Watch this video ad-free on Nebula: https://nebula.tv/videos/real-science-the-insane-biology-of-ant-colonies New streaming platform: https://watchnebula.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/realscience Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephaniesamma Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniesammann Credits: Writer/Narrator/Editor: Stephanie Sammann Editor: Dylan Hennessy (https://www.behance.net/dylanhennessy1) Illustrator/Animator: Kirtan Patel (https://kpatart.com/illustrations) Animator: Mike Ridolfi (https://www.moboxgraphics.com/) Sound: Graham Haerther (https://haerther.net) Thumbnail: Simon Buckmaster (https://twitter.com/forgottentowel) Producer: Brian McManus (https://www.youtube.com/c/realengineering) Imagery courtesy of Getty Images Music: flight-of-the-inner-bird---instrumental-version by sivan-talmor horizons---no-leads by ian-post new-land---no-choir by ian-post pictures-from-the-past by aleksey-chistilin the-dream---no-choir by ian-post horizons---piano--strings-version by ian-post tomb by veshza References: [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7212395/ [2] https://www.antscanada.com/ant-biology/ [3] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/een.12337#:~:text=In%20many%20ant%20species%2C%20caste,reproduction%20(production%20of%20queens). [4] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0003347262901410 [5] Hölldobler, B., & Wilson, E. O. (1994). Journey to the ants: A story of scientific exploration. [6] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jmor.1050220206 [7] https://www.npr.org/2008/11/29/97547749/the-secret-society-of-superorganisms#:~:text=Workers%20who%20remain%20help%20care,superorganism%20colonies%20are%20highly%20successful. [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Selfish_Gene [9] https://www.pbs.org/video/eo-wilson-ants-and-men-full-episode/
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You forgot one thing. If they believe that any nearby colonies they had peacefully lived by them had suddenly killed 100s of them with a mysterious spray that poisoned them, or were killed by them in another way, many of the bodies sticking to the walls like a Necronomicon horror show of a house of 1000 corpses... If they think a wasp hive near them killed their ants, those ants that return and believe this will destroy the hives of anything near... They left the head of a larvae I personally held in my hand, on the hive I left it on, hoping the Metric Wasps would return and take care of it. The ants did, they returned and beheaded it, left it on the hive for me to find even... -Jack
Your enthusiasm is contagious.
Everytime i hear the ant/bee societies described, it always makes me think of humans. The way the specialize for tasks, the way they cooperate, the way they go to war. Very very cool
0:16 I was thinking of ants because I clicked on a video about them
2:27 Ants are on every continent except for the Antarctic which literally starts with their name 😂
what species are 4:30?
In some species a queen does not exist. Sometimes they will have a gamergate, which is a worker that mates with a male that can lay eggs. Also in some colonies like Yellow Crazy Ants, they could have multiple queens in 1 colony. 8:20 Some scenes show camponotus instead of Oecophylla. Great video you made, really enjoyed this till the end!
1:38 Aren't those termites?
The fact the ants know to use Larve and could use the silk to stitch things together was genius on their part, look how good of a job and sturdy they stitched everything together.
I love these little architects
I've watched countless videos on ants, and I can confirm this is the best so far, covering all the basics while giving some great details on this beings. Congratulations on this work. The editing and music were spot on too
5:19 That ant is carrying a leaf with an ant on it
2:27 Anyone else bummed that ants are found on every continent except ANTartica?
Soy muy viejo, pero esto me hace ver este mundo pasajero aún más complicado pero también esperanzador. Gracias , es tan hermoso.
Ants world is so grim It almost reminded of 40k universe :s
I'm glad I found this channel, it's really interesting, plus your voice is perfect for narration! It reminds me of a female version of the guy that voices narration for Melodysheep (youtube channel). You both have the best narration voice I've probably ever heard.
"Using their babies like a hot glue gun" is not a sentence I would ever imagine of hearing
Imagine the level of detail in work humans could achieve if we used chemical systems to take control of ants.
Very informative video! But I wish you would have mentioned, the underlying mechanism for eusociality among some insects (ants, bees etc.) probably is the sex determination via "haplodiploidy" a.k.a "arrhenotoky", where male drones hatching from unfertilized eggs have half the chromosome set of her queen mom, while the queen and the infertile female workers have the full (diploid) set. Ultimately this makes the workers more related to each other (75%) than to her mother or their male siblings (50%). This favor eusociality: helping the queen laying more eggs spreads the workers' genes more effectively than they could do on their own.
I knew about weaver ants, but I didn't know the extent of their colony building process. That's actually amazing. Everytime I watch something on ants, I understand why scientists say if they were bigger they'd take over humans lol