Pavement Ants - Checking Back in 1 Hour (Tetramorium immigrans)

Описание: 00:00 - 1:54pm - First Encounter
01:45 - 2:43pm - Second Encounter - 1 Hour Later
02:33 - Thank you for Watching

Original Post: https://jonnysinsectcatalogue.tumblr....

The many battles between rivaling Ant colonies rage on! As it tends to go, the very territorial colonies emerge from underground and battle against each other to reestablish borders. Many worker Ants put their bodies and lives on the line in defense of their home and queen. However, this sort of this is often seen, so for today's video, I decided to try a different approach to a find like this. Initially, these warring factions were found as a massive Ant-pileup during a walk through the neighborhood. Rather than film them quickly and then leave them be to carry on with my walk, the location here presented a novel opportunity to see how the conflict between these colonies would change after a bit of time. As such, I returned to the Pavement Ant's (Tetramorium immigrans) battlefield within an hour to film and observe the aftermath. With that, this video shows how significant a difference one hour can potentially make in terms of Ant colony combat! While multiple colonies clashing is quite dramatic, chaotic and violent all at once, it's an interesting sight due to the sheer number of individuals which patrol, grapple, and communicate during the skirmish. It's also relatively safe compared to other swarming Ant colonies; while Ants may be small, their biting (and in some cases, stinging) ability combined with the tendency to swarm can make them dangerous, especially in the tropical regions where specimens like Driver Ants (genus Dorylus), Army Ants (Eciton burchellii, as one example), and Bullet Ants (Paraponera clavata) command the ground.

With regards to the combat of these Pavement Ants however, despite the near endless individuals pouring out of the ground to assert the territoriality of their colony, the fighting will eventually slow down as individual Ants exhaust themselves and legions are spent in the squabble. Eventually, Ant density wanes until it's just a few individual workers sprinting about the sidewalk, their antennae guiding them towards fellow nestmates or the worker Ants of a rivaling colony. Following that, the fighting subsides, colony territory boundaries are established, and the Ants resume foraging, maintenance and defense. The spent Ants are either left on the sidewalk to desiccate, or are picked up by workers to either haul them elsewhere or take them inside to become provisions. Hopefully a few can regain their strength to return to the colony, but that would be a tall order to observe and measure. This is what is observed in the latter half of this video: the swarms have died down, except for a few concentrations near nest entrances, may carcasses litter the sidewalk, and the worker Ants that remain sprint frantically to maintain offence and defense. What a difference only an hour makes for such a confrontation. With regards to the latter behavior, an individual Ant's ability to weave and flow among other individuals and quickly assess them via mutual antenna touch is remarkable. I imagine that it takes a tremendous amount of orientation to do this among thousands of individuals under such disorganized conditions. It probably helps if you're on the winning team; it looks like the rightmost colony (edge of the sidewalk) has the advantage today over the leftmost colony (in the sidewalk's groove). That said, this battle likely had another hour or so left in it before the swarms completely receded away and regular colony functions resumed.

...alternatively, maybe someone came through here and cleared out some of the Ants during the hour gap? Such an event would be possible, especially in a residential area. Wildlife interfering is unlikely as these Ants are notorious biters. I found that out myself when my mother and I accidentally unearthed a nest during backyard cleanup.

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