Choose insects that can be classified as social. Social insects. Behavior and caste division
Many species of highly developed insects (termites, bees, ants, wasps) live in complex communities. They have such a well-calibrated organization that sometimes they resemble a “superorganism” that is driven by the queen.
LARGE FAMILIES
In the numerous “states” of insects that form termites, ants, some species of bees and wasps, each member of the community - the queen, workers, soldiers and drones - performs its own, clearly regulated function. This division of labor is the main condition for the existence of the colony. Individual individuals of such a community are so dependent on each other that they can no longer exist independently. For example, worker termites are guarded by well-armed soldiers, who are not able to survive without workers, since they cannot obtain food on their own and depend on the workers to feed them. In turn, workers and soldiers are not able to reproduce. The function of reproducing offspring lies on the uterus , around which the colony is formed. The queen lives inside the nest, she is fed by workers, and soldiers protect her. All the bees of one colony, and there can be about 80,000 of them, are descendants of one queen and older sisters to newborn individuals, therefore they are all genetic twins. have a highly developed social instinct.
FORMATION OF THE COLONY
In autumn, with the onset of cold weather, all individuals of the wasp colony die, with the exception of fertilized queens. Shortly before the nest disappears, several mature pairs appear in the wasp colony, which fly away and mate. The males soon die, and the females, sensing the approach of winter, hide in warm places. In the spring, fertilized queens emerge from their shelters and each of them builds a nest of wood treated with special enzymes, consisting of 10-12 hexagonal cells. Eggs are placed in these cells of the uterus. The queen feeds the larvae with a gruel of semi-digested insects. The larvae grow quickly and soon develop into sterile worker wasps. After the workers are born, the queen no longer engages in any household chores, she only lays eggs, and the workers build new cells, take care of the eggs and raise the larvae. The social system of some species of ants and termites is somewhat more complex. Worker ants are divided into several castes, depending on the work they perform. Some, for example, have the task of spraying enemies with formic acid, i.e., conducting a kind of “ chemical warfare", and on others - to deliver nectar to the warehouse. Termite larvae are miniature copies of adult individuals. They develop into soldiers, which have powerful jaws or a stinging apparatus that secretes a sticky substance that can become a trap for enemies. Termite workers and soldiers - wingless and blind individuals.
TYPES OF COMMUNICATION
In most insect species, with the exception of the breeding season, there is no need for communication. In social insects, on the contrary, communication between members of the colony is vital. Some species have developed a perfect information transmission system. Body language is often used for this. For example, honey bees, with the help of a special dance, very accurately inform their fellow bees in the hive about the road to the place where, according to them, the source of nectar is located. Ants use a different method. Having found a significant source of food, they return to the anthill, leaving behind a persistent odorous trail. Other ants, following this path, also leave their odorous marks, which are a guide for the rest of the colony. Pheromones play a very important role in the life activity of all types of social insects. Hungry larvae secrete a special substance that is a “feed me” signal. The queen secretes her pheromones and thus sends her own signal to the workers, reminding them of their duties. At certain intervals, the workers exchange gland secretions with the queen, and thus a close relationship is maintained between them A community of many insects that has lost a queen is doomed to death: the insects do not know what to do, for example, workers stop working, being left without a queen, they can grow a new one: for this they build special cells and feed the larvae with special food.
Termites
The social structure of termites consists of three types of insects: the queen (queen), soldiers and workers.
Uterus: Lives in the center of the colony. It has a large body with hypertrophied ovaries (up to 10 cm long) that constantly produce eggs - many millions of eggs throughout its life. The winged male who fertilized the female dies. The queen lives for about 10 years.
Soldiers: Large and darker than workers, with large heads and extremely strong jaws. They guard and protect the colony from enemies.
Workers: small, soft-bodied insects white. They build a nest and maintain order in it. Unlike other social insects, worker termites come in both sexes.
Ants
Almost all ant species are social insects. They live in anthills.
Uterus: its only task is to take care of procreation and lay eggs.
Workers: wingless sterile males up to 30 mm long. They care for the queen and larvae, build and repair the anthill. If an anthill is attacked by enemies and there is no one to “fight”, then the workers defend the colony.
