Micropedia

=Micropedia or Class Notes: = A collective space for the class topic. In researching the life of ants, please contribute a fact or a resource link for the study of ants. If someone lists facts that are not correct, please feel free to make corrections.

Ants are insects and live in the organized colonies. Woody Allen played an insecure ant in the cartoon "[|Antz]." Check out this neat site that is very kid friendly and has lots of facts on ants: [|http://home.att.net/~B-P.TRUSCIO/STRANGER.htm] Ants, like all insects, have 6 legs and 3 body sections: head, abdomen, & thorax. An ant can lift a weight 50 times as heavy as its own body (if a 175-pound man could do that, he would be able to lift more than 4tons!). Ants can be a variety of colors and sizes. Common colors are black, brown, red, and yellow, but they can also be orange, blue, green, and purple. //You might think it strange that ants can be purple; however there is such a thing as a Large Purple Meat Ant.// //They are found in the Brisbane area of Austrialia. Actually, the ant is black with a a dark red head.// Sizes range from 1/25th of an inch to 1 inch long. (Source - Hooper-Bui, Linda M. "Ant." __World Book Online Reference Center__. 2008. 15 July 2008 <[l|http://www.worldbookonline.com/wbever] The largest ants ever found are called Formicium Giganteum which is the scientific name for "giant ant". The worker ants can be as long as an inch but the queen ant is 5.5 cm long (over 2 inches) with a wing span of 13 cm (over 5 inches) : http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/436.shtml

Check out this video to see ant hills! media type="youtube" key="xQERRbU23bU&hl=en&fs=1" height="344" width="425" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQERRbU23bU

Leiningen versus the Ants, by Carl Stephenson is a great short story! Here's a link to it http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lvta.html. It's the story of a plantation owner in Brazil who decides, against all advice, to stand and fight when his place is attacked by Army Ants. Charlton Heston starred in the film "The Naked Jungle" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047264/) which is actually a pretty good version, although Eleanor Parker is in the film as his wife with whom he has issues - a character not in the original story. The story was also used (uncredited if I remember correctly) as a basis for an episode of MacGyver. > -Thoreau  Here is a great lesson plan on ants that can be used with grades 2-6. It was designed around the time that the movies //**Antz**// and //**A Bugs Life**// came out. [|http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson087.shtml
 * Fire ant bites are painful and can cause allergic reactions
 * “It's not enough to be busy, so are the **ants**. The question is, what are we busy about?”

> [|Argentine Ants]** > [|Fire Ants] > [|Ghost Ants]** > [|Leafcutter Ants]** > [|Odorous House Ants]** > [|Pavement Ants]** > [|Pharaoh Ants]**=Large sized ants: (Inside and Outside)= > [|Carpenter Ants]**
 * =( Small Sized Ants Inside and Outside)=
 * **[[image:http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/argside.JPG link="http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/arg.htm"]]
 * [[image:http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/fireantside.gif link="http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/fire.htm"]]
 * **[[image:http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/ghostside.jpg link="http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/ghost.htm"]]
 * **[[image:http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/leafantside.jpg link="http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/leafcutter.htm"]]
 * **[[image:http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/odorousantside.jpg link="http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/odorous.htm"]]
 * **[[image:http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/pavementantsside.jpg width="50" height="45" caption="pavement ants" link="http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/pavement_ants.htm"]]
 * **[[image:http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/pharaohantside.gif link="http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/phar.htm"]]
 * **[[image:http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/carpenter1side.jpg link="http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/carp.htm"]]
 * This is a good web site about ant jobs, which change every few weeks.

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