Ants ford a trickle
As we are expecting a deluge on Monday (and I am not allowed heavy work following my operation) Frances was wielding the shovel around a few watercourses today. In one of these the main need was to remove twigs and leaf litter blocking the way.
Looking more closely at the main twig it was being used as an ant highway.
Here are the team queuing up to start across the bridge.
Some more adventurous insects were jumping the line and taking a thinner twig on the return.
This has caused me to recall tales of army ants in Tanzania which just march into water and drown until eventually they have built a bridge out of corpses over which the survivors march. We also heard tales of them climbing grass stems until the weight of ants caused the grass to bend and either form a bridge or get the suicide squadron further out from the bank!
Looking more closely at the main twig it was being used as an ant highway.
Here are the team queuing up to start across the bridge.
Some more adventurous insects were jumping the line and taking a thinner twig on the return.
This has caused me to recall tales of army ants in Tanzania which just march into water and drown until eventually they have built a bridge out of corpses over which the survivors march. We also heard tales of them climbing grass stems until the weight of ants caused the grass to bend and either form a bridge or get the suicide squadron further out from the bank!
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