Hi friends in this article let us discuss about a superb fact, which you have to say after reading  the article, because we are going to see about a small creature, but an inspiring insect. Ya, they are known for their hard work and it is none other than Ants.

To be frank we must learn a lot about the ants and everybody must have compared with us to ants, when they speak about hard work and it is a true fact and you can see in this article how they work hard for getting food. Here we will not going to see from the biological perspective, because we will see the fact that how ants move in a straight line, i.e. one ant followed by others.

Very frankly speaking when someone ask us about the type of ants we will say red, black and huge black ant and the same case is applied or me also. But I assure you that after reading this article you will come to know the important reason why ants usually move in a line.

To start with let us consider a practical example, i.e. whenever we move in an unknown forest, we should drop some marks on our way, so that it will help us when we return to know the exact place where we have started. So just having this example in mind, we will move forward to find out the actual reason for ants moving in a line.

These social insects, ants, are not harmful for humans but we need to learn a lot from them. They usually go out from their nest (their home) in the hunt for their food, usually in abundant amount, so that they could store it for future. Usually they have their own scout who just goes out in search of any food.

Once when the scout finds any food, they will bring a sample first, back to the nest, so that it could take all the members to the place where it has found food. Now on his way back to nest, it needs to mark the path so that others could find the place, where food is available.

So in order the mark the path, the scout, while returning to home, just presses its abdomen to the ground at a frequent interval of time and as a result of this action the string extrudes and the tip is drawn lightly to the ground and during this action it releases a volatile chemical, called as trail pheromone, is released from its Dufour’s gland.

This process results in a chemical line between the food source and the nest and once it reaches the nest it informs it to a couple of workers and with the help of them it makes a looping movement on the chemical line, which attracts all the other workers. As a result of this, a number of ants join the line and as a matter of fact they also press their abdomen to the ground to release the chemical, because the chemical is volatile and it remains only for a short time, but these ants need to travel more than one trip to collect the food.

This is how all the ants follow the scout and it is the reason that makes us to watch these ants follow in a line. So the next time whenever you see any ant line formation, try to remember me or this article and explain this small information with those who are with you at that time.

• Written by Raaghavan Krishnamurthy.
• In category General Reference.
• 14 years ago.

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