question: why do puddles of spilt drinks (whether wet or alr dried up) attract ants? can they physically pick up the water or sugar molecules?
comment: They drink it. Later on, if need be, they can vomit it back up to feed the rest of their colony.
passages: Section::::Foraging behavior.
  
  Harvester ants foraging in hot, dry conditions lose water, but obtain water from metabolizing fats in the seeds they eat. Positive feedback on foraging activity, from returning foragers with food, allows the colony to regulate its foraging activity according to the current costs of desiccation and the benefits based on current food availability.
   Many insects, notably honey bees and some wasps, collect and store liquid for use at a later date. However, these insects store their food within their nest or in combs. Honey ants are unique in using their own bodies as living storage, used later by their fellow ants when food is otherwise scarce. When the liquid stored inside a honeypot ant is needed, the worker ants stroke the antennae of the honeypot ant, causing the honeypot ant to regurgitate the stored liquid from its crop.
  
  Section::::Anatomy.
   When offered a choice of food sources, the ants preferred sugar and protein over lipids, and this preference persisted in all seasons. When specific sugar sources were studied the ants preferred sucrose over other sugars, such as fructose or glucose. 
  
  Section::::Behavior.:Food allocation.
   With the selection problem in mind, Bill Atkinson went to his favorite pub in Los Gatos. Something on the wall caught his attention. It was an electric Hamm's Beer sign. The beer sign consisted of an illuminated scene of a kind of animated waterfall. Water seemed to flow down the waterfall into the lake. Bill figured that this effect could solve his problem because it is easily recognizable.
  
  He implemented the idea and showed it to Rod Perkins from the Lisa team, who told Bill the effect reminded him of "marching ants".
  
  Section::::External links.
   Section::::YouTube videos.:AntsCanada.
   Ants of the genus "Camponotus" have an intimate relationship with several "Korthalsia" species, occupying chambers in the fibrous and swollen ocreas at the leaf bases. Here, the ants "farm" scale insects which feed on the palm’s phloem cells, and produce a sweet dew the ants feed on. The ants also beat their abdomens against the dry leaf bases to create a precautionary alarm rattle before attacking en masse. The relationship seems to be mutual, protecting the palms from herbivores.
   In the Brazilian rain forest, sudden rainfall can trigger flooding at a moment's notice. Given that flooding can potentially destroy a colony and drown the insects, fire ants have developed a unique adaptation to this situation. While individual fire ants are hydrophobic and flounder at the waters surface, large groups of ants can link together to form a living raft. As the queen and larvae are evacuated from the flooding colony, they sit upon this living raft, floating along the waterline until reaching some solid land.
   Some of the most well-studied myrmecophilous interactions involve ants and hemipterans (earlier grouped in the order Homoptera which included the Auchenorrhyncha and Sternorrhyncha), especially aphids. There are around 4000 described species of aphids, and they are the most abundant myrmecophilous organisms in the northern temperate zones. Aphids feed on the phloem sap of plants, and as they feed they excrete honeydew droplets from their anus. The tending ants ingest these honeydew droplets then return to their nest to regurgitate the fluid for their nestmates (see trophallaxis). Between 90-95% of the dry weight of aphid honeydew is various sugars, while the remaining matter includes vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. Aphid honeydew can provide an abundant food source for ants (aphids in the genus "Tuberolachnus" can secrete more honeydew droplets per hour than their body weight) and for some ants aphids may be their only source of food. In these circumstances, ants may supplement their honeydew intake by preying on the aphids once the aphid populations have reached certain densities. In this way ants can gain extra protein and ensure efficient resource extraction by maintaining honeydew flow rates that do not exceed the ants' collection capabilities. Even with some predation by ants, aphid colonies can reach larger densities with tending ants than colonies without. Ants have been observed to tend large "herds" of aphids, protecting them from predators and parasitoids. Aphid species that are associated with ants often have reduced structural and behavioral defense mechanisms, and are less able to defend themselves from attack than aphid species that are not associated with ants.
   Red imported fire ants are omnivores, and foragers are considered to be scavengers rather than predators. The ants' diet consists of dead mammals, arthropods, insects, earthworms, vertebrates, and solid food matter such as seeds. However, this species prefers liquid over solid food. The liquid food the ants collect is sweet substances from plants or honeydew-producing hemipterans. Arthropod prey may include dipteran adults, larvae and pupae, and termites. The consumption of sugar amino acid is known to affect recruitment of workers to plant nectars. Mimic plants with sugar rarely have workers to feed on them, whereas those with sugar and amino acids have considerable numbers. The habitats where they live may determine the food they collect the most; for example, forage success rates for solid foods are highest in lakeshore sites, while high levels of liquid sources were collected from pasture sites. Specific diets can also alter the growth of a colony, with laboratory colonies showing high growth if fed honey-water. Colonies that feed on insects and sugar-water can grow exceptionally large in a short period of time, whereas those that do not feed on sugar-water grow substantially slower. Colonies that do not feed on insects cease brood production entirely. Altogether, the volume of food digested by nestmates is regulated within colonies. Larvae are able to display independent appetites for sources such as solid proteins, amino acid solutions, and sucrose solutions, and they also prefer these sources over dilute solutions. Such behaviour is due to their capability to communicate hunger to workers. The rate of consumption depends on the type, concentration, and state of the food on which they feed. Workers tend to recruit more nestmates to food sources filled with high levels of sucrose than to protein.
   Food distribution plays an important role in a colony. This behaviour varies in colonies, with small workers receiving more food than larger workers if a small colony is seriously deprived of food. In larger colonies, however, the larger workers receive more food. Workers can donate sugar water efficiently to other nestmates, with some acting as donors. These "donors" distribute their food sources to recipients, which may also act as donors. Workers may also share a greater portion of their food with other nestmates. In colonies that are not going through starvation, food is still distributed among the workers and larvae. One study shows that honey and soybean oil were fed to the larvae after 12 to 24 hours of being retained by the workers. The ratio distribution of these food sources was 40% towards the larvae and 60% towards the worker for honey, and for soybean oil this figure was around 30 and 70%, respectively. Red imported fire ants also stockpile specific food sources such as insect pieces rather than consuming them immediately. These pieces are usually transported below the mound surface and in the driest and warmest locations.
   In March 2014, researchers concluded that formic acid helped tawny crazy ants survive fire ant venom in ant fights 98% of the time; when the gland ducts were blocked with nail polish in an experiment, crazy ants had only a 48% chance of surviving fights with fire ants. After exposure to fire ant venom, "N. fulva" retreats, covers itself with formic acid and returns to the fight. This is the first known example of an insect detoxifying another insect's venom, and the first discovery of an ionic liquid in nature which results from mixing of formic acid with venom from "S. invicta".
   At the Information Center of the Devil's Punch Bowl Natural Area in southern California a colony of "M. mexicanus" is kept in a glass jar. According to the desk officer the colony has been kept there for about 7 years (May 2016), feeding on brown sugar and fish food flakes. Workers leave the jar around sunset, to collect the food.
   Section::::Ecology.
  
