Leaf Cutter Ants

Zoals eerder beschreven, houdt Kevin komende week zijn spreekbeurt over de leaf cutter ants uit Costa Rica. Hij heeft de tekst uitgewerkt op de Ipad, dus hierbij de volledige tekst van zijn betoog.


PURPOSE. TO persuade:
I think that leafcutter ants are the most AWESOME tiny creatures in the jungle.

TOPICS:

Great foods
Environment protector
Ants from the colony
Ants in battle
Choo choo train

Intro:

The reason I want to do my speech about leafcutter ants was because I saw them in Costa-Rica! They looked AWESOME! So, I decided to do my speech about LEAFCUTTER ANTS!

Great foods:

You might think LEAFCUTTER ants eat the leaves that they store. Actually, they eat the fungus off the leaves that grows on the leaves after a while. The ants have some kind of special bacteria on their body that rubs off their body onto the leaves and it helps the fungus grow. The ants take care of their fungus by feeding it fresh plant pieces, and keeping pests and moulds away.

Environment protector?

Are leafcutter ants good for the environment? NO! They destroy the leaves. They can destroy a huge leaf in 30 minutes! Wow! Leafcutter ants can be a serious problem in another way, because they damage roads and farmland while they make their underground nests. They can do something very impressive, they can destroy a TREE in 24 hours!

Ants from the colony:

There are 47 different types of Leafcutter ants in the world. Did you know that in the colony there are EIGHT MILLION individuals! EIGHT MILLION individuals, that's a lot! In each colony there are 3 types of ants: worker, solder and the queen. Did you know there are ants called minims? They are the smallest ants in the colony. They care for the fungus gardens. Minors are a bit larger, and form the first line of defence, they attack any enemies that threaten the ant that are looking for food. Then there are the mediate, they cut leaves and bring the pieces back to the colony. The majors are the largest ants and are the soldiers, they defend the nest from intruders.

Ants in battle:

Do soldiers attack the enemy's body? No! They go for the head! They try to snip each other's head off! The winner is the one with the other's head! The winner walks around with the others head!

The queen is massive compared to the other ants. She lays eggs and during her life time she may create over 150 million ants.

Choo choo train:

Leafcutter ants work in a line. It's like a choo choo train! But, if you draw a line through a leafcutter ant line, the ant behind your finger will lose its way because it follows the ant in front with its smell (it is blind). The length of the ant's "choo choo train" can be MORE than FIFTY METERS! The really cool thing about the ants is that they can carry something that is 50 times their weight! That's the same as an adult man carrying TWO CARS!

END:

I do hope listening to my speech about leafcutter ants made leafcutter ants sound as AWESOME to you as to me!