Scientists Discover Ants Have Biological Pedometers. Still No Cure for Cancer.
From the classic Uncle Milton's to the futuristic Antworks Habitat from Think Geek, Antfarms are beloved by grown up geeks, and little level one geeks alike.
While many of us have spent countless hours watching our girls (the ants that live in antfarms are usually red harvester worker ants, which are always female) dig tunnels and wander around in confusion as they look for a queen who will never come, our understanding and knowledge of ants out in the wild is usually pretty limited . . . until now.
Swiss and German researchers have just uncovered a fascinating fact about ants that will thrill desktop entymologists everywhere:
. . . even in complete darkness, the insects were able to assess traveling distance correctly.
After training them to walk to a feeder, the scientists put stilts on the ant's legs to see if they would adjust to their new longer stride. Other ants had shortened legs.
"These ants walking back homeward on stilts clearly overshot, whereas ants with shortened legs undershot with regard to their normal homing distance," said Matthias Wittlinger, the study's lead author.
The length to the feeding station was 10 meters, but those on stilts walked an extra five meters past their destination. Those with shortened legs undershot their goal by 4.25 meters.
And now, my friends, when your next uncomfortable lull in conversation arrives, you can turn to the person nearest you and say, "You know what's so interesting about ants?" From there, it's simple to move to ants in the pants, a party in your pants, and the inevitable lonely walk back home.
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