The Amazon Forest is a vast and magical animal paradise, and there are many interesting stories to tell about small ants.
One day, shortly after entering the rainforest, I met a densely lined line of hazel ants in the forest, each of whom was holding a small leaf above his head and rushing forward in a hurry and trembling. Curiously, I walked backwards against the "line", and a hundred meters away I was greeted by a tall banyan tree, and the ant "troop" had been advancing into the high treetops. It turned out that they had cut leaves from this 50-meter canopy.
Looking at these little lives that come and go, busy and busy, I secretly sigh that their lives are also very hard. I later learned that these ants did not eat the leaves directly, but cut the leaves from the tree into small pieces and carried them to the nest to ferment, and then eat the growing mushrooms, so people usually called them "leafcutter ants" or "mushroom ants".
An entomologist once carefully studied the nest of leaf-cutting ants, which resembled a splendid palace, divided into queen rooms, larvae rooms, nursery rooms, storage rooms, etc., which were very spacious in all directions. However, these ants sometimes "cut" their heads and run out of the forest to settle in indian tribes to prey on cassava leaves, which the indigenous people hate.
Another interesting class of ants will build "gardens" in trees. These ants carry moist dirt grains and tiny plant seeds to build a nest where the trunk has branches, and as the nest increases layer by layer, the seeds begin to take root and sprout. The root system of the plant firmly grasps the soil, allowing the wind and rain to blow, the sun to expose the nest will not collapse. At the same time, the seeds gradually develop into green grass and thriving small trees, and sometimes bloom into brilliant flowers, looking like miniature gardens hanging from the trunks of trees.
The most mysterious is the Legion Ants, which are generally only half a centimeter in size and have a black body. Its activities are characterized by large corps combat, countless ants forming a huge swarm, dense black pressure, there is a great potential to cry ghosts and gods.
If simple Chinese characters were used to describe the movement of ant colonies, the word "flow" could not be more appropriate. Some ants are separated from the "ant pond" and extended to the side, if large prey is caught, the branch will gradually grow, and if there is no harvest, the "ant stream" will re-merge into the "ant pond".
At a macroscopic level, the ant colony is like an endless stream of water flowing around in the jungle, and everywhere it goes, all kinds of terrestrial insects, amphibians and reptiles, as well as birds and animals, are all looking to escape. Those who can't escape quickly or can't escape, such as young birds and beasts in the nest and some reptiles, will unfortunately become the mouth food of the ants.
I once saw a large snake being bitten by legion ants: the snake's whole body was full of ants, constantly rolling and squirming, probably trying to get rid of the ant bites, while the legion ants were stubbornly entangled, and as soon as an ant was rubbed down, the other individuals immediately rushed up. Finally, the snake's writhing slower and slower until it did not move.
Of course, there are more tragic stories. Once, a French colleague of mine used a cage to catch a cotton calminoid in the treetops. He set the cage in the evening and put it in the ripe bananas as bait; the next morning he climbed up the treetops to check it out. The cage did catch the prey, but it was not a live possum but a clean possum skeleton. It is conceivable that the unlucky possum was kept in a cage for gluttony, and then the legion ants arrived, and the poor guy could not escape, and a tragedy occurred.
Not only that, but the Legion Ants sometimes even went head-to-head against us, and several evenings later, we had just been eating in a small wooden pavilion when they arrived. The first victim was stung in the foot or leg and screamed, and all the people had to obediently and quickly flee. Those who run slowly will definitely let out another scream or two.
However, the mantis catching cicadas and sparrows is behind, and this is true. Legion ants also have nemesis, which are a variety of ant-eaters, often one or twenty, specifically trailing behind the legionnaire army, flying between low branches and thin trunks, jumping to the ground from time to time to peck at one or two ants, and then quickly flying up to avoid being entangled by the ant colony, and then repeating the previous predation process.
Whenever I encounter legion ants and anteaters in the jungle, I always roam behind them for a while, appreciating the wonders of nature and experiencing the laws of the jungle. Seeing the tragic situation of the ant colony eating its prey, I could not help but grieve for the animals that were killed. But I am more aware of the ecological truth that from the perspective of species, the two populations of predators and predators are interdependent and inseparable from each other: the former feeds on the latter, and the latter requires the former to eliminate the old, weak, sick and disabled individuals in the group and improve the quality of the population.
