jumpingjacktrash:curlicuecal:jumpingjacktrash:theriu:jumpingjacktrash‌:laughingsquid‌:A Refined Ant

jumpingjacktrash:curlicuecal:jumpingjacktrash:theriu:jumpingjacktrash‌:laughingsquid‌:A Refined Ant With Expensive Taste Attempts to Steal a Loose Diamond From Wholesaler’s Deskfreaking superb you funky little felonI’m genuinely curious why an ant would actually try to take a clearly non-edible item like a diamond. Why ants do???my first guess is nest building material. if they’re nesting in an office building, chances are they’ve got nothing to work with but concrete dust and sand, so the workers might be on the lookout for pebbles to stabilize the structure. another possibility is that someone had something sweet on their hands when they last touched the stone.but i’m not an entomologist. for all i know it just really really feels like an ant egg to this busy bab, and she’s off to try to hatch it.@theriu @jumpingjacktrash Hiya! Ant biologist. You’re right that it’s likely a building material. Quite a number of ants actually forage for pebbles of specific sizes—sometimes for nest entrance structure and often for thermoregulation purposes. Rocks can help absorb or reflect heat so ur babies stay the optimal temperature and grow up big and strong! Harvester ants for example, often surround their nest entrances with a meter or so radius of lil uniform rocks all about the size of that diamond. These can help regulate nest temperatures and may also help hold scent trails. Having pebbles around your nest entrances can also make it easy to quickly open and close them if there is danger.Amusingly, in the opposite direction we have “ant garnet”, a small, semi-precious stone that humans sometimes collect from ant nests after they drag the unwanted gemstones up out of the ground while tunneling.awesome, thank you! i’m so pleased that i was close! ants are adorable and this one is trying so hard. i hope she found some good pebbles that she got to keep. -- source link

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