The ant is an insect that is familiar to everyone. However, a simple question about how many limbs common ants have can baffle even those who see them quite often.
Ant is an insect belonging to the arthropod type. Like many other members of this type, the ant has six legs.
Ant feet
The species diversity of the ant family is quite large: it includes representatives of many species, differing in color, size and other characteristics. So, the smallest ants, for example, belonging to the genus Monomorium, in adulthood have a length not exceeding 3-4 millimeters. And representatives of the largest genus - the giant dinoponera - can reach a length of 30 millimeters.
Nevertheless, all these so different ants have the same number of legs - three pairs, that is, six limbs. At the same time, the legs of the ant are the key to the extraordinary strength of this insect, since they allow it to lift and carry weight many times higher than its own. The most common ant, which can often be found in the forests of Russia, can carry a mass of twenty times the mass of its body.
Each of the legs of this creature, in turn, has three sections, which provide its limbs with a sufficiently high degree of mobility. Biologists came up with the names for these parts of the legs of an ant by analogy with human limbs: for example, the upper part of the leg is called the thigh, and the middle part is called the lower leg. True, the lower part of an insect's leg is usually called a paw, which ends with an element called a claw.
The claw provides the ant with a high intensity of adhesion to the surface on which it moves. At the same time, the smallest ants, which, respectively, have the lowest body weight, are able to move on almost completely smooth surfaces, for example, on glass. Therefore, surfaces found in nature, such as tree bark or stone, are very convenient surfaces for the ant to move.
Ant feet functions
Of course, the main function of the ant's legs is to provide the ability to move on hard surfaces. However, these insects can use their limbs for other purposes. For example, some species of ants can swim with their help - this feature is different for some species living in Australia.
Other species, such as desert ants, use their legs as a tool to measure the distance traveled, counting the number of steps it took to reach their goal. In addition, the glands on the legs of these insects are capable of emitting special aromas - pheromones, which serve to orient other individuals on the terrain.
