Ants are also social insects, but unlike bees, a group of bees have a queen bee. Ants have no kings, marshals and officers. How do they transmit information between them? Why are their group actions coordinated? We can gain wisdom by observing the actions of ants.
It is common for ants to be industrious and reserved. They "prepare food in summer and collect food at harvest" for winter. Israel is located on the Mediterranean coast and has a Mediterranean climate. Summer there is equivalent to autumn in China, and it is the season when crops are ripe and harvested. This is also a good time for ants to gather food. Ants often come out to look for food in other seasons, but stay in their nests for the winter in cold seasons. So in normal times, especially in summer, ants should prepare food for winter. We often see ants "stirring up the crowd" and coming out to carry food. In their endless procession, there is no marshal or commander, but they can keep a certain route and work in an orderly way; Some are holding food in their mouths, some are dragging or pushing food several times larger than their own bodies, and some are being pushed and dragged by a small group of ants, which looks very lively. After the ants carried the food back to the nest, they didn't ask you to give it to me, but ate it all at once. Instead, it is treated with formic acid and ants, which has a special smell and antiseptic effect for long-term preservation. We can see from the movement of ants that the grain they store is milky granular, that is, it has been treated with formic acid (formic acid) and methyl tsuen (methyl tsuen).
The bravery and tenacity of ants are even more commendable. In the book Desert Springs. When talking about observing the story of ants climbing the wall with food on their backs, he often tells his early stories to his friends: "I was chased by my enemies and had to hide in a broken house. I sat there alone for several hours." At that time, I was desperate. I had no ambition and courage to do my previous career. In despair, I saw a small ant carrying several times its grain and trying to drag it to the wall. It has fallen down many times, but it still tries to get up every time. I counted and fell 69 times; But it didn't lose heart. For the 70th time, it reached the top of the high wall. I was very excited at that time, and I will never forget this lesson. "
The collective action of ants and Qi Xin's concerted efforts to take the "ant road" are even more wonderful and thought-provoking. When ants want to carry food ten times larger than their own bodies, such as a dead fly, some push and some drag, they work together and push in a certain direction. Imagine: if they exert their strength in all directions, they will inevitably cancel each other out and cannot move forward; Since the ants have no marshal and commander in chief at the scene, how can they coordinate? After observation and meditation, we think this is because ants can secrete substances with pungent smell, such as formic acid and ants, and leave this secretion on the way. As long as they smell the smell, they can recognize the "ant road" they have passed, so they can walk back along the route. When they push the food back together, they can smell (or recognize) the same "ant road", so they can push or drag in the same direction in unison. If we dip our fingers in the water and draw a line perpendicular to the "ant path", we will break the "ant path". This is because the formic acid ants left on the "ant path" are all water-soluble substances, and the "ant path" is blurred after being diluted with water. At this point, the ant colony was in chaos and had to suspend the handling work. So ants must explore in all directions. When some ants found the original "ant road", they came back along this road to explore the way to walk. It was reported that everyone had found the original road, so the blocked road was reconnected, and everyone Qi Xin worked together to advance.
As the saying goes: "Sugar is not afraid of ants", because ants are particularly sensitive to the information of "sugar". How do ants perceive and transmit such information? It is still a mystery. In addition, ants will move before the flood comes. How do they predict floods? This is also a mystery. There are many mysteries like this, which need people to observe and study, so that people can gain wisdom from the behavior of ants. This is not the wisdom of ants, but the wonderful wisdom of the creator to create ants.