The life of an ant starts from an egg. If the egg is fertilised, the progeny will be female (diploid); if not, it will be male (haploid). Ants develop by complete metamorphosis with the larval stages passing through a pupal stage before emerging as an adult. The larva is fed and cared for by workers.
Food is given to the larvae by trophallaxis, a process in which an ant regurgitates liquid food held in its crop. This is also how adults share food, stored in the 'social stomach', among themselves.
Larvae may also be given solid food brought back by foraging workers, and may even be taken to captured prey in some species. The larvae grow through a series of moults and enter the pupal stage.
The differentiation into queens and workers (which are both female), and different castes of workers, is influenced in some species by the food the larvae get. Genetic influences, and the control of gene expression by the feeding are complex. The determination of caste is a major subject of research.
A new worker spends the first few days of its adult life caring for the queen and young. It then does digging and other nest work, and later, defends the nest and forages. These changes are sometimes fairly sudden, and define what are called "temporal castes". An explanation for the sequence is suggested by the high casualties involved in foraging, making it an acceptable risk only for ants that are older and are likely to die soon of natural causes.
Most ant species have a system in which only the queen and breeding females can mate. Contrary to popular belief, some ant nests have multiple queens (polygyny). The life history of "Harpegnathos saltator" is
exceptional among ants because both queens and some workers
reproduce sexually.
The winged male ants, called "drones", emerge from pupae with the breeding females (although some species, like army ants, have wingless queens), and do nothing in life except eat and mate.
Most ants produce a new generation each year. During the species specific breeding period, new reproductives, winged males and females leave the colony in what is called a "nuptial flight". Typically, the males take flight before the females. Males then use visual cues to find a common mating ground, for example, a landmark such as a pine tree to which other males in the area converge. Males secrete a mating pheromone that females follow. Females of some species mate with just one male, but in some others they may mate with anywhere from one to ten or more different males. Mated females then seek a suitable place to begin a colony. There, they break off their wings and begin to lay and care for eggs. The females store the sperm they obtain during their nuptial flight to selectively fertilise future eggs.
The first workers to hatch are weak and smaller than later workers, but they begin to serve the colony immediately. They enlarge the nest, forage for food and care for the other eggs. This is how new colonies start in most species. Species that have multiple queens may have a queen leaving the nest along with some workers to found a colony at a new site, a process akin to swarming in honeybees.
A wide range of reproductive strategies have been noted in ant species. Females of many species are known to be capable of reproducing asexually through parthenogenesis, and one species, "Mycocepurus smithii" is known to be all-female.
Ant colonies can be long-lived. The queens can live for up to 30 years, and workers live from 1 to 3 years. Males, however, are more transitory, and survive only a few weeks. Ant queens are estimated to live 100 times longer than solitary insects of a similar size.
Ants are active all year long in the tropics but, in cooler regions, survive the winter in a state of dormancy or inactivity. The forms of inactivity are varied and some temperate species have larvae going into the inactive state (diapause), while in others, the adults alone pass the winter in a state of reduced activity.
It may seem strange that ants have uses, but there are some. Some people use ants for food, medicine and rituals. Some species of ants are used for pest control (they eat pests that destroy food for humans). They can damage crops and enter buildings, though. Some species, like the red imported fire ant, live in places where they came to by complete accident.
Scissors
Scissors are a tool used for cutting thin material like:
Knives are better than scissors for some uses. Unlike a knife, scissors have two sharp edges.
Some types of scissors, like children's scissors, are not very sharp. Children's scissors are often protected with plastic. These are called "Safety Scissors".
Scissors can be made for left-handed or right-handed people. Using scissors made for the wrong hand is very hard for most people.
There are many kinds of scissors used for cutting different materials and shapes.
Indigo
Indigo is a shade of blue, more specifically, purplish blue or dark blue.
Isaac Newton named and defined indigo as a spectrum color when he divided up the spectrum into the seven colors of the rainbow. The spectral range of indigo is between 450 and 420 nanometers.
The name of the color indigo originally came from the indigo plant. Indigo is a dye made from the indigo plant, used to dye cloth. Indigo dye also is used to dye denim cloth, which is used to make what are called blue jeans (they should really be called "indigo jeans"). This shade of indigo is called "indigo dye."
The indigo plant originally came from the nation of India. The Ancient Greek language word for the dye is "indikon". The Romans used the term "indicum", which passed into Italian dialect and eventually into English as the word indigo.
These things are colored indigo:
Violet (color)
Violet is the seventh color of the rainbow--it is the color on the inner edge of the rainbow. Violet is the color between blue and purple. The name of the color comes from the violet, which is a small flower grown in most parts of the world.
The first written use of "violet" as a color name in English was in 1370.
Malcolm IV of Scotland
Malcolm IV of Scotland (c. 1141- December 9, 1165) was the grandson of David I of Scotland. He succeeded his grandfather as King of Scotland in 1153. He never married or had children. Not much is known about him.
David I of Scotland
David I of Scotland (1084 – May 24, 1153) was the son of Malcolm III of Scotland and Saint Margaret of Scotland.
Saint Margaret of Scotland
Saint Margaret of Scotland (c. 1045 - 16 November 1093) was married to Malcolm III of Scotland. She was the mother of David I of Scotland, Alexander I of Scotland and Edgar. She was the daughter of Edward the Exile, and the granddaughter of Edmund Ironside. She was probably born in Hungary.
Margaret died four days after her husband.
Alexander I of Scotland
Alexander I of Scotland (c. 1078 - 23 April 1124) was the son of Malcolm Canmore and Saint Margaret of Scotland. He became the King of Scotland in 1107. In the same year, he married Sybilla, who was an illegitimate daughter of Henry I of England.
Henry I of England
Henry I of England (c. 1068 C.E. - 1 December 1135 C.E.), also called Henry Beauclerc (meaning good scholar), was the King of England. He ruled from, 1100 until his death in 1135. Henry was born in Selby, Yorkshire. He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and Queen Matilda of Flanders. Henry was the only child born in England. His mother had come to England for her coronation in 1068.