| type | Status | Habitat |
 |
 |
 |
|
ARTHROPODS |
STABLE |
NORTH AMERICA |
 Honeypot ants live in the arid deserts of the southwestern United States, Mexico, Australia and Africa. In North America |
 IHoneypot ants feed on other insects and the nectar of desert flowers. When food is plentiful during the rainy season, worker ants bring the nectar and insects killed by the colony into the nest. |
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It's hard for repletes to walk around, so they hang from the roof of their nest chamber. Other worker ants feed them. Workers regurgitate some of the honeydew and flower nectar they eat into the mouth of a replete.
Honeypot ants are scavengers. They both eat dead and living insects. Some insects that eat plant sap leave behind a sugary liquid called honeydew. These ants love honeydew! Worker ants slurp it up. They also drink flower nectar.
Certain worker ants in this species develop hugely swollen abdomens. These ants are called repletes. In that bubble-like bulge, repletes store sugary, liquid nutrients. And they share! When food isn't available, a hungry ant approaches a replete. The replete regurgitates the nutritious liquid into the other ant's mouth. This is an adaptation for surviving drought.