Soldiers: like workers, wingless and sterile, but somewhat larger, with large heads and powerful jaws. Their task is to protect the anthill from enemies
Bees
Bees live in communities of up to 60,000 insects.
Uterus: the only one in the entire colony. The queen controls the hive and lays eggs. It does not have organs for collecting pollen, so it is fed by workers.
Workers: they collect pollen and nectar from flowers, feed the young, queen, drones and protect the colony. They build honeycombs consisting of regular hexagonal cells, which serve as a storage facility for honey and an incubator for eggs. Working bees communicate information about food-rich places to each other using a special dance, accurately indicating the distance to them and the direction of flight.
Drones: their only purpose is to fertilize the uterus. The drones are fed by worker bees. After mating they die.
Wasps
Some social wasp species live in large colonies. Unlike bees and termites, the nest is used only for one summer. In the fall, all wasps die out. Only fertilized female founders overwinter and build a new nest in the spring. Wasp nests are built from cellulose - pieces of wood mixed with saliva.
Insects living in a single community: ants, wasps, bees and termites have always aroused special interest and surprise among people. This is reflected in numerous myths, legends and traditions. IN ancient greek mythology ants were a symbol of the goddess Demeter. And one of the most ancient images found in Europe was the Queen of the Hive. Social insects play vital role in almost all terrestrial ecosystems. Wasps and most ants act as predators, termites, especially in tropical ecosystems, as the most important destroyers of plant debris, and social bees are pollinators of many wild and cultivated plants and manufacturers of medicinal products.
Hierarchical intrafamily ties and complex structures of interaction between community members still attract close attention from scientists. To solve a riddle collective intelligence Humanity has been trying to find animals since ancient times, and judging by the fact that our ancestors used images of insects to image the gods, this suggests that this secret was understood by them and was actively used to control human communities.
What is the essence of this natural phenomenon?! What's going on?
BEES ARE SOCIAL INSECTS. In the world of animals with Nikolai Drozdov. Video (00:04:59)
Nests of social insects: bees, wasps and ants. Video (00:45:14)
Ants are social insects
Well, what are ants like? Everyone has seen them. This is a separate family of Hymenoptera insects; in addition to ants, the order Hymenoptera also includes other very famous, well-known inhabitants of the earth, such as bees and wasps. And ants differ from bees and wasps primarily in that they have wingless workers. All bees, all wasps, they are winged, so to speak, almost all of them. Only females and males are winged before mating. Ants have three castes.
All of the insects listed are social insects, but with a small caveat: bees and wasps can be both solitary and social. And all ants are exclusively social. There is not a single species among ants that leads a solitary lifestyle. And there are actually more than ten thousand species of ants around the world.
What is sociality for insects? This means that they live in a permanent community, a long-lasting community, which we call a family because it is a family in origin. And this family consists of three castes - these are females who lay eggs, that is, this is a reproductive individual, these are males who appear in the family for a very short time and after fertilization of the females, in most species the males die. They die naturally, their life is over. But there are some species that have a slightly different system, but there are no such species in Russia, so we will focus on our domestic ants. The majority of the population consists of working individuals. In principle, these are physiologically underdeveloped females that perform all the functions of building a nest, obtaining food, defense, feeding the brood, caring for the female and larvae. That is, the entire life of the family is provided by working individuals. And when we talk about the organization of the family, about the evolution of the social way of life in ants, this is, first of all, the development of relationships in the system of working individuals, which, as the family grows, begin to perform various functions and gain the opportunity, firstly, to realize specialization , and secondly, they are able to perform whole line tasks that are simply impossible in small families. This, for example, maintains an active temperature in the nest.
Ants, in principle, are all tropical, subtropical insects by origin. And while they lived and live there, all problems associated with maintaining temperature are solved there naturally. True, there is a situation when they have to arrange ventilation to prevent overheating. But in our conditions, conditions temperate climate, the situation is different. In order for the ants' larvae to develop normally, and ants are insects with complete metamorphosis. That is, they first develop a larva separately, then it pupates, most species entwine the pupa with a cocoon, and then an adult insect emerges from the pupa, which does not grow any further and does not change morphologically throughout its adult life.
