Ants and humans belong to two different classes and orders because they have significant differences in behavior, appearance, and internal systems.
How Are Ants And Humans Alike? Ants and humans are alike as both exhibit communal cooperation and connection, stratification in communities, and warfare tactics or survival skills. Both stock up on food for the future, adapt to changing climates, need oxygen and moisture, maintain personal hygiene, and are possessive of fellows and nests. They can see, smell, or touch and exhibit variations in body size, weight, or color.
These living organisms interact positively, share a few similarities in physical and behavioral features, and support each other for survival.
Ants are good for the ecosystem and decompose waste material, while humans provide these tiny creatures with a constant food supply and warm indoor spaces.
Communal cooperation and connection
Both of these living organisms are social creatures and build larger communities where every member contributes according to their capabilities and roles.
Ants cooperate in food collection and hauling particles back to the nests in the same way as humans help each other by transferring loads that are heavier for a single person to carry.
In addition, these insects usually communicate through pheromones or mechanically by rubbing their legs against their bodies or moving their wings rapidly, which is different from humans.
They remain connected to their colonies and return to their nests after foraging all day, and you also get back home after doing work to easily run your house.
Furthermore, all colony members interact and care for each other as newly hatched eggs and larvae depend on their older ones for nutrition and nourishment.
Variations in body size, weight, and color
You can see a wide variation in the body color, weight, and size of ants as every species looks different from others in terms of coloration and body length.
Some smaller species, like a pharaoh and ghost ants, can extend from 0.5 to 3mm, while others can reach almost 25 to 30mm or even 50mm in length.
Their body weight ranges between 1 to 5 mg on average and can be increased up to 10 or 12mg for heavier and bigger insects as the body weight increases according to size.
In addition, their body color also makes them different from each other, as you can find black, brown, dark brown, yellow, amber, orange, and blackish-brown colored insects.
In the same way, you have observed variations in the height and weight of humans, in addition to their skin colors with slight changes in tone.
Acquire warfare tactics and survival skills
Ants can be trained to perform in the battles like humans, as the older insects of the colony usually train the new ones for their functions that need to be performed in the near future.
They can learn survival skills to fight predatory insects as the new ones do not know ways to capture the prey and predator and inject stingers into their bodies.
They have bigger mandibles that can help kill opponents in the war and learn warfare tactics or attacking strategies that can help increase the chances of success.
Moreover, humans are also known to acquire fighting tactics through continuous practice and exposure, so they have the potential to learn new skills for fighting.
Adaptation to changing climates
Living organisms can adapt to the changes in their external environment as they alter their eating habits and nest locations.
Most commonly, ants eat fresh fruits, vegetables, and floral nectar in the summer, while they have to switch their dietary habits to stored seeds and dead insects in winter due to food shortage.
In addition, these insects cannot find blooming flowers and fresh crops in the frosting weather when everything is covered under a thick sheet of snow.
They also prefer to shift their nests to warm places during winter and rainy weather as they have less tolerance to cold weather and can die due to freezing.
Furthermore, their metabolic rate gets slower at low temperatures, and the reproduction process halts because they do not have sufficient food resources to feed the new eggs and larvae.
Stock up on food for future
Humans keep their pantries filled with extra food that can help meet their requirements when the external weather is not good to go for groceries or if they have no time for regular visits to the market.
In the same way, ants benefit from the warm weather when there is plenty of food all around and store the particles in their nests for use in winter when food is unavailable.
Both are known to stock up the food that does not lose its nutritional value over time. It can be considered a safety measure to avoid the risk of death due to starvation.
Stratified communities
There is a significant stratification in human and ant communities as every member performs a specific role their entire life for their own living and ensures the survival of the whole community.
You can see different roles in the colony as some are foragers responsible for food collection, while others are nursing insects that transfer food down to the colony.
In addition, some workers are cleaners that take care of the nest maintenance and cleaning, while others are reproductive members involved in mating only.
This social stratification is common to insects and humans as there is a categorization based on status or roles, ethnicity or species, and derived power.
Maintenance of personal hygiene
Humans are quite conscious about their personal hygiene and try to keep themselves clean through regular baths and use perfumes to improve their body odors.
In the same way, ants are commonly found in trash cans and dirty places, so their bodies are supposed to be contaminated, but they also care for their hygiene.
Self-grooming and cleaning of bodies are observed in these insects when they lick their bodies to remove the dirt particles and disinfect themselves with antimicrobial saliva.
Adult insects are known to cooperate in cleaning and disinfecting eggs and larvae. The antimicrobial properties of saliva can also help prevent wound infection as they lick wounds.
Possessive for fellows and nests
Ants show affection and possessiveness to their nest fellows and fight for protection. Every colony releases specific pheromones which can be used as identity tags for the members.
They can identify a fellow by its particular body odor but react aggressively when they detect different odors in their surroundings as it is perceived to be a threat.
Accordingly, they become aggressive when other foreign insects try to enter their territories to steal their food or eggs. These insects fight for the protection of close ones, like humans.
Ability to see, smell, and touch
They look alike due to their physical similarities, as both organisms possess eyes for vision. However, humans can see better than insects as vision acuity varies due to ants’ compound eyes.
In addition, they have touch receptors on their bodies and detect the predator’s attack when they get closer to their bodies.
Furthermore, they have a sense of smell, but the power of sensing odors is better in insects as the number of olfactory receptors on their antennae is greater than in humans.
Their antennae can differentiate a wide range of odor molecules with minor variations in molecular structures because they contain hundreds of olfactory receptors.
Need oxygen and moisture
Living organisms cannot survive without food, water, and oxygen, as these are basic necessities to improve lifespan.
Shortage of food and water can lead to starvation and dehydration in humans and ants that cannot tolerate these depriving conditions for more than a few days or weeks.
In addition, they need oxygen to bathe the body cells for metabolism, but ants need less oxygen as their bodies are quite smaller and can hold breath for many hours.
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