Awe Inspiring Giant Ant Hill Excavated

Originally posted by LordofJayek
That was truly astounding!
Hmmmm, must design SHTF mountain fortress!!!
S&F

edit on 24-4-2011 by LordofJayek because: S&F

That would make a neat fortress..your own undergrounfd bunker! thanks for posting

reply to post by sugarcookie1


next time you see one let it on your hand and get a close up they have the most amazing eye and body structure. I hope to see more vids and info coming from ATS members about the wonders of nature thanks again for showing this to me.

Originally posted by Dungbeetle
wow , that is amazing , its very interesting to see this , i wonder how they communicate with each other . and keep in mind they do all of this while being in the dark . wow

Their visual abilitys is exceptionally limited, however, they have very advanced sense of smell and touch.

As far as the greater communication of direction, well, the whole colony acts like a brain..each ant is designed biologically to serve as a single function and the overall hive mind will direct the proper ants via scent trail to that specific duty where it needs to be preformed.

Now, in saying that...they are not fully dronelike...they do have chambers for social aspects, they drink nectar off of certain insects (beetles) they harvest. and such in these chambers to get "drunk" and touch/feel one another (party..woohoo).

Ants also "bury" their dead (by that, they basically toss them in a specific chamber designed for ant corpses and other trash), they go to war with rival nests..and get this...they enslave ants from rival colonys (egg stealing, bringing back to your colony and making the rival ant offspring work for them under grim conditions) Ant Slavers

Yes, before you start thinking ant life is super advanced and loving, you might want to read up about their full social lifestyles
pure (working) communism, extremeist warfare, standardized enslavement for life (no abe lincoln saying we should free em), etc.

Brutal, yet a beautiful thing to study. (followed by giving them a grim cement death if possible)

Originally posted by TheMaverick
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2e657263d045.jpg[/atsimg]

Walter Tschinkel at Florida State University has been making plaster casts of harvester ant nests to study ant architecture and behavior.

One tropical species of ants has an alarm and evacuation plan for flooding. At the first sign of rain, minor worker ants start racing through the nest’s tunnels, mobilizing the entire nest is less than thirty seconds.

Odor trails then direct everyone down unobstructed tunnels to dry areas in the nest or–if necessary–to those exits that aren’t blocked by water.

Some species have flood plans that even top that. A species of fire ants in the southwest leave their nests and form a large mass around the queen and her brood, basically acting like a living raft that floats until the waters recede, or it gets anchored on grass or bushes.

Even though some die, enough survive–usually including the queen–so that once the waters go down, they can return to the nest or build a new one and go back to business as usual.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/cae08d753194.jpg[/atsimg]

edit on 24-4-2011 by TheMaverick because: (no reason given)

TheMaverick
Thanks for posting the info that was very interisting they are very smart i never knew they did all that!

Originally posted by GreatScot
reply to post by sugarcookie1

 

next time you see one let it on your hand and get a close up they have the most amazing eye and body structure. I hope to see more vids and info coming from ATS members about the wonders of nature thanks again for showing this to me.

I will try that and get a close up look at one of them hope it dont sting me and thank you!

reply to post by TheMaverick


Heres a video on those ants that create a life raft for the queen...



TY for the post, I learned a bunch, and I too wonder how they communicate in the dark, especially to make the tunnels and link them together

found this on the net hope you like ants after watching vid heres some
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT ANTS

1 Like all insects, ants have six legs. Each leg has three joints. The legs of the ant are very strong so they can run very quickly. If a man could run as fast for his size as an ant can, he could run as fast as a racehorse. Ants can lift 20 times their own body weight. An ant brain has about 250 000 brain cells. A human brain has 10,000 million so a colony of 40,000 ants has collectively the same size brain as a human.

2 The average life expectancy of an ant is 45-60 days. Ants use their antenae not only for touch, but also for their sense of smell. The head of the ant has a pair of large, strong jaws. The jaws open and shut sideways like a pair of scissors. Adult ants cannot chew and swallow solid food. Instead they swallow the juice which they squeeze from pieces of food. They throw away the dry part that is left over. The ant has two eyes, each eye is made of many smaller eyes.

3 They are called compound eyes. The abdomen of the ant contains two stomachs. One stomach holds the food for itself and second stomach is for food to be shared with other ants. Like all insects, the outside of their body is covered with a hard armour this is called the exoskeleton. Ants have four distinct growing stages, the egg, larva, pupa and the adult. Biologists classify ants as a special group of wasps. (Hymenoptera Formicidae) There are over 10000 known species of ants. Each ant colony has at least one or more queens.

