Where have all the ants gone from our urban landscapes?

HOW many of us really remember the childhood story of 'The Ant and The Grasshopper'! It did not just teach us life lessons on hard work and resource conservation for tough times but opened our eyes to the significance of ants in our ecosystem. Once a crucial part of our lives, ants are all but gone.

- BOSKY KHANNA @Bengaluru

Odour Ants: Tapinoma melanocephalum: Two workers trying to lap up sugar

Rapid urbanisation coupled with frenetic pace of concretisation has taken away their habitat, leading to decline of many ant species. It is not just the Sphecomyrma ants that became extinct millions of years ago, many other species were lost in the last decade.

That is not all, the species which played a silent, yet crucial role, in ensuring soil fertility, is now gone without anyone even noticing. (We do not even remember the species when breaking lines and not following lane discipline while driving, something which ants closely follow-- the reason why ants were used as brand ambassadors by the traffic police departments in many cities.)

Experts point out that while some ant species have survived the tough change of times and adapted to new surroundings, others have declined. They also noted that many invasive ant species have increased over time which are of little or no service to the ecosystem.

Noted ant expert Sunil Kumar says that ant species like Jumping Ants (Myrmecia pilosula), Blind Ants (Dorylus) and Shield Ants (Meranoplus) have become very hard to find. Similar is the case with Razorjaw Ants (Leptogenys), Jaw-trap Ants (Anochetus) and Asian Bullet Ants (Diacamma) which have now extremely rare these days.