Wonders of the natural world: the ant

[dunxx]

Ants are classified as a family, Formicidae, belonging to the order Hymenoptera which also includes sawflies, bees and wasps. At the last count, there were 43 trillion ants in the world. Ants have colonized almost every landmass on Earth and can constitute up to 15% of the total animal biomass of a tropical rainforest. Typically they will also

Comments

[holographia]

i've always found ants to be rather cute as far as insects go. still, i find i don't get too upset when i squish them. i mean, that's what they get for invading my bathroom! it's not like i leave plates of food in there or anything. are they just very unclean and looking for a shower?? i don't get it!

[dunxx]

I think there are SO MANY of them, that some of them get sent on pointless expeditions. The queen ant would be like: "OK, you guys scour the lawn for food! And you guys can go and look in the rock garden! And then ... hmmm ... I think we're pretty much covered for food now. Why don't you lot go and hang out in Allison's bathroom?"

[holographia]

i think you've hit the nail on the head there!

so do you get ants in the house in germany?? i know you do in england, cos damon albarn said so.

[dunxx]

Albarn is right. In London, the room where I worked had sliding doors that led out to the back garden and it got very ant-y indeed last summer. But we have a first-floor flat here so we're pretty much out of reach of the ants. In fact, I haven't encountered a single unauthorised animal in the flat - no spiders, no woodlice, no nothing. Oh wait - a grasshopper managed to get in here last summer. And we did have an extremely unauthorised red spider mite infestation of the cherry tree out on the balcony.

But that's it!

[ninjalicious]

I think I'd rather drive a pillbug than a car.