Fact of the week: Specialisation

The unique diet of ants have been covered by me in previous articles. 

Now let me touch on something that we have taught by Aesop's fable. Ants eat seeds. Or at least they store food for winter.

At this point, most ants species would be in trouble as seeds are not part of their diet. 

But seriously, only harvester ants collect seeds. Now the better question is why? If you want portable seeds, you cannot be in a forest. In fact you do not want water because seeds then to germinate. 

So besides having the skill to store seeds, the ants also have the ability to convert the fats in the seeds into water.

Suddenly the seeds harvesting skill seems less of a desirable trait and more like an inability to choose a suitable nest.

And in winter, the other ants hibernate.