Wanderer

Photos: The pictures above were taken around 5:30 pm same day as this entry. Notice how much the tunnels have grown since this morning's photos? The first photo is a back view, so the tunnel you see on the right is really the tunnel on the left when seen from the front view. Also notice the incredible mounds taking shape at either end of their confines.

                                   ________________________________________

This is only my second day with the Harvester Ants, and already I’ve noticed some work and sleep habits or behaviors, and also I’ve learned to recognize their posture of death.

As they go about their day, though I only check on them from time to time as I pass by them, is that they don’t all tunnel at the same time. It seems that half of the group works, while the other half rests. It’s like they work in shifts. I don’t know what time during the morning they actually “woke” up and got back to work, but I did notice that during the night, they all were sleeping. At least when I looked in on them they were.

So I wondered, is this what ants in their native habitat do? Do they sleep all through the dark hours, then rise with the sun and get back to work? Also, I can’t tell from watching these ants because of the artificial medium they live in, but when do ants eat? In this particular ant farm, the blue gel is their nutrition. I really can’t tell when they are eating the gel for nourishment, or when they are simply tunneling. There is one clue, however. When they tunnel, I can see each ant carry a gel ball in their mandibles all the way out of the tunnel and out to one of their mounds. But I haven’t noticed any one ant just eating one of the gel balls. Perhaps I haven’t sat still long enough to notice?

Another thing I noticed is that ants take breaks during their workday. No matter where they are, they just stop what they are doing. They cling to the floor, wall, or ceiling of the tunnel while other workers walk right on by them or over them. At one point I noticed about ten to fifteen ants in the big tunnel napping (or something close to stillness), though only moments earlier they had been focused on creating a third tunnel up to the surface. This was midday . They were notdoing anything in the tunnel. Just sitting there. Meanwhile, at surface, the other ants were busy, and still others working in other tunnels, moving pieces of gel from the tunnels to the pile at the surface. So, it seems they pace themselves, or they just work for whatever length of time, then rest.

A sleeping ant looks entirely different from a dead ant. Two days ago I wouldn’t have been able to describe that to you. A dead ant curls up into a U-shape with its legs in a posture of support. Its head and its abdomen point in the same direction. A sleeping ant looks like a working ant minus leg movement.

I had to remove two dead ants this afternoon. The ant information I have tells me to do this to prevent bacteria from infecting the other ants in the colony. To do this, I put the ant farm in the fridge for a few minutes so they won't feel like scampering out while I have the lid off. Still, when I did open the lid, the fresh air must have immediately revived them for they began to run toward the top. None of them made it, though, sliding down the sides. It’s good to open the lid occasionally to give them fresh air. I read somewhere that ants produce formic acid, and it’s not good for them to be in a closed area for too long, so every day I plan to open the lid and let in some fresh air.

There is still one dead ant in the very bottom of the far left tunnel. I’m waiting to see if its comrades will carry it up to the surface so I can remove it. So far, the workers continue to walk around it as best they can. The dead one is actually blocking a main intersection, and causing the working ants some concern. One particular ant stays longer by its side, touching the dead one with its antennae and mandibles. It seems to be cleaning it. At 6:25 p.m. I see that one ant is struggling to carry the dead one out. A minute later, she has abandoned the job and left her sister at the bottom of the tunnel, but at least it’s not blocking the intersection any longer. Maybe later one of them will carry it up into the open.

Linda has her ants now. I showed her my ant farm. She was as amazed as I was that they had tunneled so much in just one day.

This super cool space-age gel ant farm looks like a work of art in progress, engraved or sculpted from the inside. Ants have been called architects in almost every documentary I’ve seen. I can see why when I look upon their finger-like tunnels, reaching all the way to the bottom of the container, then arching back up, or going in another direction entirely, and I understand why when I watch their minute bodies moving industriously about inside those tunnels. Is art a process or a product? Here, I have both!

7:50pm: I look up from my work and notice that the second extension of the first tunnel on the right is only ½ inch from the surface. Meanwhile, other ants have started a tunnel from the surface reaching down to that second extension. Are they going to join the two? If so, how did they know to do that? How do they know where to start from the surface to make it align with the one being dug from below?

I’m betting that they’ll align right up and join. In the classroom, we call that making a prediction. So, I predict the two tunnels will meet. I further predict it will be completed by 8:15pm. I’d take a picture of this awesome event except there just isn’t enough light to get a clear shot, and I’m not as skilled with my new digital camera as I’d like to be. I tried taking a picture but kept getting too much flash reflection. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to take a photo by early morning sunlight.