Churchyard Nature Note with Andrew Tompsett
August 2010
Go to the ant
‘Go to the ant, O sluggard;
consider her ways and be wise.
Without having any chief, officer or ruler,
she prepares her food in summer,
and gathers her sustenance in harvest.’
Proverbs 6.6
The ants’ nests in our churchyard
may be considered ancient
monuments since many of them
will doubtless be very old. Unlike
many other places where they
may be levelled or ploughed up,
we actively preserve ours, not
just because the Bible suggests
we can learn from their ways but
because they are a fascinating
and largely beneficial family of
insects which are still only
vaguely understood.
Solomon’s proverb stating that
the ant has no chief is not strictly
true since every colony is ruled
by a supreme leader, the queen,
or in some cases, several
queens, and all others are
subservient to her needs. Most
ants are wingless sterile female
workers. They may vary in size
and have adaptations to fit them
for their life-times duties;
gathering food, caring for the
eggs and brood cleaning,
repairing the nest, fighting
enemies and of course feeding
the egg-laying machine, the
queen.
Egg-laying queens, being
confined to the nest, lose their
wings but at certain times
produce eggs which form winged
queens and males. In suitably
warm weather conditions these
fly off and mate. Simultaneous
swarming of many colonies often
results in crossbreeding which is
good for the genetic vigour of
the species. Many bird species
feed on the swarms which can
appear to rise like smoke from
the nests.
After this huge aerial ‘party’ the
males die and the new queens
seek a fresh nesting place where
they shed their wings and
hibernate alone with sufficient
food reserves in their body to
raise the first new generation of
workers the next spring. After
this it is full-time egg-laying
duties for the queen who may
have a life span of 4 or 5 years.
Amazingly, the single mating is
sufficient for her to produce
many thousands of eggs.
The ants’ nests in our churchyard
may be considered ancient
monuments since many of them
will doubtless be very old. Unlike
many other places where they
may be levelled or ploughed up,
we actively preserve ours, not
just because the Bible suggests
we can learn from their ways but
because they are a fascinating
and largely beneficial family of
insects which are still only
vaguely understood.,
What is still unclear is what actually determines whether an egg becomes
a worker, queen or male drone.
Genetically they are identical but
something in their raising determines
their form and role in life. Perhaps
there’s a message here! Go to the
ant – and be wise.