How long does an ant live?
The ant lives for a very long time. If we talk about the life of a worker, then a worker ant in our ordinary ants can live up to seven years. And an oviparous female up to 20 years old is an absolute record in the insect world. The reason they live so long is because they have a well-functioning social system. They organized the high life expectancy that we care so much about long ago.
Class: 7
Presentation for the lesson
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Lesson objectives:
Educational:
- study the behavioral characteristics of social insects;
- study the diversity of social insects;
- study the role of social insects in nature and human life.
Educational:
- activate and develop the mental activity of students through problem-based learning;
- develop students' creative skills;
- develop the ability to highlight the main points from the teacher’s story, textbook material and additional materials.
Educators:
- education of active creative personality a student who can see, pose and solve non-standard educational problems;
- fostering a sustainable interest in the subject of biology;
- fostering a caring attitude towards social insects by identifying their role in nature and human life.
Knowledge that students should master at the end of the lesson:
- Social insects include termites, bumblebees, wasps, bees, ants;
- the ant family consists of a wingless female queen, worker ants, and larvae; males participate only in fertilizing females, after which they die. Within the family there is a distribution of responsibilities;
- ants regulate the number of forest pests;
- a bee colony consists of a queen, drones, worker bees and larvae; drones take part in the fertilization of females, after which they die.
- There is a distribution of responsibilities within the bee colony;
- bees have complex instinctive behavior, which is manifested in the complex actions performed by bees in the process of work, in their careful care of their offspring, in the appropriateness of the division of labor between family members, in their amazing construction art;
- bees and their metabolic products are of great practical importance in nature and human life.
During the classes
I. Organizing time(5 minutes)
The teacher welcomes students and notes those who are absent in the journal.
II. Updating knowledge on a previously studied topic: “Types of development of insects.” (10 minutes)
Frontal survey:
How do insects develop with complete metamorphosis?
How does development with incomplete transformation differ from development with complete transformation?
Insects of what type of development have a greater advantage and why?
III. Learning new material
Learning new material begins with the topic of the lesson. In a traditional lesson, the teacher usually writes the topic of the lesson on the board at the beginning of the lesson, i.e. gives in finished form.
The purpose of a problem lesson when setting a topic is creative activity students.
From the very beginning of learning new material, the student must think, analyze, and reason.
We will try to make sure that the student, answering the questions, formulates the topic of the lesson himself.
To do this, we will initially divide the topic of the lesson into two subtopics:
- Bees and ants - social insects.
- Beneficial insects.
These subtopics are not communicated to students in a ready-made form; we formulated them for ourselves in order to clearly think through the questions that lead students to these subtopics in the future.
We develop a dialogue that encourages students to understand the topic of the lesson.
Dialogue leading to the topic, creating a problematic situation:
Task 1 (5 minutes)
Students are offered a list of words that characterize an insect in a certain way. In this case, these are bees and ants.
Teacher: Before you are two rows of words, each of them characterizes a specific insect. I suggest you break up into pairs and think: What kind of insects are these? What do you know about these insects?
FOREST, TREE, HOUSING, FAMILY, NECTAR, HONEY.
FOREST, STUM, HILL, FAMILY, APHID.
After students have arrived at the correct answer, they are asked to complete the following task:
Task 2 (10 minutes)
For creating problematic situation I propose to compare the hierarchy of social insects with the hierarchy that exists in our school.
To do this, students are offered three diagrams on the board:
Students are asked to look at these diagrams and answer the question: What do the presented diagrams have in common?
Teacher: Before you are presented diagrams (see Appendix) that depict the hierarchy in bee and ant families and the hierarchy of our school. What do these three schemes have in common?
Students: Both insects and people have a division of responsibilities.
Teacher: Right. Let's think about what society as a whole is?
Students: This is bringing people together.
Teacher: What unites them?
Students: Any activity.
Teacher: Right. Society is a group of people united by collective activity. Do you think ants and bees work together? If yes, why do you think so?
Students: Because they have a division of responsibilities, they work together and form a family.
Students: Can.
Teacher: Right. Let’s write down the first topic of today’s lesson: “Bees and ants are social insects.”
