the world. Wildlife from A to Z: encyclical / E.D. Vasilyeva, O.V. Voltsit, V.V. Ivanitsky and others - M.:AST:Astrel, 2007

Internet resources.

7. http://www. en.wikipedia.org

8. http://www.zoodrug.ru/topic1898.html

9. http://www.mir-nasekomyh.ru