Ever wonder how ants survive a flood? The University of Lancaster has an answer. Scientists there have been observing the ant species, Formica Selysi. This ant generally dwells in places where floods are not uncommon.
Huge flood generally occur in their area once every 5 years or so. You would think that this would pose a pretty big problem for the ants, but surprisingly they have a solution. Theses ants form rafts and bridges out of themselves. They all link up and float away together until the flood stops. This is incredibly effective, as they load up their rafts with the members of their community who can't float, per se. These members include immobile eggs along with the queen ant.
The younger members of the colony, generally with a higher fat content, are located on the bottom of the raft. This is because they are the most buoyant. These ants are relatively unaffected by the process and most survive without an issue.
Overall, the behavior of this species is truly incredible and interesting.
Link:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ants-save-their-hides-by-floating-on-their-childrens-backs/
NOS Themes:
Science is collaborative
Science is based on evidence
Importance of repeatability
This is really cool. To be honest, I've never really thought about ants and floods before, but it does seem pretty ingenious for the ants to build a raft. I was reading the article and found that the younger ants were hardly affected from being the bottom of their raft, due to their high fat content. It truly is amazing what animals can really do.
ReplyDeleteI found another article about ants building rafts– very interesting strategy! Supposedly they use the larvae and young to stay afloat by keeping them at the bottom, and they hold the queen at the top and center so she is safe. The young stay at the bottom both because they are the most buoyant and because it takes them less time to recover from water exposure than adults. Here is a video from the article of ants building their "raft": http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/19/ants-animals-flood-rafts-science-weird/
ReplyDeleteThis makes me wonder, with floods only happening every five years or so, if the raft building is an innate or learned behavior? It seems like an innate behavior, but it would only be useful every couple of generations.
ReplyDeleteAnts are very smart and strong creature. Thats why they are my favorite bug. I have learned that when there is a flood they sometimes use the larva to stay afloat. you can reed more at:
ReplyDeletehttp://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/19/ants-animals-flood-rafts-science-weird/
I find this very interesting. I want out and found a video from National Geographic (http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/weirdest-fire-ant-raft) that shows this process happening. I also found in this video that while that ants are afloat they fase a lot of danger from fish that eat the ants one at a time. If enough ants are eaten the raft collapses and the colony is destroyed.
ReplyDelete