When Ants Go Marching, They Count Their Steps

cy

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When Ants Go Marching, They Count Their Steps

"Ants use an internal pedometer to find their way home without getting sidetracked, a new study reports.

Desert ants on foraging expeditions use celestial cues to orient themselves in the homeward direction, but with few landmarks in the barren land, scientists have wondered how the insects always take the most direct route and know exactly how far to march.

The new study reveals that counting their steps is a crucial part of the scheme."

http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/060629_ant_pedometers.html
 

CLHC

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Very interesting little creatures here. That's why they don't use lights to see they're way back in the dark! :huh:

Speaking of ants, I saw on the news yesterday (http://cbs5.com/local/local_story_234000517.html) that there's a particular ant that is considered the "fastest" in the world of nature. It's jaws, when closing, has been clocked at 145 mph! Now that IS fast in addition to they're built-in pedometer. . .

Enjoy!
 
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powernoodle

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Sounds similar to the way a honey bee will return to the hive and do a little dance (that humans can translate) which tells the other bees which direction and how far to fly to locate nectar. Pretty neat.

peace
 

PhotonWrangler

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This is a cool thread. I didn't know that the bees' dance was referenced to the direction of the sun. What do they do when it's cloudy? Order a pizza delivery? :)
 

Mike Painter

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PhotonWrangler said:
This is a cool thread. I didn't know that the bees' dance was referenced to the direction of the sun. What do they do when it's cloudy? Order a pizza delivery? :)

They order Chinese. That's why item "B" on all chinese menus is "egg flower soup"

Actually they use polarized UV light if there is any blue sky and landmarks if totally over cast.
English bees forage when it's warm enough so would tend to do less during overcast weather.

"Killer" bees on the other hand allegedly forage when there is enough light and many years ago some felt this would prevent them from Northern Climates which may have a lot of sun on veery cold days.
 

jtr1962

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CHC said:
Speaking of ants, I saw on the news yesterday (http://cbs5.com/local/local_story_234000517.html) that there's a particular ant that is considered the "fastest" in the world of nature. It's jaws, when closing, has been clocked at 145 mph! Now that IS fast in addition to they're built-in pedometer. . .
Then by my calculations if its jaw spans 1 mm then it can close its mouth in 0.2 milliseconds. That's almost as fast as the mouths of some relatives move when they're talking incessantly about nothing. :lolsign:
 

TedTheLed

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..it's rather horrible though the way they tested their theory by attaching stilts to some ants, and cutting the lower legs off of others..

..I can only hope that after the experiment they took the stilts off the normal-legged group of ants and put them on the amputated group..

btw Carl Von Frisch discovered the dance of the bees and wrote a book about it 40 years ago "Dancing Bees"

150px-1ofrisck002p1.jpg


..also they know where the sun is on overcast days because they can see uv light through the clouds..
 
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