INCREDIBLE TRAIT

OF THE HONEYPOT ANT

NAME :

NURRURI MUTHMAINAH (B1B019029)

Class Assignment-1 Principle Of Biology

MINISTRY OF RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY,

AND HIGHER EDUCATION
JENDERAL SOEDIRMAN UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF BIOLOGY
2020

Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees,

belong to the order Hymenoptera. They are easily identified by their elbowed antennae and the
distinctive node-like structure that forms their slender waists. There are more than 12,500 of an
estimated total of 22,000 species have been classified. Fortunately, there are some species of ant
found absolutely intresting to discover by many scientists. One of them which included in genus
Myrmecocystus is the honeypot ant.

The big, bloated bellies of honey ants like these serve as “living larders” for their entire colony.
Too big to move, specialized honey ants called repletes hang from the roofs of nests dug deep in
the cool earth. In the dry season, these ants are “drained” to provide nourishment for the rest of
the colony. This specific trait is fluenced by adaptation for a long period of time. During
the rainy season, when food is abundant, other worker ants feed repletes. Honey ants’ main
source of food is sweet nectar gathered from desert flowers. Sometimes, workers will feed
repletes liquids from insects killed by the colony (body fat from wasps or other ants, for
example). Repletes are fed these liquids mouth-to-mouth, drop by drop. 

 
During a drought or dry season, nutrients become more scarce. Fewer flowers bloom, and fewer
insects approach the colony. Honey ants turn to their living larders, now swollen to the size of
grapes.

When the colony needs the nutrient-rich liquids, a worker ant will stroke a replete’s antennae.
This signals the replete to regurgitate the liquid. A worker can eat the liquid itself, or carry it to
another member of the colony.

In the first edition of The Origin of Species, Darwin reasoned that Organisms shared many
characteristics, leading to a unity in life. So the honeypot ant we know today is the descent of the
ancestors that lived in the remote past. Which they have adaptation that enhace their survival and
reproduction in specific environments. The honeypot ant has adaptated to an environment which
change their survival behaviors to store food source in their abdomens.

In the book ‘The Origin of Species”, Darwin also thought that as the descendants of the ancestral
orgaism lived in various habitat, they gradually accumulated diverse modifications, or
adaptations, that fit them to a specific ways of life. Darwin reasoned that over a long period of
time, descent with modification eventually led to the rich diversity of life we today. Evolution
also is a process of descent with modification: characteristic present in an ancestral organism are
altered (by natural selection) in its descendants over time as they face different environmental
conditions. As a result, related species can have characteristics that have an underlying similarity
yet function differently. So does the honeypot an. Their ancestors have develop some specific
traits so they can carry their food source in liquid form than any other ant species.