[HN Gopher] The Science of Underground Kingdoms
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The Science of Underground Kingdoms
Author : georgecmu
Score : 60 points
Date : 2021-08-25 12:07 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.caltech.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.caltech.edu)
| roflc0ptic wrote:
| a mild gripe with the article - there's a picture where it says
| "A casting of a nest made by a species of ant found in Florida
| next to an adult man for scale." The "adult man" in this picture
| is Walter Tschinkel, who is a professor at Florida State
| University who studies ants. He's made a bunch of these castings.
| He's also friends with E.O. Wilson, the really famous ant-
| studying guy. He incidentally taught the hardest course I've ever
| taken - Bio II lab, "Animal Diversity."
|
| Dunno. It's weird having a picture of a giant in the field and
| calling him "adult man for scale."
| HarryHirsch wrote:
| The "adult man" probably insisted on that - the real titans in
| the field are oftentimes hugely modest. Worked with a guy like
| that as an undergraduate. Can confirm.
| roflc0ptic wrote:
| From what I remember, modesty wasn't one of his shortcomings
| ASalazarMX wrote:
| I think that makes the "adult man" caption even more
| interesting.
| scrumbledober wrote:
| in this context the only thing relevant is the fact that he's
| an adult man, so it seems appropriate.
| roflc0ptic wrote:
| The guy doing the research is being quoted as being inspired
| by work done by Tschinkel and others making molds of ant
| colonies. Dunno. It's a little more than flavor
| k__ wrote:
| Also, he's only 5'10, so taking him as an example of the size
| of an male human is a bit of a stretch.
| frosted-flakes wrote:
| The average American male is 5'9", so why is it a stretch?
| dragonwriter wrote:
| 5'9" -> 5'10" is a 1" stretch. Which doesn't sound like
| much, unless you are the one on the rack.
| twic wrote:
| So about 15 millismoots.
| seszett wrote:
| 5'10 is 177cm according to Google, and that seems to be a
| very average height, maybe a little higher than average male
| height in the west.
|
| Average male height in the US, UK, France, Canada and Germany
| is 175cm for example.
| LargoLasskhyfv wrote:
| Slightly OT, because fiction, but entertaining nonetheless:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_IV_(1974_film)
| johnnyApplePRNG wrote:
| I've always wondered how these underground kingdoms protect
| themselves against excessive rainfall?
|
| If there is a cm of water resting on the surface, surely these
| are completely flooded inside?
| Borrible wrote:
| Mostly its good drainage. Some build them so their nests
| provide air pockets. Some close the entrances to their nest
| (with their bodies) for some time. In extreme cases they
| evacuate to higher ground.
|
| They are extremely fast with the last.
|
| I can study that everytime I mow the lawn.
|
| Interestingly the species in my garden 'Lasius flavus' often
| seem to care their eggs above ground in the hill, not
| underground. Whereas I never found eggs above ground in nests
| of 'Lasius niger'.
|
| But then again, I'm no expert in ants and its purely anecdotal.
|
| Just curious.
| asdff wrote:
| Are they ant eggs? Some ants farm aphids and transport them
| around, building pastures even.
| zardo wrote:
| Lasius flavus is just such species.
| Borrible wrote:
| A classic:
|
| Secret Megalopolis of Ants
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dECE7285GxU
| filoeleven wrote:
| > "They're sort of capricious," Andrade says. "They dig whenever
| they want to. We would put these ants in a container, and some
| would start digging right away, and they would make this amazing
| progress. But others, it would be hours and they wouldn't dig at
| all. And some would dig for a while and then would stop and take
| a break."
|
| Related to this particular paragraph, up to 40% of ants in a
| colony are pretty lazy. A study has shown that they are reserve
| workers, and if a bunch of productive ants are "removed," they
| become more active and take over the work.
|
| https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170908205356.h...
|
| Ants can also live up to 5 years, which kinda blew my mind when I
| first learned it. We are so used to small insects having
| correspondingly small lifespans.
| asdff wrote:
| It's basically the military model. Have a reserve of trained
| people who are ready to go the moment you need scale. I wish
| we'd use it for things like infrastructure too. It would be so
| much cheaper for public works if we relied on state labor pools
| like we used to do rather than contracting profiteering private
| industry for everything.
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(page generated 2021-08-25 23:02 UTC)