Call it T-few weeks. I saw a series of ants going up and down on a thin stem of a plant. It took a while (actually not until I had passed from same place once or twice again), for my untrained eyes to see where they were going and coming from. Now, I had not seen ant nest before and therefore was so excited to find a nest of about a size of coffee mug created by joining leaves. it was very much in view but still difficult to notice unless you look for it. after a day or two, ants movement wasn't seen but I found one or two individuals around and the nest intact so guessed that once construction and moving in was complete, they were going on with their business inside the nest.
T-2 or T-1, not far from where spotted Ants previously, I see some two three dozens of individuals moving on a plant. While this post is about time T and not T-1, when I look back to the whole sequence, it was probably this moment that made the strongest impact on me. I didn't need trained eye or any knowledge to see what they were up to. Very clearly they were inspecting the site, taking measurements, drawing up blueprints and detailing construction plans - all that without use of any tool. and let me stress, I had No prior knowledge of Ant nest building process yet looking at their body language, it was all very obvious. Random and irrelevant prior knowledge however did interfere with thinking soon enough and I was left with questions like why they were inspecting such a large area (i.e. almost 10 times that of the only nest I had seen before) - probably they will narrow down to most suitable part of it.. and, how long should it take for them after this inspection to explain details to non expert workers and start building? How long would be construction phase? must be non insignificant time, after all, they are building home..
I see this next day.
It was an amazing sight. They all seem to be knowing what is needed exactly. Co-ordination and co-operation appeared spontaneous and complete. where one individual's length wasn't enough, they readily made chains and if you look closely, they held each other using those jaws so ruthlessly and yet without causing any comfort that you wonder if you should actually define unit of life at a single ant level or at a group level. Even younger members joined with dedication.
and, of course, while everyone was ready to join others where required, no one needed that others must join for them to do what they can.
Around most leaves, their work was neat enough that I couldn't see any marks of how leaves were joined. but I think they had a small setback in this project. Here it seems to me that either they could not pull leaves to touch/overlap each other or they couldn't be held together with this white paper like joining material. Why I say it appeared a little project hurdle is that one of them was removing this paper like gluing material away from this place as in next photo.
Seeing them was an experience that cant be captured in words or photos fully but still, if I have to single out one moment that can somewhat share the experience, its given by below set of shots.
Four individuals on one side and others on the other were doing their best to pull a leaf. Now, their positioning was not perfect and their combined strength not enough. Left most individual tries to take a step back so that leaf can be pulled more. but he struggles to find foothold.
Within seconds scene changes as follows.
Output of this amazing effort? Well, a nest much bigger than what I had assumed with very little signs of glue material visible from outside. One effect of this neatness was that it was difficult to spot the nest even as it was very much at outermost part of the plant. yes, I have shots of nest too, but if you haven't seen one yet, wouldn't it be great to discover the first one all by yourself in real world? and when you find one, do remember to watch from far and not disturb it in anyway (or attract anyone's attention to it who can potentially disturb it) as its result of hundreds of dedicated individual's joint effort and a valuable home that deserves its privacy be respected.
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