Teacher: Guys, how many of you know what an anthill is and what a beehive is?
Students: An anthill is the home of ants, and a hive is the home of bees.
Teacher: Do you think all ants form a family, or are there ants that live alone?
Students: No, all ants form a family.
Teacher: Why can't ants live alone?
Students: They will die because, for example, the queen cannot simultaneously lay eggs and guard the anthill.
Teacher: Now think and answer my question: Do you think that if bees are also social insects, then the distribution of responsibilities will be the same or different?
Students: The distribution of responsibilities will be similar.
Task 3 (10 minutes)
Students are asked to work with the text of the textbook and create a table that will reflect in more detail the composition of the bee and ant families, as well as the functions that they perform in the family.
Previously, the diagrams presented on the board must be removed in order to organize the search activity of the students, as well as to use their memory, to see how well they remember what they previously saw on the board.
Teacher: guys, open the textbook on page 135 (Table 5). I suggest you come up with and fill out a table in which you must determine the composition of the bee and ant families, as well as indicate the role they perform in the family. The diagram you saw on the board at the beginning of the lesson can serve as a hint.
Table. Composition of ant and bee families:
| Bee family | Ant family | ||
| Family member | Features, role | Family member | Features, role |
| Uterus | The main bee is larger in size than the other bees and lays eggs. | Uterus (queen) | Wingless female, breaks off wings after mating flight. The role is to lay eggs. |
| Drone | Male. The role is to fertilize females. After fertilization, the males are expelled from the hive and die. | Male | Winged individuals. The role is to fertilize females. After mating, the males die. |
| Worker bees | Infertile females, the ovipositor is modified into a stinger. Role: clean the hive, collect nectar, care for the queen and larvae, protect the hive from enemies. |
Worker ant | Infertile females that do not have wings. The role is to clean the anthill, collect food, care for the queen and larvae, and protect the anthill from enemies. |
While completing the task, the teacher makes sure that the whole class is involved in the work, approaches the students, monitors the progress of the task, and makes corrections if necessary.
After completing the task, the teacher asks questions to the class:
- Did everyone complete the task?
- What difficulties arose when completing the task, what was not clear?
If questions arise, the teacher makes appropriate explanations and additions. If all students completed the task and no questions arose, then the teacher proceeds to the next task, and checks the quality of the table at the end of the lesson when consolidating the learned material.
Task 4 (15 minutes)
When completing this task, students’ search activities are organized. Students are divided into three groups (the division can be done according to the rows in the classroom). The teacher asks each row of students one problematic question. After that, students are given time to think and write down the answer to the question in their notebooks. The teacher asks the students how they can answer this question and listens to all opinions. Next, he distributes the text on cards, with the help of which the students must find the answer to the question posed. Students write down their answers in notebooks, after which work is organized to exchange information, and finally, results are summed up and conclusions are formulated.
Card No. 1
Problematic question: What advantages does a social lifestyle give to ants and bees?
Families of social insects usually build large dwellings, the creation of which is beyond the power of single species. The presence of such a dwelling, sometimes also very durable (termite mounds), increases the protection of both the insects themselves and, what is much more important, their offspring and food supplies that can be stored in such a dwelling. Due to joint activities social insects (bees, ants) can maintain an optimal microclimate (temperature, humidity) in their homes, which is inaccessible to solitary species.
The possibility of joint action provides important advantages. Together you can defend yourself against larger enemies and take possession of larger prey that is inaccessible to a single insect of the same size (ants).
Card No. 2
Problematic question: Why does an ant need an anthill?
An anthill is a nest, the home of an ant family. Ants use their domed nests to trap sun rays and heat accumulation.
Anthills consist of needles, small twigs, pieces of bark and plant debris. At first glance, it seems that all this garbage is scattered randomly. However, it turns out that even in the heaviest rain, the anthill practically does not get wet.
The height of anthills is usually 0.5-0.7 m, but sometimes they reach a height of 1.5 m. The starting point for building a nest is often an old stump. The population of medium nests is about 500,000 individuals, and in large ones there are up to a million ants. Each family owns a separate, protected territory, into which other ants are not allowed. On it, ants build “scent” roads along which food products and building materials are transported.
