He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
I'm going to hazard a guess here and say that this is something you've never ever seen before. And probably never want to see ever again. π It has a name ... Social Carrying Behaviour ... and apparently was only discovered in 2013. Ants carry one another for a variety of reasons ... they actually carry dead ants away from the nest and dump them in a pile somewhere once they start decaying and emitting oleic acid. (Bears are known to drag away their dead, too, apparently ... or, so I've heard). But, these two ants are very much alive!
I witnessed this today ... numerous times. I wondered what the heck they were carrying and of course went and grabbed my camera to see if I could get a closer look. Could hardly believe my eyes when I discovered it was another ant ... and that it was alive! If I disturbed them, the one doing the carrying would drop the other, but then pick it up again. So, of course, I then had to go do a little research.
One type of ant ... from the genus Pseudomyrmex, carries one of its adult buddies by grabbing it at the base of the mandibles (mouthparts) and it then curls up onto the back of the carrying individual. The eyes of the carried individual face forward in this position. This carrying style is called the "parasol-posture" ... umbrella style, if you will. But these two here are Carpenter Ants and they belong to the genus Camponotus ... subfamily, Formicinae and Formicinae carry other ants by grabbing the base of the mandibles, too, but the one carried is positioned upside-down and curls up under the ventral side of the carrier's head as seen in this photograph I took. Notice that this way the eyes of the two ants face each other.
Why is it done? Well, I believe it's a type of recruitment procedure when the ants are about to start building a new nest. Maybe akin to the British press gangs from years ago when they took men into military service or the navy, usually, by compulsion ... quite often after getting them blind drunk in some waterfront tavern. Don't know if these ants are willing participants or have have been spirited away by compulsion, too.
Anyway, learned something new today. Hope you did, too.
He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
I'm going to hazard a guess here and say that this is something you've never ever seen before. And probably never want to see ever again. π It has a name ... Social Carrying Behaviour ... and apparently was only discovered in 2013. Ants carry one another for a variety of reasons ... they actually carry dead ants away from the nest and dump them in a pile somewhere once they start decaying and emitting oleic acid. (Bears are known to drag away their dead, too, apparently ... or, so I've heard). But, these two ants are very much alive!
I witnessed this today ... numerous times. I wondered what the heck they were carrying and of course went and grabbed my camera to see if I could get a closer look. Could hardly believe my eyes when I discovered it was another ant ... and that it was alive! If I disturbed them, the one doing the carrying would drop the other, but then pick it up again. So, of course, I then had to go do a little research.
One type of ant ... from the genus Pseudomyrmex, carries one of its adult buddies by grabbing it at the base of the mandibles (mouthparts) and it then curls up onto the back of the carrying individual. The eyes of the carried individual face forward in this position. This carrying style is called the "parasol-posture" ... umbrella style, if you will. But these two here are Carpenter Ants and they belong to the genus Camponotus ... subfamily, Formicinae and Formicinae carry other ants by grabbing the base of the mandibles, too, but the one carried is positioned upside-down and curls up under the ventral side of the carrier's head as seen in this photograph I took. Notice that this way the eyes of the two ants face each other.
Why is it done? Well, I believe it's a type of recruitment procedure when the ants are about to start building a new nest. Maybe akin to the British press gangs from years ago when they took men into military service or the navy, usually, by compulsion ... quite often after getting them blind drunk in some waterfront tavern. Don't know if these ants are willing participants or have have been spirited away by compulsion, too.
Anyway, learned something new today. Hope you did, too.