Are ants supporters of "feminism"? What is the real ant society like...

Ants are one of the most fascinating social biological groups on the planet, and have become a metaphor for human society. People are eager to find the best organizational form of human society from ants. Perhaps, humans are not "like" ants, but are ants.

However, what is the real ant society like?

The following content is excerpted from Edward Wilson's "The World of Ants". He has been obsessed with ants all his life and will lead us to start this ant adventure that has lasted for more than 80 years.

I will begin our ant-ology journey with a cautionary tale. I cannot imagine anything in the lives of ants that humans could or should emulate, morally speaking.

First and foremost, the socially active members of an ant colony are females. I am loyally on the side of women in all human endeavors, but in the world of ants, we have to admit that sexual liberalism has gotten out of hand over the 150 million years of their existence.

Female ants have complete dominance.

All the ants you see working, exploring, or engaging in warfare (all-out ant war) are females. Compared to the females, the male ants look particularly pitiful.

They have wings for flight, a small head, large compound eyes and genitals. They are of no help to their mothers and sisters, and their only purpose in life is to mate with virgin queens from other ant colonies during nuptial flights.

In short, male ants exist in the colony simply as a group of flying sperm missiles.

Once launched, the missiles are prohibited from ever returning to the nests where they once lived, even though, in some species, if successfully inseminated, they could become fathers of a new colony of ants with numerous offspring.

During the nuptial flight, male ants will be abandoned by the ant colony regardless of whether they mate successfully or not, and will die in the following hours or at most days due to rain, high temperature or the claws of predators. Male ants cannot just stay at home and do nothing. If they do not work, they will be a burden to the ant colony. After the nuptial flight, male ants that linger near the ant nest will be driven away by their sisters.

Second, even more chilling than the absolute dominance of females is this ant’s moral code—many ant colonies will eat their own ants when they are injured or dead.

Old or disabled workers leave the nest according to established rules and do not become a burden to the colony. Ants that die in the nest are abandoned where they are, left on their backs with their legs up, until their bodies emit a rotting smell - mainly from oleic acid and oleic acid esters.

The rotting bodies are taken to the colony's garbage station and discarded. Ants that are seriously injured or dying are simply eaten by their sisters.

Finally, there is the morally questionable habit - ants are the most warlike of all animals, and the fight between different ant colonies of the same species is the most intense. In most cases, the goal of the fight is to eradicate the roots.

Usually, the larger colonies eventually triumph over the smaller ones. The ferocity of their battles would have made Waterloo and Gettysburg look pale in comparison. I have seen battlefields littered with the bodies of “soldiers”, most of whom were, in fact, old female ants.

As adult worker ants age, they perform increasingly dangerous tasks for the benefit of the colony. Initially, young worker ants are primarily responsible for caring for the queen and her offspring, accompanying them from eggs to larvae, to pupae, and finally emerging as new adult ants.

Later, they will be more involved in the repair of the ant nest and other internal affairs. Eventually, the old worker ants will tend to serve outside the ant nest, from sentinels to foragers, and then from guards to warriors. In short, humans send young and strong people to the battlefield, while ants let old ladies join the battle.

For ants, serving the colony is everything. When natural death is approaching, it is more beneficial for the colony for old workers to engage in dangerous activities in their final days. The Darwinian logic is clear: old workers contribute little to the colony and are dispensable.

In terms of organized social life, evolution has given rich rewards to more than 15,000 species of ants around the world. Ants dominate among terrestrial carnivores weighing between 1 and 100 mg.

Termites, sometimes mistakenly called "white ants," feed primarily on rotten wood. Ants and termites are those little creatures that make the world go round, at least among land animals.

In the Brazilian rainforest, for example, they make up a staggering three-quarters of the total insect biomass and more than a quarter of the total animal biomass.

Ants have thrived on Earth more than a hundred times longer than humans. Molecular biology studies estimate that ants originated 150 million years ago.

Then, during the last 100 million years of the reptile age, many species with different morphology and structures evolved.

Another radiation occurred early in the age of mammals. In contrast, modern Homo sapiens appeared in Africa less than a million years ago, a mere blip in 150 million years.

If aliens had visited Earth at any time in the past few hundred million years, they would have discovered that among the thriving lands, plants and animals were controlled by ants.

To some extent, they are therefore kept healthy and intact. These aliens may become myrmecologists.

They'll discover that ants, termites, and other highly social creatures, despite their odd behaviors, are key to maintaining nearly every terrestrial ecosystem on Earth.

These aliens might report back to their home planet about the situation on Earth: "Everything is in order. At least for now."

Editor/Xiao Xitushuo

Source: Tadpole Musical Notation