Honey ants 

Kingdom:	Animalia
Clade:	Euarthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Formicinae
Genus:	Myrmecocystus
Species:	M.mexicanus

Honey ants are one of the most unusual of the more than 10,000 known ant species. Unlike bees, which store honey in honeycombs, honey ants store nectar inside the living bodies of worker ants called repletes. The ant colony draws upon these living “honey-pots” during lean times.

To deposit or withdraw food, an ant will use its antennas to tap the right code on the antennas of a replete. The replete then opens its mouth to unlock the “honey-pot.” A special stomach valve, composed of four flaps, controls the flow in or out. Over a lifetime of several months, a replete can apparently be drained and refilled several times.

Repletes normally live a sedentary but safe existence underground, where they are protected from drought, heat, and insect predators. In this dark subterranean world, they guard against bacteria and fungi by smearing their bodies with antibiotic fluid from a special gland.

Where does the “honey” come from? The food chain, as it were, begins with the sap and nectar of acacia trees. Next, tiny insects called aphids feed on these natural juices. Worker ants then milk the aphids of some of their excess sugar, which is called honeydew, or they collect nectar directly from the trees. Finally, the workers feed this collected liquid to the repletes. Of course, since the inactive repletes have modest nutritional needs, most of the honeydew ends up in the “honey bank”!

But what about the aphids? Are they the losers here? Not at all. For one thing, the ants leave them adequate nectar. For another, the ants protect the aphids from parasites and predators. Yes, both ants and aphids are winners in this symbiotic partnership called mutualism.

In-habitation
There are several species of honeypot ants that live across the world. For the most part, honeypot ants live in dry, arid and desert climates, where their "honeypot" comes in most useful. The most extensively studied species is Myrmecocystus mexicanus, which lives in the southwestern US and parts of Mexico. The others are found in Australia, some parts of Africa and few parts of Asia.

Reference and credit

• https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/g201105/Honey-Ants-A-Desert-Delicacy/#?insight[search_id]=27d01cbf-87eb-41da-8474-33b9121754d3&insight[search_result_index]=0

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wifbwD0j6K8