4 The job of the queen is to lay eggs which the worker ants look after. Worker ants are sterile, they look for food, look after the young, and defend the nest from unwanted visitors. Ants are clean and tidy insects. Some worker ants are given the job of taking the rubbish from the nest and putting it outside in a special rubbish dump! Each colony of ants has its own smell. In this way, intruders can be recognized immediately. Many ants such as the common Red species have a sting which they use to defend their nest.

5 The common Black Ants and Wood Ants have no sting, but they can squirt a spray of formic acid. Some birds put ants in their feathers because the ants squirt formic acid which gets rid of the parasites. The Slave-Maker Ant (Polyergus Rufescens) raids the nests of other ants and steals their pupae. When these new ants hatch,they work as slaves within the colony. The worker ants keep the eggs and larvae in different groups according to ages.

6 At night the worker ants move the eggs and larvae deep into the nest to protect them from the cold. During the daytime, the worker ants move the eggs and larvae of the colony to the top of the nest so that they can be warmer. If a worker ant has found a good source for food, it leaves a trail of scent so that the other ants in the colony can find the food. Army Ants are nomadic and they are always moving. They carry their larvae and their eggs with them in a long column.

7 The Army Ant (Ecitron Burchelli) of South America, can have as many as 700,000 members in its colony. The Leaf Cutter Ants are farmers. They cut out pieces of leaves which they take back to their nests. They chew them into a pulp and a special fungus grows it. Ants cannot digest leaves because they cannot digest cellulose. Many people think ants are a pest but I like them. To stop them coming into my kitchen I put some sugar outside. They they have so much to eat that they are not interested in coming into my kitchen.

more ant facts

Ancient Ants Arose 140-168 Million Years Ago; Insects Needed Flowering Plants To Flourish
www.sciencedaily.com...

who knows how that will effect the surrounding ecosystem, and non-surrounding as a lot of changes will escalate down the food chain.

reply to post by sugarcookie1


Who says a successful civilization needs intellectual understanding. When these little bugs can build cities. Makes me think, all life acts similar, you can find "human traits" in so many other species, that actually I'm surprised another species like us hasn't risen.

Amazing work though.

I remember watching this on TV, it literally blew my mind to see how such a small insect could build something so big and complex compared to it's stature. Great Post OP

S&F

That documentary was amazing to say the least, and the lifeboat of ants is unimaginable unless you watched that.

I wish humans had a better sense of smell and could lay trails down, that would make working 1000x times easier lol.

& I don't think they would just pour concrete into something like that unless they were sure it is uninhabited.

But even if they did, its ashamed, but thats life, some creature can just come along at any second and end your entire world, be it ants, or us.

Originally posted by GreatScot
found this on the net hope you like ants after watching vid heres some
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT ANTS

1 Like all insects, ants have six legs. Each leg has three joints. The legs of the ant are very strong so they can run very quickly. If a man could run as fast for his size as an ant can, he could run as fast as a racehorse. Ants can lift 20 times their own body weight. An ant brain has about 250 000 brain cells. A human brain has 10,000 million so a colony of 40,000 ants has collectively the same size brain as a human.

2 The average life expectancy of an ant is 45-60 days. Ants use their antenae not only for touch, but also for their sense of smell. The head of the ant has a pair of large, strong jaws. The jaws open and shut sideways like a pair of scissors. Adult ants cannot chew and swallow solid food. Instead they swallow the juice which they squeeze from pieces of food. They throw away the dry part that is left over. The ant has two eyes, each eye is made of many smaller eyes.

3 They are called compound eyes. The abdomen of the ant contains two stomachs. One stomach holds the food for itself and second stomach is for food to be shared with other ants. Like all insects, the outside of their body is covered with a hard armour this is called the exoskeleton. Ants have four distinct growing stages, the egg, larva, pupa and the adult. Biologists classify ants as a special group of wasps. (Hymenoptera Formicidae) There are over 10000 known species of ants. Each ant colony has at least one or more queens.

4 The job of the queen is to lay eggs which the worker ants look after. Worker ants are sterile, they look for food, look after the young, and defend the nest from unwanted visitors. Ants are clean and tidy insects. Some worker ants are given the job of taking the rubbish from the nest and putting it outside in a special rubbish dump! Each colony of ants has its own smell. In this way, intruders can be recognized immediately. Many ants such as the common Red species have a sting which they use to defend their nest.

