Webweaver Ant

Ants of the great web.

While searching the woods Ateri came across a mound of what appeared to be spider webs. The mound was as tall as her knees.
A truly large spider must live here, she thought as her hunger grew and she prodded the webs with her spear.
It wasn't a spider that came out but a horde of ants. Ateri hadn't yet been taught about the webweavers.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Webweaver ants have three segments, a head, thorax, and abdomen, the size of which varies between the different classes of ants. Six legs protrude from the thorax.

Biological Traits

The webweaver ant has a unique claws that allow them to walk on spider webs without becoming stuck.

Queen

The queen can be over 3 cm long and live for up to five years. The queen's primary duty is to lay eggs to maintain the numbers of the colony. They are capable of laying upwards of 1000 eggs each cycle. The queen will produce ants of different classes in the proportions required. A new queen ant will only be hatched when the colony is ready to expand.

Male

Males are up to 1.5 cm long. They are the shortest lived of the webweavers and die when they mate with a female - or after 20 cycles if they do not manage to mate. They possess wings in order to facilitate finding a queen.

Warrior

Warriors are smaller than males at about 1.2 cm but have the largest heads and strongest mandibles of the species. They can live for up to a year but rarely do. Their duties include carving up the insects that get caught in their webs, defending the colony's birdeating spiders from threats, and fighting other ant colonies.

Harvester

The larger worker class. They live for up to a year and are 0.8 to 1.0 cm long. The hairs on their legs are longer than the other classes which allows them to wrap more of the silk of the birdeating spider around each leg. They have stronger and enlarged back legs that aid in moving while carrying silk as well as in the process of harvesting the silk from the birdeating spider.

Spinner

The smallest of the workers at 0.4 to 0.6 cm. They live for up to one year. Their main function is to remove the silk carried by the harvester class and spin it into useful webs. The hairs on their legs are hooked at the ends to aid in spinning. Their light weight allows them to climb over and hold each other with ease forming small chains while they work silk into long strands. They are also responsible for moving the eggs and larvae from place to place.

Genetics and Reproduction

A queen ant mates once with a male ant and stores the sperm in a special pouch until it is required to fertilize the eggs she lays. These eggs are small - about 1 mm in diameter - but queen eggs are much larger.

Growth Rate & Stages

Once an egg is fertilized it will hatch in 20-30 cycles producing a larva. In another 30-40 cycles that larva will reach maturity as a fully grown ant of one class. A queen ant takes much longer to hatch and mature. The lifespan of each ant varies by class.

Ecology and Habitats

The forests of Ratoghar are the only location where the species can survive due to the presence of the birdeating spider. These forests are transformed in some way by the presence of the webweavers; often underbrush will wither when covered in webs.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Other insects that get caught in their webs comprise the majority of their diet though they are known to eat dead animals when the opportunity arises.

Biological Cycle

On Ratoghar there is very little temperature difference between the seasons, though it does rain more during some seasons. The weavers are well adapted to this change in precipitation because they can take to their webbed homes in the trees and often build homes in raised elements such as logs and tree stumps.

Additional Information

Facial characteristics

Each ant has two antennae protruding from it's head. Two large eyes are located on opposite sides of the head. Mandibles of different sizes based on the class of the ant.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Webweaver ants - to the delight of the people of Breharan - are found only on Ratoghar.

Average Intelligence

The intelligence of ants is a debated topic by scholars but it is clear that they are able to coordinate effectively in groups to accomplish amazing tasks for such small creatures.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

As with many species of ants the eyesight of the webweaver ant is quite poor but makes up for it with a powerful sense of smell in their antennae. Unlike most species of ants the hairs on their legs are highly sensitive to vibrations allowing them to detect approaching ground creatures but more importantly to detect when something gets caught in their web.

Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms

Webweaver ants do not actually produce their own webs but take webs from the birdeating spider which does not use the webs itself.

Stub Article

This article is just a stub for now and will be expanded upon later.

Old Article

This article was written in the past and does not meet my current standards for any number of article quality, layout, or content.

In-Progress Article

This article is being worked on, perhaps not at this very moment, but it is being worked on.

Lifespan

1 year

Average Height

0.2 - 0.4 cm

Average Weight

1 - 7 mg

Average Length

0.4 - 1.2 cm

Average Physique

As with many tiny creatures these ants are capable to carrying many times their body weight.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

The ants are all black, including the hairs on their legs. The exception to this is the queen which can be identified by her white legs.