When you purchase through links on our site , we may earn an affiliate direction . Here ’s how it works .
Amazing new footage captures the moment when thousands of fire ants ( Solenopsis invicta ) make a animation - deliver mint by interlocking their limbs and mandibles .
The clip , from National Geographic ’s young series"A Real Bug ’s Life,“which premieres on Disney+ on Jan 24 , evidence a colony of flaming pismire go beneath a water lineament in the backyard of a rest home in Texas . As the water spirit level starts to uprise , the dependency is pick up collecting their babies and banding together before being swing over a falls and into a swim pocket billiards .
Fire ants formed a floating raft to save the colony from drowning in a swimming pool.
Related : Watch translucent cockroach babe burst from their orchis case in tegument - crawling footage
Antsareknown for their corporate societal behaviorin big colonies . When they judge to swim , however , their kicking stage actively gross out one another . Despite this repulsion , ardor ants in chemical group of 10 or more are force togetherby a phenomenon called the " bye-bye effect,“which is induce by surface tension . This takes place when small object , like cheerios in a bowl of milk , make a concave indentation on the liquid state ’s control surface that brings nearby objects together into clusters .
The fire ants exploit this phenomenon toprotect their queen . The larvae , pupae and worker ants are wreak together , then interlock their legs and jaws to form a large raft that dunk in slimly at the center . Then they order the pouf on top , sitting safely in the center of this massive spate . .
At one point the fire ants seek refuge on the head of a yellow rubber duck.
— Soldier ant turned into forager by scientist reprogramming their brains
— World ’s most painful ant sting targets nervus in the same way Scorpio venom does
— appal close - up photo of an emmet is the stuff of nightmare
The ants ' nest was found while reconnoitre backyard locations for shooting footage . Location Scout turned on a water feature article in a pool , unaware that a colony of fire ants was living inside . The fire emmet then inundate the pool . Bill Markham , the series producer , told Live Science that they recorded this intricate demeanor with the help of Drexel University entomologist , Sean O’Donnell , using " macro lenses , split - horizontal surface housings and super slow motion " . Although the team did not weigh how many ant were part of the raft , Markham enunciate " there were easy 5,000 on this occasion " and to their surprisal , they found the ant collected pin line bubbles to keep the raft afloat and stay on chirpy .
By smooshing together to protect their queer , they make a structure that " would take 400 multiplication their body weight to break " said Markham . He summate that these rafts can stay afloat for 12 day , but in this case they found a syndicate noodle and got to dry out commonwealth within a few mo .
