Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Reviewingremy t1_iqqhy2o wrote

They track their way by scent markers. If you trace an ants journey another ant from the same colony will follow the exact same route.

To answer the second part of the question, no. Ants are INSANELY territorial. If the ant comes across another colony they will kill it. Instantly and brutally.

38

wubrgess t1_iqquv25 wrote

They also count and retrace their steps

6

nightzirch t1_iqsavyz wrote

This some scientists discovered by giving the ants stilts. Think about that. Someone thought of it, someone designed and made the tiniest stilts, then someone had to put them on some ants.

10

cr34th0r t1_iqsf80b wrote

Even with stilts, how did they prove that the ant counts its steps?

5

Etiennera t1_iqsgorj wrote

With stilts each step is longer. The ants would make the same amount of steps thus overshooting on the return.

12

trustmeimadoctordk t1_iqsnkhh wrote

And crazy enough, they had a stilts, no stilts, and a amputated half the legs group, and the ones with half sized legs undershot their target. I just cant help but wonder if the amputated ants got the stilts afterwards.....

12

cr34th0r t1_iqxopl1 wrote

Sounds kinda brutal to amputate some legs just to triple-check that your hypothesis is correct.

1

amaurea t1_iqy7hau wrote

This was found for desert ants, but I haven't heard of it being shown for other ants. Can any experts here say if it's thought that step counting is an important mechanisms for ants in general?

2

Illustrious_Alps_802 t1_iqqzztc wrote

this might be a dumb question, but do all ants of the same colony share the same scent?

5

Alas7ymedia t1_iqshf6r wrote

Yes, they are pretty much identical. Which is why they are so territorial: a foreign organism can take a pathogen to an ant colony and kill them all because they all have the same inmune system.

10

dukuel t1_iqsm67w wrote

In addition, there is a side effect of that which is called the ant mill. Ants loose the track and start to follow the other ants if the path gets in a curl and start to walk in circles till exhaustion.

4

TheSpeckledSir t1_iqru6wu wrote

So this means that the ant in OP's example is likely out of luck? Because picking it up and moving it would not leave a continuous pheromone trail?

Would the ant just wander unless it happened back upon the correct path?

2

cocopopped t1_iqs8rt9 wrote

There has been evidence recently of "megacolonies" covering vast areas.

And I mean vast. It's pretty mind-blowing, one single megacolony was found to cover over two-thirds of Europe.

So there's a small chance OP's ant may meet some friendly faces.

8

Reviewingremy t1_iqrwsos wrote

Yes. Or more likely it would be attacked by something else.

4

tim310rd t1_iqt94uy wrote

Actually the answer to the second question depends on the species of ant, some will fight other colonies of the same species, some will merge with them.

2