Ants

摘要

1 At home on every continent but Antarctica, the ant family, Formicidae, has more than 15,000 species. 2 Their habitats range from rainforest canopies to the Sahara Desert, with most ants living in hierarchical colonies with a single egg-laying queen. Males' sole job is mating, and female workers do everything else. 3 Ants may be stereotyped as picnic pests, but they're an important cleanup crew: A 2014 study of New York City streets estimated that every year, arthropods pick up the equivalent of 60,000 hot dogs in dropped food waste just along the road medians of 150 city blocks. 4 Sometimes ants end up on the menu themselves. When in Colombia, try the delicacy hormigas culonas (literally "big-bottomed ants"): fertilized queens of a large leafcutter species, served brined and toasted. 5 Considered an aphrodisiac, the crunchy queens are given as wedding gifts there, as well as in Venezuela.