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Stand "City of Ants"

Mindo Tropical Complex, St. Petersburg

                                                         

 

Our first stand is a Soviet-era city abandoned by people, which is being developed and remade for themselves by its new inhabitants - ants. They move into apartments in Soviet "Khrushchev-era" buildings, set up food warehouses in our former stores, and unload railway cars. The ants also travel through transparent underwater tunnels connecting two parts of the city, under the watchful eyes of amazed fish.

 

We have settled great workers in our "City of Ants" - harvester ants (lat. Messor structor). This species of ants, living in the steppes of southern Russia, as well as in the central and southern parts of Ukraine, feeds mainly on the seeds of cereal plants, for which it makes quite impressive reserves. Harvester ants store all their seeds in special chambers inside the nest, periodically moving them from one chamber to another to select the optimal humidity for storing seeds. And sometimes they even take the seeds outside to dry.

Having barely cleared out the first few apartments in their "Khrushchev-era" buildings, the ants transferred all the larvae and pupae to their new place of residence, and provided viewers with the opportunity to observe in detail how tenderly they care for their offspring, how carefully they move and clean their future new family members, how they bring them food.

 

All the chambers, where the ants have food storage, a maternity ward and just places to rest, are clearly visible and visitors can spend hours following all the details of the life of these amazing social insects.

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