Abdomens Store Nectar

close up photograph or a reddish colored ant with a round large abdomen

Biological Strategy

Honeypot ants

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Image: Smithsonian Institution NMNH Insect Zoo / Flickr / Some rights reserved

Store Liquids

Many living systems must store liquids, such as water or nectar, so that it is available over long periods of time, including when moisture levels are low. Because of their properties, liquids tend to disperse unless they are confined in some way. Each liquid has its own unique properties. For example, water is polar, exhibiting a strong negative charge on one side of the molecule and a strong positive charge on the other. Living systems have strategies to confine fluids by taking advantage of these properties. A good example of taking advantage of water’s polarity is using materials that repel water. In doing so, a living system can keep water on one side of a barrier, such as a membrane.

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Modify Size/Shape/Mass/Volume

Many living systems alter their physical properties, such as size, shape, mass, or volume. These modifications occur in response to the living system’s needs and/or changing environmental conditions. For example, they may do this to move more efficiently, escape predators, recover from damage, or for many other reasons. These modifications require appropriate response rates and levels. Modifying any of these properties requires materials to enable such changes, cues to make the changes, and mechanisms to control them. An example is the porcupine fish, which protects itself from predators by taking sips of water or air to inflate its body and to erect spines embedded in its skin.

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Insects

Class Insecta (“an insect”): Flies, ants, beetles, cockroaches, fleas, dragonflies

Insects are the most abundant arthropods—they make up 90% of the animals in the phylum. They’re found everywhere on earth except the deep ocean, and scientists estimate there are millions of insects not yet described. Most live on land, but many live in freshwater or saltwater marshes for part of their life cycles. Insects have three distinct body sections: a head, which has specialized mouthparts, a thorax, which has jointed legs, and an abdomen. They have well-developed nervous and sensory systems, and are the only invertebrate that can fly, thanks to their lightweight exoskeletons and small size.

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The bodies of some honey ants are used for liquid storage via their expandable abdomen.

Image: Tom D. /

They are worker honeypot ants. During the rainy season, they stuff themselves with nector till their abdomens swell enormously. Other ants then extract nourishment from them.

“In Australia, the honeypot ants collect nectar and force-feed it to workers of a special caste until their abdomens are distended to the size of peas and their skins stretched so thin that they are quite transparent. The workers then hang them up by their forelegs in underground galleries, like living storage jars.” (Attenborough 1979:104)

Last Updated August 18, 2016

References

Book

The Private Life of Plants

BBC Books | 21/08/1995 | David Attenborough

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