 Most know that ants dig in the dirt, or maybe they live in a decaying log. But ant nest diversity is vast. Some ants make "carton" a paper-like substance used to construct nests in trees. Other ants use the silk of their larvae to bind leaves together for a green living nest. Some ground-nesting ants build flood levies in concentric circles to protect the entrance from monsoon rains. And of course, there are the wood ants who make massive mounds of pine needles. Ants made all of these! 14 comments
@futurebird Amazing. The walled city is quite inventive! The anthill in the last image would probably scare me a bit if I encountered it in real life. I'd be thinking, "so many ants...". @wallingf @futurebird I've seen mounds like that all my life (not daily, but often enough that I know they'll be somewhere when I go out in the forest) and they never fail to be awesome! @Mabande @futurebird I saw a much smaller ant hill than that once in a state park in Wisconsin or perhaps Minnesota, but still much larger than anything I'd ever seen before. It's seems like an impressive feat of engineering, even for a populous colony. @futurebird@sauropods.win I wonder how they traverse the pine needle pile. Do they make little mud tunnels inside it? Do they weave the needles together into tunnels?   Bueno, cuente más. ¿Qué estamos viendo exactamente, qué características de clima, flora y fauna tenía la zona, llegó a ver a las hormigas constructoras y habitantes? Aclaro para quien nos lea desde lejos que aquí "Chaco" se refiere a la provincia del noreste argentino. @angelastella es el Impenetrable. Región de bosque semiárida subtropical en las márgenes del río Bermejo. El hormiguero en el suelo son cortadoras comunes, el del árbol termitas. No pudimos ver al principal regulador el oso hormiguero ( hay al menos 3 especies en la zona)  In real life, I have only seen the 4th (they're pretty common, here), but the other 3 are amazing. I had no idea. @futurebird thank you for encouraging me to get interested in ants again through these posts! As a child I was obsessed with them, especially our native leaf cutter ant, *Atta Texna*🐜 @wysiwyggins If you really want to dig deep (no pun intended), I recommend "The Fire Ants" by Walter R. Tschinkel. It's long but very interesting. |
Gregory's Server
@futurebird ants truly are materials scientists in ways we could only hope to be