There is no doubt that without prey, predators will starve to death; but without predators, predators will also lead to the decay of populations due to the participation of unhealthy individuals in reproduction. Beneath the seemingly simple exterior of nature is a rich philosophy.
There are many extreme benevolent insects in the ant family, that is, a yellow-brown body with a pair of sharp jaws (the motley ant is a subfamily of insects in the family Ant family, whose members are characterized by a circle of depressions in the abdomen) and a nest that "lives" at the root of a tree next to our small pavilion.
Interestingly enough, our little neighbors must have been in the "cold house" every evening, lying quietly but seemingly alertly on the beams and pillars near the electric lamp. It turned out that the electric lamp attracted many nocturnal small moths, flying around the lamp, and once a unlucky person landed within the attack range of a fierce ant, the latter would swoop up in an instant, clamp the prey with a large jaw and stab it with a poisonous needle in the tail, and the prey would not move. Then, the fierce ant carried a booty many times larger than itself to the "home".
As a biologist, I know that the word "smart" should not be used to describe the behavior of ants, but I sincerely admire the rapid and intense adaptability of these little beings. Strange to say, the fierce ants are extremely fierce to their prey, but they are very docile to people. There have been many times when I have put one or two ferocious ants in my hand, and they have never tried to attack me with their jaws or tail spines. Could it be that the little ants are human and know that I will not hurt them?!
However, the ant family does have fierce members. One species is about 3 cm long, shiny black and also nests at the base of a small tree. This ant specializes in preying on large termites that nest underground. I once watched from start to finish a killing of termites by black ants.
It was an ordinary afternoon, and a group of nearly a thousand large termites were busy foraging among the grass. A small group of 30 black ants suddenly rushed over one by one, and the fierce god pounced on the termites like a vicious spirit, clamping the latter tightly with its large jaws, and the body bent, and the poisonous needles in the tail stabbed at the poor prey, and the termites were almost motionless at the moment of being stabbed. The black ant then put down the first dead prey and hurriedly searched for the second.
At this time, looking at the termite colony, it has long been chaotic, and the smaller termites are panicking and rushing back into the hole; the larger individuals are running around in the direction of the nest, searching and organizing the retreat of their companions.
What touched me the most was the scene of a relatively large termite, biting the thigh of a black ant with its large jaw, allowing the latter to drag it around and refusing to let go. In the end all the termites escaped into the hole, but it was caught by another black ant.
I really wanted to intervene in this unbalanced war and help the innocent weak. But reason tells me that the purpose of these predators to "kill" is simply to survive; in the animal world, the act of killing is rare.
From the killing of ants, I am reminded of a bullfighting performance "appreciated" in the small town of Nîmes in southern France: the mighty bull is drawn into the bullring, the cow is held back by a long period of confinement, and jumps from side to side as soon as it enters; the first bullfighter rides a horse in a rattan coat and stabs the cow in the back with a spear; then three bullfighters insert three pairs of short darts into the back of the bull one by one; finally the main fighter appears, first exhausting the bloody bull, and then stabbing a sword into the heart from the shoulder of the cow; the cow suddenly falls. There was thunderous applause in the audience; the carcasses of the cows were dragged off the field in the "Matador" song. Ants kill termites and people kill bulls, one kills for survival, the other kills for entertainment, which one is more reasonable?!
I've done interesting little experiments with big black ants. The ants always marched in a column, and I used tweezers to quietly pick up the last one, and the rest of the team continued to move forward without reaction. I picked up one in the middle of the line, and the dozen ants in the front did not react, and the dozen or so in the back were chaotic, attacking everywhere like a great enemy. Then I caught the first one at the front, and the whole team exploded in an instant.
The conclusion is that the black ants coated the ground with exosterones indicating danger at the moment of being caught. However, it is important not to be "stung" by them, the local indigenous Salamakan people told me that being "stinged" by a black ant will cause dizziness, and three "stings" at the same time have the risk of death.
Zhang Shuyi
China was the first ecologist to conduct field research and investigation in the Amazon rainforest of South America. From 1990 to 1994, during his study at the University of Curie in France, he worked for 19 months at the Nouragues Ecological Station of the French National Research Center in the virgin forest of French Guiana, and achieved fruitful scientific research results. This article is a personal experience in the Amazon rainforest narrated by Professor Zhang Shuyi.
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<h1>Past recommendations:</h1>
Wild Amazon (II): The Colorful Plant Kingdom
Wild Amazon (I): The "Nurig" ecological station in the jungle