  Section::::Ecology.:Ant mutualism.
  
  Some species of ants farm aphids, protecting them on the plants where they are feeding, and consuming the honeydew the aphids release from the terminations of their alimentary canals. This is a mutualistic relationship, with these dairying ants milking the aphids by stroking them with their antennae. Although mutualistic, the feeding behaviour of aphids is altered by ant attendance. Aphids attended by ants tend to increase the production of honeydew in smaller drops with a greater concentration of amino acids.
   Ants engage in associations with other honeydew-producing hemipterans such as scale insects (Coccidae), mealybugs (Pseudococcidae), and treehoppers (Membracidae), and most of these interaction are facultative and opportunistic with some cases of obligate associations, such as hemipterans that are inquiline, meaning they can only survive inside ant nests. In addition to protection, ants may provide other services in exchange for hemipteran honeydew. Some ants bring hemipteran larvae into the ant nests and rear them along with their own ant brood. Additionally, ants may actively aid in hemipteran dispersal: queen ants have been observed transporting aphids during their dispersive flights to establish a new colony, and worker ants will often carry aphids to a new nesting site if the previous ant nest has been disturbed. Ants may also carry hemipterans to different parts of a plant or to different plants in order to ensure a fresh food source and/or adequate protection for the herd.
   Section::::Types of ant-plant interactions.
  
  Section::::Types of ant-plant interactions.:Ants as pollinators.
   BULLET::::- Myrmecophagous (adj.) feeding on ants
  
  BULLET::::- Myrmecophile (n.) an organism that habitually shares an ant nest, "myrmecophilous "(adj.), "myrmecophily "(n.)
  
  BULLET::::- Myrmidons (n.) ant-men in Metamorphoses and in Homer's Iliad, where they are Achilles' warriors
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Ant-keeping
  
  BULLET::::- Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society
  
  BULLET::::- Formicarium, also known as ant farm
  
  BULLET::::- Stigmergy, a biological mechanism attributed to the coordination of ants and other social insects
  
  BULLET::::- "Myrmecological News", an independent, international, non-profit, scientific journal devoted to ant research
  
  BULLET::::- International Union for the Study of Social Insects
  
  BULLET::::- Ant colony optimization
  
  BULLET::::- Swarm intelligence
  
  Section::::External links.
   In mutualistic relationships, the production of honeydew by trophobionts is rewarded by removal of dead hemipterans and protection from a variety of predators by the attendant ants. In some relationships the ants will build shelters for the farmed trophobionts, either to protect them or keep them from leaving the area. Some species of ants construct underground rooms to house the trophobionts and carry them between the host plant and housing area daily. In more complex obligate relationships (where both symbionts entirely depend on each other for survival) the ants will nest with the partner trophobionts in silk constructed leaf shelters or in underground colonies. Several species of migratory ants are noted to bring the trophobiont species with them when they move, transporting the trophobionts to new feeding areas and acting as a quick escape method if danger arises. While aphids, mealybugs and other more sedentary hemipterans are most often used as trophobionts, occasional instances of more active hemipterans such as leafhoppers have been recorded. In such instances in southern Africa, larger ant genera such as "Camponotus" are more successful at herding and containment of the leafhoppers. Smaller ant genera have been observed to tend younger or smaller leafhoppers for short periods, and in some cases, small ant genera were observed visiting herds tended by large ant genera. In these cases it is suggested the small ant genera may have been stealing honeydew droplets from the herd.
   Fragments that protrude from the pouch are removed by a worker and redistributed. Regularly, workers force open the pouch to regurgitate droplets of fluid into it. The nature of this fluid is uncertain. It is possible captured insects constitute a secondary source of nutrition to the larvae.
  
