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Anonymous
I saw a huge Tetramorium caespitum (pavement ant) fight going on during my walk home from work. I'd never seen one before, and so I watched for almost an hour while hordes of identical ants slaughtered eachother.

There were huge piles of corpses. The entire section of sidewalk and then some (off into the grass) was crawling with ants. What amused me most about it was the similarity to medieval human warfare.

A surging chaos of melee, while ants ran back and forth from the fight to the nest (renewing the scent trail I suppose) and carrying off the dead.

Very epic on a small scale!

Does anyone know the purpose of these fights? Do pavement ants actually take over other pavement ant nests? Are the ants that are carried off from the colony that's dragging them away, or are they dead enemies?
>> Anonymous
Ant wars are usually about the grubs.
>> Anonymous
>>283328

Territorial fights, ants are not so different as humans.
They kill all the living ants and queen(s) and steal the brood (if they are the same species).
The ones getting carried away could mean two things
1. dead enemy getting carried to the nest to use as food
2. dead enemy/ally getting carried away from the nest to dispose them
>> Anonymous
Was it still raging when you left? I would have watched for a long time too, but I'd imagine people would start to get concerned about a big dude staring at the sidewalk for an hour.
>> Anonymous
>>283374
I was totally thinking that after a little while, but I didn't really care. I mean, these ants were going at it!

But yeah, it was still going on when I left.

It rained a few hours after I got home, probably washed out their battle. I should have gone back and taken pictures.
>> Anonymous
>>283328

It's people like OP that make the world a better place. He obsessively observes the minute details in the world, not concerned about what the random passerby might think of him.
A century and a half ago, he could have his report published in Nature. Yet in this uncivilized day and age, he is content with /an/.
>> Anonymous
>>283424

True, but if he would tell what he did to his friends they would all laugh at him.
Studying insect behavior is not a very cool thing apparently.
>> NatureGuy !se3A3TwzdY
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I shot one of those fights I have a bunch of the photos here: http://esoteric-imagery.deviantart.com/gallery/#Formians