Science Saturday: Ants!
It is springtime in Wisconsin and that means the return of insects, including ants! To celebrate these Hymenopterans we present a book from our Historical Curriculum Collection: If You Were an Ant... by American children's book author and editor Barbara Brenner with illustrations by her husband Fred Brenner. The book was published in New York by Harper & Row in 1973. The reader pretends to be an ant to learn more about the tiny creatures’ physical characteristics, habits, and life cycle.
Ants are in the eusocial insect family Formicidae and belong to the order Hymenoptera which also includes wasps, bees, and sawflies. There are over 13,000 known ant species around the world. Like all insects, an ant's body is divided into three main parts – the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. The structure of most ant heads is: a mouth; 2 large compound eyes; 3 simple eyes called ocelli located on the top of their heads to detect light and shadow; 2 antennae that they use to smell and taste; 2 strong mandibles that they use to grasp, carry, cut, and fight.
There are an abundance of ants on earth and a lot of their success can be attributed to their complex social systems. Ants are very beneficial to the environment because they are a main predator of other insects keeping “pest” populations low. Ants also turn and aerate the soil, disperse seeds, and aid in the decomposition of plant and animal matter.
As a child I was fascinated by ants and would love to observe them in the summer months. I also love that Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dalí often included ants in his works. Yay for ants!
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–Sarah, Special Collections Graduate Intern