I was so impressed with the ant in the previous entry that when I was slapping away at bugs in my SIL's backyard the next day, I decided to intervene in ant social relations at the anthills in the front yard.
My SIL gave me a mushed dead bug and I found a slightly dehydrated dead worm. I placed them about 6 inches in front of one of the holes. In less than 10 seconds, one of the scouts was checking out the bug. (They continually checked out the worm too but couldn't figure out how to move it.)
One of the ants tried and tried to move the bug, but couldn't. It seemed to be stuck, so I scraped it loose and placed it on a chip of quartz that was part of the driveway aggregate mix. I figured the visibility would be better and it would stick less. Sure enough, an ant refound it and dragged it back to the hill and down into the hole. (Afterwards, other ants always checked that spot, where you could see black residue of former bug.)
I tried again with a dead beetle from the windowsill, but it was too dessicated: they checked it out but didn't bother to haul it away.
Next, I placed a new dead bug halfway between two holes. The scouts came and found it and dragged it towards hole A. But then, there was a shift towards hole B as B-ants saw what was going on and wanted the bug for themselves. A tug of war ensued, with the bug and its carriers heading first left then right, until the A ants victoriously pulled it into the holes.
With this fomenting of Ant War, I stepped away. B the Destroyer hosed away tens of anthills (this yard is completely covered with them) but by the next morning they were mostly all rebuilt. And so it goes in the busy world of ant social reproduction.
Posted by otto0114 at June 1, 2006 07:48 AM