Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:-
‘An important reason for ants’ success is their ability to talk not with words but with Tastes and smells. Their vocabulary is made up of a mixture of substances they produce in various parts of their bodies and emit via their glands. The so-called pheromones are signals that other ants can smell and taste. The messages they communicate set off a specific kind of behavior: fetching food for instance or looking after the brood or feeding the queen. Furthermore, ant-talk is not limited to food. Ants use a hundred, different Scents to communicate a hundred different messages. With such a sophisticated array of messenger fragrances, ants organize complicated tasks with close-to-perfect efficiency. Every ant is a specialist with a vocation of its own. The queen has one of the biggest workloads laying eggs round the clock. Despite the presence of a queen, an ant colony is not a monarchy. The word ‘queen’ is actually a misnomer. “She doesn’t reign over the others,” says Holldobler. “She’s a machine for laying eggs.” From morning till night she Produces her daughters, the sterile workers of the colony. Males don’t have to do much and the queen only produces them when reproduction time is approaching. Their main job is to fertilize the winged females. After that they die. Messengers don’t have much free time either. When you see a handful of ants scurrying. Around in the kitchen, without any apparent purpose, it doesn’t mean they’ve lost their bearings. They’re scouts foraging for food. Once they have found something edible, they report back to base, depositing their chemical spores on the way. “Food located, please, collect,” is the taste and smell message for the other members back at the nest.
State whether the following statements are True or False. Write ‘T’ for True and‘F’ for False.
i) Ants talk with tastes and smells
Answer –True
ii) Queen only produces the male ants during the time of reproduction.
Answer – False
iii) The ant queen rules over the ant colony.
Answer –False
iv) The male ants help the females to send messages acrossthe colony.
Answer – False
b.) Answer each of the following questions in about 30 words:-
i) What is understood by ‘ant- colony’?
Answer –Ant Colony is a sophisticated system where ants breed, find food and communicate via taste and smell of pheromones. There are different work assigned to the ants, queen is there to lay eggs, male ant’s main function is to fertilize the queen and scouts work to find food.
ii) What is the function of the queen in an ant colony?
Answer –The function of the queen in an ant colony is to lay eggs from day to night. She produces females at the time of reproduction but before that time comes she produces male ants.
iii) What are the ants that we see scurrying around in the kitchen, actually do?
Answer –The ants that we see scurrying around in the kitchen actually are the scout ants finding food. When they find food they send the message via their pheromones to call the other ants to collect the food.