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[deleted] t1_iz5a2e1 wrote

[removed]

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StupidPencil t1_iz6g54u wrote

Note that ants and other social insects do have an ability to regurgitate stomach content to share it with other nestmates. It's called trophallaxis. It effectively allows nutrients and other biochemical to be freely distributed throughout a whole colony, acting kinda like a circulatory system.

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svarogteuse t1_izen9ob wrote

Regurgitate from the stomach or from some other organ? Honey bees regurgitate from the honey crop which is located higher in the digestive tract than the stomach.

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StupidPencil t1_izf7fxf wrote

From the crop right before the midgut.

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The most extreme example is probably honeypot ant.

I think it probably share many similarities with bees and wasps since they all belong to Hymenoptera.

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Otherwise_Day_4485 t1_iz5ni6z wrote

How about farting? Do ants fart? 🐜💨

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Krail t1_iz7vua7 wrote

I don't know the answer for sure, but the prevalence of farting in Humans is generally a consequence of microbes in our gut digesting our food for us and putting off gasses as a byproduct. There are other reasons gasses end up in your digestive tract, but this is the big one.

I don't know if ants are as reliant on microbes for their digestion as we are, but they definitely have less room for gas in their guts. But then, you'd expect ant farts to be tiny anyway.

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Picolete t1_iz66yh5 wrote

Dont give them ideas, now greenpeace will want to ban antfarms for the CO2

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Myotherdog t1_iz7pxmg wrote

Interesting. Is an insects digestive system in any way comparable to ours?

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financial2k t1_izsrj1k wrote

Super interesting question. Something like throwing-up just isn't in the cards at those scales due to the lack of inertia and overwhelming electrostatic, Van-der-waals and other effects. (Take a set of tweezers and try to do some kind of art at those scales and you will know what I am talking about)

Even the air feels like going through molasse to an insect according to Kurzgesagt, which do research their stuff.

Yet it seems getting food out of their stomach is part of their nature:

>Ants have two stomachs

Ants have one stomach where they hold and consume their own food and another stomach to hold food they share with other ants. This allows the ants that forage for food to feed the ants that remain in the nest to tend to the queen.

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Any cell can be poisoned. That includes any multicellular organism. The less surface you have per body-weight the better you generally do when poisoned. The smaller you are the less favorable your survival in exactly those scenarios. I cannot answer beyond that.

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