Ants are very strong and successfully deliver not only small insects, but also superior in mass. If the prey is very large, then they transport it collectively. When observing them, it may seem that they are not helping, but only hindering each other - everyone is pulling in their own direction. However, since all ants have the same general desire, the prey eventually ends up in the anthill.
Thus, a joint lifestyle allows ants to build large dwellings, which increase the security of both the insects themselves and their offspring and food supplies. Through joint activity, ants (social insects) can maintain an optimal microclimate (temperature, humidity) in their homes, which is inaccessible to single species.
Card No. 3
Problem question: How do ants communicate?
Text (http://edu.zelenogorsk.ru/projs/eko/bespozv/nas35.html):
When communicating with each other, ants use a variety of signals, mainly by touching each other with their antennae, legs, and heads. Chemical signals are also used. Everyone knows that disturbed ants take a defensive pose: they rise high on their hind legs and point the end of their abdomen forward. And immediately there is a pungent smell. This ant sprayed out a liquid consisting of formic acid and anxiety substances - undecane. It should be noted that most ants, although they belong to the stinging hymenoptera, do not have a sting. However, they still have poisonous glands at the end of their abdomen. How do they use them? The ant has powerful jaws, with which it bites the enemy when attacking or defending. At the same time, it bends its abdomen so that its end is near the head, and sprays poison into the wound inflicted by its jaws. If there are other ants nearby, then the smell of the sprayed liquid is perceived by them as an alarm signal, and they immediately join the first ant. And on the roads along which the ants run from the anthill and to the anthill, they secrete other, so-called trace substances that allow them not to go astray. All ants from the same nest have a common smell, which allows them to recognize each other and prevent ants from other people's nests from entering their nest.
Teacher: Do you think the behavior of social insects is complex?
Students: Yes.
Teacher: Does this mean that these insects have intelligence?
Students: probably means.
Teacher: Do any of you know what instinct is?
Students express their opinions. Thus, a problem arises and various hypotheses are put forward. Students are asked to solve this problem using the textbook.
Teacher: to solve this problem, let's turn to the textbook and write down what instinct is, and whether insects really have intelligence.
Students are asked to turn to page 137, find and write down information about what instinct is.
An example entry in a notebook:
Instinct is a set of innate aspects of behavior, fixed hereditarily and characteristic of a certain species of animal.
The behavior of bees, ants and some other animals is so complex and surprising that it leads people to believe that it is intelligent. However, these actions of animals are instinctive and unconscious.
Teacher: Guys, do you think insects are useful or harmful?
Students: Helpful.
Teacher: We write down the second subtopic of our lesson in our notebooks: “Beneficial insects.” (10 minutes)
Teacher: Which ones beneficial insects You know?
Students: ants, bees, beetles, silkworms.
Teacher: What benefits do these insects bring?
Students: honey, silk, eat harmful insects...
Teacher: Do any of you know who the silkworm is and what it is famous for?
Students express their versions, after which they are asked to turn to the text of the textbook and answer the following questions:
Where is the silkworm found in nature? (a question for attentiveness, students must answer that the silkworm is a completely domesticated animal and does not occur in nature).
- What does an adult silkworm insect look like and why was this insect given such a name?
- How does a person obtain silk using the silkworm?
IV. Reflection.(5 minutes)
Frontal survey of students:
- What insects are social?
- Name the composition and characteristics of the bee colony.
- Name the composition and characteristics of the ant family.
- Why is the behavior of social insects complex but not intelligent?
- What insects are considered beneficial, what benefits do they bring?
- What insects have humans domesticated? What benefits do they bring?
V. Homework.
Paragraph 28, questions after the paragraph, notes in the notebook;
Answer the following questions in writing:
The adult silkworm moth does not feed. Her mouth organs are not developed. How does this insect live?
How do bees get honey?
Educational literature
Biology: 7th grade: textbook for students of general education institutions: in 2 hours. Part 1 / V.M. Konstantinov, V.G. Babenko, V.S. Kuchmenko: ed. prof. I.N. Ponomareva, - 3rd ed. reworked – M.: Ventana-Graf. 2009. – 160 p.: ill.