5 The common Black Ants and Wood Ants have no sting, but they can squirt a spray of formic acid. Some birds put ants in their feathers because the ants squirt formic acid which gets rid of the parasites. The Slave-Maker Ant (Polyergus Rufescens) raids the nests of other ants and steals their pupae. When these new ants hatch,they work as slaves within the colony. The worker ants keep the eggs and larvae in different groups according to ages.

6 At night the worker ants move the eggs and larvae deep into the nest to protect them from the cold. During the daytime, the worker ants move the eggs and larvae of the colony to the top of the nest so that they can be warmer. If a worker ant has found a good source for food, it leaves a trail of scent so that the other ants in the colony can find the food. Army Ants are nomadic and they are always moving. They carry their larvae and their eggs with them in a long column.

7 The Army Ant (Ecitron Burchelli) of South America, can have as many as 700,000 members in its colony. The Leaf Cutter Ants are farmers. They cut out pieces of leaves which they take back to their nests. They chew them into a pulp and a special fungus grows it. Ants cannot digest leaves because they cannot digest cellulose. Many people think ants are a pest but I like them. To stop them coming into my kitchen I put some sugar outside. They they have so much to eat that they are not interested in coming into my kitchen.

more ant facts

Ancient Ants Arose 140-168 Million Years Ago; Insects Needed Flowering Plants To Flourish
www.sciencedaily.com...

Thanks for the info..I had no idea birds put ants in their feathers because the ants squirt formic acid which gets rid of the parasites (very smart)..I do that also to keep the ants out i just use a spot of hummingbird food on a jar lid and it does work i do that everytime i change my bird feeder The ants i have in my yard sting and they just make small hills but lots of them and they kill the grass everywhere they dig its a bit annoying..That was some good info on the ancient ants..thank you..

reply to post by sugarcookie1


I heard somewhere that ants are the most successful species on Earth. Far more successful than humans. Thinks about their numbers. There are colonies everywhere. Maybe not all as big as this one but each will will have thousands. In my street alone there must be at least 20 colonies. So from that, think how many ants are on earth. Tens or maybe even hundreds of billions.

Then look at how they work together. There is one type that I saw on a documentary where they got into trouble on a river and to stop them from drowning they all linked together an formed a sort of raft. They floated to safety and survived to see another day. Intelligent or what?

Awesome creatures that in many ways put us to shame.

Originally posted by yourmaker
who knows how that will effect the surrounding ecosystem, and non-surrounding as a lot of changes will escalate down the food chain.

I have no idea what will happen..thanks for the post

reply to post by sugarcookie1


So is every ant colony like this or are they different depending on the type of ant?

Originally posted by Anthony1138
reply to post by sugarcookie1

 

Who says a successful civilization needs intellectual understanding. When these little bugs can build cities. Makes me think, all life acts similar, you can find "human traits" in so many other species, that actually I'm surprised another species like us hasn't risen.

Amazing work though.

Your right i never thought about that idea (surprised another species like us hasn't risen) who knows it just might happen someday a bit of a scarey thought...

reply to post by WakeupUK

thats correct read my post above it says exactly that in the ancient ants article hope you enjoy

Originally posted by SLYD4R
I remember watching this on TV, it literally blew my mind to see how such a small insect could build something so big and complex compared to it's stature. Great Post OP

Thank you so much SLYD4R and thanks so much for posting on my thread

Originally posted by Flying Sorcerer
S&F for sure! This is truly awesome!

For those interested here is the full documentary

edit on 23/4/11 by Flying Sorcerer because: to enter the correct video code as I am retarded

This kept me glued to my computer along with two small children . I only wish man could work together as a team , the world would be a better place to live . My grand children and I thank you for posting this .

What I find most fascinating about things like this is that they're good examples of how emergent behavior can result in incredibly complex structures and designs. We're used to thinking in terms of individually intelligent beings when we ponder things like extraterrestrial intelligence. But what if there were an extremely evolved species which, on the individual level, wasn't particularly intelligent, didn't have language, mathematics, or technology in the sense we think of it, etc. yet simply as a byproduct of their behavior, something resembling technology could emerge?

We can see how here something resembling a "city" can emerge from insect behavior. What if a species with individual intelligence analogous to the ant was well adapted enough that it dominated its planet eventually, and then through its natural behavior eventually gave rise to a collective intelligence that could actually produce things that to us would look technologically advanced, but from their "perspective" would simply be the result of their behavior and its affect on their environment?

I have often wondered if such a thing would be possible, and how different the ecology of a planet that gave rise to such life might have to be from our own.