As the honeypot ant colony’s specialized food-storage workers consume more of their supplies, they can grow considerably. Certain honey ants can grow to be as large as 1.5 grams in weight.
That is anywhere from 150 to 300 times the weight of a regular ant, which weighs just 5-10 milligrams at most. Want to find out more honey pot ant facts? Keep reading!
How Do I Identify a Honeypot Ant?
The length of most honeypot ants for sale is between 0.1 and 0.5 millimeters. They can be a light brown color or a dark brown color. The heads and thoraxes of honeypot ants are frequently darker in color than the rest of their bodies.
The bodies of honeypot ants for sale are glossy and sleek, and they have robust legs. These teeny-tiny ants do not possess stingers, and their abdomens might often appear to be in the shape of a triangle.
Ant that is two colors, with a shiny head and thorax. The abdomen is blackish and the body is reddish to dark brown. The belly of Replete is built of rigid plates and flexible connective tissue, both of which expand as the liquid is stored there.
Skin that is very slightly granulated and covered in very fine hairs, except for the connective tissue of the repletes.
Honey ants, also known as honeypot ants, are a kind of ants that have workers who are only tasked with the responsibility of storing food.
They will be stuffed so full of food that their stomachs will be on the verge of exploding.
Read also:Â Honeypot Ants For Sale
How Do I Describe the Honeypot Ant Colony?
While looking for new places to nest, the honey pot ant queen looks around on the ground. Colonies are frequently established through coordinated efforts by more than one fertile honeypot ant queen (a process known as pleocytosis), but as the colonies develop, the workers destroy all but one of the queens.
Colonies of M. mimicus that are in the process of developing are located quite close to one another. However, as time passes, these colonies will eventually solidify and create dispersed adult colonies.
The mature population of a colony could consist of anything between 20 and 130 individuals. Positioned in the clear spaces between the plants.
The entrance is a circular crater that is between 5-7 inches (13-17 centimeters) across and is made up of small to medium-sized pebbles and earth. It is surrounded by discarded garbage.
M. mimicus is found in soils rich in clay and constructs low, crescent-shaped mounds. The entrance to these mounds is hidden by a dense clump of grass.
Picture of a Honey Pot Ant Farm?
Where Is the Habitat of the Honeypot Ant?
Honey ants are typically rather small and can be found all around the world. It is possible to come across them in some regions of the Americas, Africa, Australia, and Asia.
They make their homes in the branches of trees in Southeast Asia, but in North America, they are more likely to construct their nests behind stones or within logs.
In most cases, honey ants will nest outside, as was said previously under stones or logs, but they will also nest in the soil of flower beds that receive a significant amount of shade (or in potted plants).
They pile the earth they unearth in crescent-shaped mounds on the ground before continuing to dig. Because they have little trouble surviving in cooler environments, honey ants are sometimes referred to as “cold-weather” ants.
They have a very high tolerance for cold temperatures, which is why they have no problem remaining outside even when it is quite cold outside.
Read also:Â Why Are Ants So Strong?
What Do Honeypot Ants Eat?
However, only a small percentage of the colony is responsible for storing liquid food, they are exceptional ants. The worker ants use the honeypot ant’s antenna as a source of food when it is scarce.
The stored food is then generously regurgitated for the benefit of the worker ants. This ant species is remarkable because it accounts for half of the colony’s population.
Honey ants are omnivorous, which means that they consume both animal and plant stuff in their diets. Honeydew, a delicious nectar-like fluid that is generated by plant-feeding insects like aphids, is one of their favorite diets. Honeydew is created by aphids.
Honey ants get the majority of their nutrition from sugar and other sweet compounds in their diet. They will consume the sap and nectar that flowers produce, in addition to the juices that overripe fruit provides.
They will consume small insects, whether living or dead, for their source of protein; however, as was said earlier, they like sweet foods.
Honeydew from aphids, as well as the sap and nectar that flowers produce, as well as termites and other insects.
Steal food from other ants in the area, especially termite prey from nearby termites. The workers guard food supplies against honeypot ant colonies that compete with them.
During times of scarcity in the desert, storing ants is a need. There are no flowers, and therefore no nectar, during the dry season. They are the primary source of food for that historical period.
What Is the Health Benefit of the Honeypot Ant Honey?
If you are a member of one of Australia’s indigenous tribes, you are well-versed in the art of devouring honeypot ants. The indigenous people include it in their diet, and they consider it to be quite a delicacy.
The honey section of the ant, which is rich in healthy sugar and tastes sweet like honey, is the part that the majority of people bite off.
Don’t bother looking for the honeypot ant if you want to eat it or use it in a dish for something sweet since you won’t be able to find it.
They are difficult to find, and the price for a single one might be close to twenty dollars. The reason for this is that it is difficult to harvest the majority of them out in the deserts, thus indoor farmers tend to charge a higher price.
Sugars are produced by the honeypot ant as a byproduct of the food it consumes. Because pollen and nectar from flowers make up the majority of their diet, these insects have a very sweet flavor.
On occasion, they will consume the juices of the dead intruder ants that attempted to enter the colony. These ants died while attempting to do so. Ants contain a significant amount of protein per ounce.
There are 14 grams of protein and 5.7 milligrams of iron available in a single serving size of 3.5 ounces. Additionally, they have a high calcium content.
People will eat honeypot ants for their sweet honey pods the vast majority of the time, leaving the ants’ bodies out of the equation.
Honeypot ants are consumed for their pods. The nutritional value will naturally decrease as a result of this process; nevertheless, eating these ants was never really done for nutritional reasons in the first place. Consuming of honeypot ants is only allowed in the dessert course.
Read also:Â What Is Sunflower Honey?
Conclusion
Wonderful creatures, aren’t they? They pose a large variety of incredible and intriguing facts, their choice of habitat, food, and lots more.
Also, unlike other ants, honeypot ants are rare to find, and if found, they are quite hard to maintain or keep domesticated. So if you have come in contact with a colony, we advise you avoid moving them, rather you build a farm around them.
For more information regarding honeypot ants feel free to reach out to us, by leaving a comment below. Thanks for reading!
About The Author
Discover more from Pestclue
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.