Despite only having a small amount of brain cells compared to our 86 billion, ants can still do amazing things.
Fire ants are notorious for their unpleasant but potentially useful sting, and now researchers have filmed them using their skills to pave their way over a sticky surface, forming a bridge to a delicious reward of sausage.
Another remarkable example of tool use in ants: fire ants "paving" sticky surfaces. I've seen signs of this behavior, but I didn't expect it to be so robust until my friend told me about it (Wang et al., 2021 Insect Science). pic.twitter.com/BaHBmlgtXM
— Horace Zeng (@horacezhl) March 14, 2022
This species of ants is known for creating bridges made of their own bodies, and they can also survive floods by floating on rafts.
There is a raft of fire ants along with a description of how they link up. Mlot and her colleagues wrote about the PNAS in 2011.
They achieve their floating rafts by clinging to each other using sticky feet pads, claw tips, and mouths.
Each individual ant makes an average of 14 connections with their neighbors, keeping them afloat with bubbles formed with the aid of their water-repelling exoskeleton.
Hard-to-relocate food such as liquids is carried by ants. They carry the soaking tool back to their nest after placing debris and leaves into the liquid. They have taken this further by using debris piles and paths as suck tubes to reduce their risk of drown.
The raft has bubbles and a stick. Mlot and her colleagues wrote about the PNAS in 2011.
In a 2020 study, researchers from the South China Agricultural University demonstrated that ants can use surrounding debris to create a bridge over a sticky surface. If food was less than 20 centimeters, they would do this more.
S. invicta searched and transported food items on viscose surfaces artificially covered with large amounts of particles but were not able to complete these activities on uncovered viscose surfaces.
ants covered treated surfaces without food, indicating that theaccessibility of treated surfaces, rather than food, triggered the particle- covering behavior. They may have evolved particle- covering behaviors to modify wet or inaccessible surfaces in their territories to search and transport food, which may have provided them a competitive advantage over co-occurring ant species.
The ants were able to build a soil bridge across a surface smeared with an essential balm, considered to be a strong ant repellant.
One worker ant was highlighted by University of Georgia entomologist Haolin Zeng.
Here is a worker ant "paving" in real-time (I put a white circle around her); you can see her picking up the gravel, carrying it to the tape, putting it down, & doing it again. pic.twitter.com/zEIEBMmpT1
— Horace Zeng (@horacezhl) March 15, 2022
The turnover of underground soil to the surface contributes to the important ecological process of bioturbation. The fertility of the soil is improved by bioturbation.
When we are out picnicking or if they invade our homes, these clever little beasties provide a huge service for our food growing. Thank you, ants!
The research was published in a journal.
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