Where is thorax on ant

Finally, the entire body of an ant is covered by a hard exoskeleton that provides support, protection, and a barrier against water loss. Like you and me, ants use their heads to sense information about the world around them. This is very important for their survival and the life of the colony. Each antenna is bent in the middle like the elbow of a human arm — this is another unique feature of ants. Ants that use vision to hunt for prey have big compound eyes. Other ants that live in dark places have reduced eyes and may even be blind.

Some ants also have three simple eyes called ocelli that detect light. Mandibles can also be used for biting, crushing, cutting, digging, fighting, and hunting. Hidden by the mandibles is the mouth, which ants use not only to eat, but also to clean themselves and nestmates.

Ant heads , especially the eyes and mandibles, come in all shapes and sizes and provide clues to the kinds of food ants eat and the different lifestyles they live. Worker ants perform all sorts of jobs for their colony. In most species, all workers are roughly the same size.

However, some ants have different sizes of workers that serve different roles. Minor workers are smaller and perform general labor such as taking care of the young, building and cleaning the nest, and gathering food. Major workers are larger and specialized to perform certain tasks. For example, major workers called soldiers have large heads and powerful mandibles used to guard and defend the colony. Queen ants spend most of their lives inside the nest laying eggs, but you may see one outside during the mating season.

Queens have most of the same body parts as workers. However, queens are usually much bigger than workers. Queens also start out with wings, but these are torn off after mating. More muscles are required in the mesosoma to power flight. Like queens, males have wings and muscular mesosomas for flying.

So when you notice one, you probably don't think much about it. Seeing them up close, however, is a different story. Ants are built like powerful machines, able to carry more than 10 times their body weight and withstand a great deal of force.

Understanding their anatomical makeup and functions is beneficial to knowing how to treat and control them. So let's take a closer look, shall we? Like all insects, an ant has six legs and is made up of three parts: the head, thorax and abdomen.

Arguably the most important part of the ant is located on its head — the mandibles. These are essentially jaw bones, but they're used to hold and carry things, like our hands. Powerful muscles located in the mandibles allow the ant to capture prey, bite, dig and perform other essential jobs. The mandibles cover the ant's mouth, which is used to eat obviously and clean itself. Ants have notoriously poor vision, despite the fact that they have compound eyes.

To make up for this, attached to the front of their heads are long, elbowed antennae. The shape allows them to move the antennae both in front of and behind their heads, so they know what's surrounding them as they crawl. The antennae are also used to smell and communicate with other ants. The architecture of the ant's thorax is unique among species of flying insects.

Worker ants have an enlarged thorax and strong neck muscles that allow them to hunt and carry prey many times their own weight. Ants do not breathe like we do. They take in oxygen through tiny holes all over the body called spiracles. They emit carbon dioxide through these same holes. The heart is a long tube that pumps colorless blood from the head throughout the body and then back up to the head again.

The nervous system of ants consists of a long nerve cord that also runs from head to rear with branches leading to the parts of the body, kind of like a human spinal cord. An ant has a petiole connecting the thorax to the abdomen.

Ants use their antennae to smell, feel, and touch what is ahead of or behind them as they crawl. They can also use the antennae to communicate with other ants.

The head of the ant houses muscles that provide power to the mandibles, which are used for cutting, fighting, digging, and holding. Ants actually have surprisingly poor eyesight, so the antennae are critical in helping them determine what is ahead.

These jointed legs, attached to the thorax of the ant, are flexible and strong. Ants have six legs coming out of their bodies, along with claws at the ends of each leg.