Thousands of fire ants use their bodies to form a sturdy raft that floats along the water to rescue the queen ant and the entire colony from drowning in a swimming pool.
(Video: National Geographic)
The video excerpt is from the program “A Real Bug’s Life” by National Geographic, featuring a colony of fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) living under the pipes in the yard of a house in Texas, USA, according to Live Science. When water floods the nest, they gather the larvae and cluster together before being swept over a waterfall and floating into the swimming pool.
Ants are known for their collective behavior in large colonies. However, when they attempt to swim, their legs often push against each other. Nevertheless, fire ants in groups of 10 or more are pressed together by a phenomenon known as the “Cheerios effect”, caused by surface tension. This occurs when small objects create a dip in the liquid’s surface, causing nearby objects to cluster together.
Fire ants take advantage of this phenomenon to protect the queen ant. Larvae, pupae, and worker ants come together, then hook their legs and jaws to form a large raft that sinks slightly in the center. They place the queen ant on top, in a safe position right in the middle of the raft.
A colony of fire ants forming a raft to survive when the nest is flooded.
Experts discovered the ant colony while exploring the yard for filming. When turning on the faucet at the pool, they did not notice a live ant colony inside the pipe. The fire ants were then swept into the pool. Bill Markham, the show’s producer, shared that they captured the remarkable behavior of the fire ants with the help of entomologist Sean O’Donnell from Drexel University, using a macro lens with super slow motion.
Although the filming crew did not count how many ants were in the raft, Markham estimates the number could be up to 5,000. Surprisingly, they found that the ants collected air bubbles to keep the raft afloat. By working together to protect the queen ant, the fire ant colony created a structure that would require a weight 400 times greater than their bodies to break. According to Markham, this type of raft can float for up to 12 days.
