HOW ANT COMMUNICATE WITH OTHER OF ITS SPECIES

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Ants Communicate through Body Language, Motion and Touch :

• When a single worker has found something she will run back to the colony whilst sprinkling small drops of pheromones on the ground for other workers to follow.

• Another peculiar way of how ants communicate is by sound. A majority of ant species use it to communicate, although it is commonly unknown to most people because of its low resonance.

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HOW ANT COMMUNICATE TO OTHER SPECIES

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• Fungus-growing ants

Fungus-growing ants (which include the Leaf-cutting ants) collect various materials which they feed to a symbiotic fungus that lives in their nests. The ants then feed on special nutritional bodies produced by the fungus. This is an example of mutualism. The ants are dependent on the fungus and vice-versa. This means that the ants have evolved special mechanisms to protect the fungus from parasites and predators.

• Large blue butterflies

Large blue butterflies spend most of their larval stage inside ant nests, either eating ant larvae or being fed by the ants as if they were the ants' own brood (like cuckoos). This is an example of parasitism. The butterflies are dependent on the ants for survival, and have evolved special mechanisms to allow them to trick the ants into looking after them, even though it is against the ants own interests to do so.