Amazing Footage Caught Of Ant Army Forming A Bridge To Attack Wasp Nest

Sep 14, 2018 by apost team

In a viral video originally posted by Francisco Boni, we can see just how smart a colony of ants can be. Ants rely on swarm intelligence, a concept in which a collective group relies on each other in order to achieve something.

In other words: "the discipline that deals with natural and artificial systems composed of many individuals that coordinate using decentralized control and self-organization (Scholarpedia)."

The video was posted on Twitter. Boni notes the extraordinary capacity a colony of ants can reach, in this case building a bridge together in order to attack a wasp nest.

In his Twitter posts, Boni remarks: "Attack of legionary ants (also known as army ants or marabunta) to a wasp honeycomb. Impressive the level of swarm intelligence and collective computation to form that bridge."

He also describes the ants as using different "lanes" when crossing the bridge. Boni notes that ants who are carrying important necessities primarily use the "center lane," while the outer edges are used by ants with less important duties.

In his own words: "Studies show that ants partly optimise traffic flow. Ants headed back to the colony loaded up with loot use center lanes, while outbands ants use the edges. Ants are also sensitive to gaps and when other ants trample over their heads, so they start to follow other rules."

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In the case of attacking a wasp nest, these ants are interested in completely raiding the wasps of their pupae, larvae, and eggs.

These ants will even loot the nest of adults who are not lucky enough to survive the pillage.

Swarm intelligence is also used by termites, schools of fish, and even herds of land animals.

Humans have even begun utilizing this capacity with artificial intelligence and technology. Sometimes, ants even create bridges to cross bodies of water.

Check out the video above and let us know what you think!