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Learn more at:
THE THE
WORLD OF ZOMPOPAS
Brochure 1 - Birth and growth of the colony-
www.zompopas.com
Photographs 1 1.
Alex Wild. www.alexanderwild.com
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Dennis Castro. Universidad de Costa Rica
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Ibrahim Zúñiga. Universidad de Costa Rica
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Bert Hölldobler y E.O Wilson The Superorganism
Elaborated by : Ibrahim Zúñiga Chaves, Adrián Pinto Tomas Universidad de Costa Rica Translaled by: José Guevara Universidad de Costa Rica
BIRTH AND GROWTH OF THE COLONY
A queen ant is capable of by herself, the construction of a colony which might be inhabited by up to 5 million ants. Thanks to her efforts and those of her daughters, a colony can reach impressive dimensions in size. Thus, causing a great impact on the environment, and becoming a key part in the ecosystem.
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After the nuptial flight, all drones die, exhausted. Meanwhile, the queens go underground; they remove their wings, dig a hole and build galleries which will establish their colony.
Once the colony has reached a large enough size, usually in its second year, ants start to differentiate size-wise. The larger ones are known as maximal or soldiers, are in charge of the colony’s defense. Medium-sized ants collect and process plant material as well as wastes. The smallest ones, called the minimal work as support for the other ants in their respective chores. For instance they protect the ones collecting plants from parasite 1 insects or by working to keep the health and growth of the fungus gardens.
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3 Inside one of the galleries the queen expels the fungus fragment from her mouthpiece, converting their flying muscles into nutritious secretions to feed it. Parallel to this event the queen begins to lay her first eggs. She will nurture and care the larvae that emerge from these. 1
6 “Zompopa colonies are a wonder of the natural world. The excavated and moved soil of a mature colony weighs around 40 tons, and these structures can become as large as houses. This in human terms is the equivalent of one human generation building the Great Wall of China” (Holldobler &Wilson, 2008, The Superoorganism)
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1 Once a year, mature zompopa colonies produce thousands of drones and queens, which develop inside the nest. Once they develop, which is at the start of the rainy season, all the queens and males from neighboring colonies emerge flying and mate in a process called nuptial flight. This happens high in the sky. Just before leaving the colony to take flight, the queens take a small fragment of the fungus garden, their food source, and place it in a pocket in their mouthpiece. This piece of fungus will allow the establishment of a new colony.
4 If the queen successfully achieves the task to keep her fungus garden safe (just 1% is able to do so), the first ants will be emerging in a month’s time. These in turn will feed from the fungus garden, care for it, as well as caring and feed future larvae and the queen. From this stage on, the queen will focus solely in laying eggs. The rate of this task is incredible, generating 200 million eggs throughout her life. 4