  Section::::Uses.
  
  In traditional Maya medicine, acacia ants are used to treat depression by forcing an ant to bite a vein several times, usually in the crook of the elbow. The ants can also be crushed to form an oil which is applied to the chest to treat asthma.
  
  Section::::See also.
   Three of the most common and important structural adaptations of ant plants are extrafloral nectaries, domatia, and (least commonly) Beltian bodies. Plant domatia are pre-formed nesting sites provided by the plant in the form of hollow stems, petioles, thorns, or curled leaves. The production of ant-specialized domatia has been documented in over 100 genera of tropical plants. Beltian bodies provide a high-energy food source to ants in the form of nutritive corpuscles produced on leaflet tips, and they have been described in at least 20 plant families. Extrafloral nectaries (EFN's) are known to occur in at least 66 families of angiosperm plants in both temperate and tropical regions, as well as some ferns, but are absent in all gymnosperms and are most abundant in the tropics. EFN's being outside of the plant flowers are not employed in pollination; their primary purpose is to attract and sustain tending ants. Many plants can control the flow of nectar from the EFN's so that the availability of nectar varies according to daily and seasonal cycles. Because ants can respond quickly to changes in flow rate from EFN's, this may be possible mechanism by which plants can induce greater ant activity during times of peak herbivory and minimize overall costs of nectar production. The combined nutritional output of EFN's and Beltian bodies can be a significant food source for tending ants, and in some cases can provide the total nutritive needs for an ant colony.
   Ants may collect, or "milk", honeydew directly from aphids and other honeydew producers, which benefit from their presence due to their driving away predators such as lady beetles or parasitic wasps—see "Crematogaster peringueyi". Animals and plants in a mutually symbiotic arrangement with ants are called Myrmecophiles.
  
  In Madagascar, some gecko species in the genera "Phelsuma" and "Lygodactylus" are known to approach flatid plant-hoppers on tree-trunks from below and induce them to excrete honeydew by head nodding behaviour. The plant-hopper then raises its abdomen and excretes a drop of honeydew almost right onto the snout of the gecko.
  
  Section::::Religion and mythology.
   Section::::Career.
   Some leafhoppers (Auchenorrhyncha) are similarly "milked" by ants. In the Corcovado rain forest of Costa Rica, wasps compete with ants to protect and milk leafhoppers; the leafhoppers preferentially give more honeydew, more often, to the wasps, which are larger and may offer better protection.
  
  Section::::Ecological roles.:As prey: defences against predators and parasites.
   Mixing of aqueous contents from vesicles as a result of lysis, fusion or physiological permeability can be detected fluorometrically using low molecular weight soluble tracers.
  
  BULLET::::1. Fluorescence quenching assays with ANTS/DPX: ANTS is a polyanionic fluorophore, while DPX is a cationic quencher. The assay is based on the collisional quenching of them. Separate vesicle populations are loaded with ANTS or DPX, respectively. When content mixing happens, ANTS and DPX collide and fluorescence of ANTS monitored at 530 nm, with excitation at 360 nm is quenched. This method is performed at acidic pH and high concentration.
   Section::::Types of ant-plant interactions.:Ants feeding plants.
  
  Myrmecotrophy, meaning "ant-fed," is the ability of plants to absorb nutrients from debris piles left by ant nests or, in the case of "Nepenthes bicalcarata", from ant egesta. The tropical tree "Cecropia peltata" obtains 98% of its nitrogen from the waste deposited by its ant counterparts.
   Crazy ants get much of their food requirements from scale insects, serious plant pests that feed on sap of trees and release honeydew, a sugary liquid. Ants eat honeydew, and in return protect the scale from their enemies and spread them among trees, an example of mutualism. The honeydew not eaten by ants drips onto the trees and encourages the growth of sooty mold over the leaves and stems. This gives plants an ugly black appearance and reduces their health and vigour.
  
presuppositions: Ants can pick up water or sugar molecules from spilled drinks.
corrections: Ants do not pick up the water or molecules, they drink it and bring it back to their colonies.
raw_presuppositions: Ants can pick up water or sugar molecules from spilled drinks. Ants pick up the sugar molecules.
raw_corrections: Ants do not pick up the water or molecules, they drink it and bring it back to their colonies. Ants drink the liquid and can later puke it up to feed the rest of the colony. 