Fire Ant Behavior and Ecology

If a Fire Ant Queen is mated and starting a new colony she starts by. . .

• Gathering workers from nearby colony to build the nest with her

• Lays eggs to start a new colony

• Gathers food and water after digging galleries for eggs

• Burrows underground and creates a gallery to start the colony

Fire ants are societal insects, this means that they

• Cohabitate with other insects in a mutualistic nest

• Have several groups of workers

  Males forage and protect, females tend to the eggs

• have a system of female ants to forage, protect the colony and tend to the eggs and queen

• Have several females laying eggs for the queen to tend and the worker ants tend to the colony and forage

Fire ants are prey to many animals.

• True

• False

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-2

Fire ants main source of food is

• seeds, plants and nectar

• nectar, nectar eating insects

• nectar, reptiles, nectar eating insects

• seeds, plants, animals, insects, and reptiles

Fire ants will eat other ants.

• True

• False

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-4

The queen is fed

• First before the workers to make sure to have enough food for her to continuously lay eggs.

• Last after worker ants and larva survive the food foraged.

• Second after the workers the larva is fed by the queen.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-1

A queen ant can live up to 15 years laying over 1500 eggs a day.

• True

• False

Worker ants are

• sterile females that live for as long as 5 weeks

• male ants that live to be close to a year

• sterile females that live to be close to a year

• sterile females and males that live as long as 5 weeks

Swarming ants are ants that are moving a colony from danger

• True

• False

Nuptial flights or "swarming ants" are winged males and females flying to make a new colony

• True

• False

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS1-4