2. Definition
• In Zoology, a colony is a group of
organisms of one species that live
and interact closely with each
other.
• Colonies are social insects usually
include castes with different
responsibilities.
3. The animals
• Ants, honeybees and bumblebees,
and wasps are called social insects
because they live in highly organized
societies.
5. What are they?
• Bryozoans are colonial animals.
Individuals (called zooids) are
connected in colonies. Colonies
grow by budding new individuals at
the edges. Individual bryozoans are
microscopic. But their colonies can
be quite large.
6.
7. What are they?
• Many colonies look like hard crusts
or fuzzy mats attached to object s
in the water, giving them the
common names of sea mats or
moss animals. Other bushy
branching colonies look more like
seaweeds.
10. • Bryozoans live in almost every kind
of benthic (sea floor) habitat
• In the ocean, from the shore to the
greatest depths.
• On sandy beaches, it would be
most likely found living on shells,
mermaids’ purses (skate egg cases)
or the molted shells of horseshoe
crabs.
11. • They are very common on floating
plastic trash and on ships’ hulls,
hitching a free ride for hundreds or
thousands of miles.
• They are also found in fresh water
where their colonies are attached
to the underside of rocks as well as
submerged wood and the leaves of
pondweeds.
18. • Ants are social insects, living in large colonies.
The colony is typically divided into the
following castes, or classes: queens
(reproductive females), males, and workers
(non-reproductive females). Although there
are great variations in social structure among
ant colonies, certain basic features are
common to most species.
19.
20.
21. The Queen
• Some colonies have one queen; other colonies
have several. The queens are fed and
otherwise tended by the workers.
22.
23. The Male Ant
• The males’ only function is to mate with the
queens. Males live only for the mating season.
They do not work and they die shortly after
mating with the young queens.
24. The Worker Ant
• The workers carry out such tasks as enlarging
and protecting the nest, tending queens and
young, and foraging.
25. The Worker Ant
• There may be only one kind of worker, or
there may be several kinds, with body
structures specialized for different types of
work. The activity of workers is coordinated
mostly through pheromones and body
contact.
28. • A bee colony lives in a hive. It is
totally dark inside the hive. Bees
are almost deaf, so touch is the
sense they rely on for
communication. The humming
sound we hear is the sound of
their wings beating.
32. • A newly hatched queen begins her
life in a duel to the death with any
other queens present in the colony,
and must destroy potential rivals
that have not yet hatched. Once she
accomplishes this, she takes her
virgin mating flight.
The Queen Bee
33. • Throughout her life, she lays eggs
and secretes a pheromone that
keeps all other females in the colony
sterile. The queen is the largest bee
in the colony.
34. The Drone
• The drone’s anatomical structure
proves its limited role in the colony.
Drones lack stingers, so they cannot
help defend the hive. Without
structures for collecting pollen or
nectar, they cannot contribute to
the feeding the community.
35. The Drone
• Upon mating, its only reason for
existence, the drone dies. In the fall,
worker bees prevent drones from
entering the hive, effectively
starving them to death.
36. The Workers
• Female worker bees accomplish every chore
unrelated to reproduction. In their first days,
workers tend to the queen. For the
remainder of their short lives, workers keep
busy – thus the expression “busy bees” They
build the comb in which honey is stored and
eggs are laid.
