The reference to the experiment involving an ant colony established by humans on a small Finnish island surviving thanks to a single tree reminded me of another fantastic insect survival story from the Pacific. Via the NPR account of the 2001 discovery:<p><i>What's more, for years this place had a secret. At 225 feet above sea level, hanging on the rock surface, there is a small, spindly little bush, and under that bush, a few years ago, two climbers, working in the dark, found something totally improbable hiding in the soil below. How it got there, we still don't know.</i><p>Read the story and check out the pictures of the island. It's amazing.<p>Story: <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/02/24/147367644/six-legged-giant-finds-secret-hideaway-hides-for-80-years/" rel="nofollow">https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/02/24/147367644/s...</a><p>Discussion: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3651551" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3651551</a>
This sounds vaguely like a sci-fi premise where some sympathetic interdimensional researcher places an interdimensional yardstick (the higher dimensions use imperial units) between our isolated, diminished existence and the place where we can bask in the sun and live on honeydew excreted from aphid butts. I know I often wonder if the world we live in is some sort of abandoned Soviet-era nuclear bunker analogue.
Basically:<p>"Ants built a mound near a hole, some started falling down and couldn't get back up; with no food, lower ants had to eat ant corpses; the lower ants also built a mound (with no pupas) and dragged corpses that have been eaten onto a pile; later scientists removed the obstacle so that ants that fall down could get back up".<p>I'm a bit disappointed that the "soviet nuclear bunker" didn't play a bigger role.
The title made me think of "It Came From Red Alert!". A secret mission in C&C: Red Alert (Counterstrike) that involves fighting giants ants in an abandoned soviet base.
The ants that fall below don't have queens or reproduce in any way. So it is really a colony? It's just a free-for-all ant-eat-ant battle for temporary survival.
With a title mentioning cannibal ants and a bunker, I'm surprised no-one has referenced Phase IV yet, but given it was a box office flop from 1974. I've not watched it in so long, but I seem to remember it being quite scary as a kid and the fact I still remember it now. On the offchance anyone remembers it or watches it I'd be curious what you think?
<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070531/" rel="nofollow">https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070531/</a>
> "They are doing the best they can, surrounded by dying."<p>That's what I think future humans will say about us, too (assuming that humanity survives puberty).
This reminds me of a documentary about the wood ants in Europe. Some war between nests and others abide with and tolerate each other. Same species, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason regarding the line between the two different ant cultures.<p>It was this David Attenborough documentary: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ0DxSujfIU" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ0DxSujfIU</a>
This makes me think of metro 2033 so bad, even to the dark post soviet bunker and admitedly cannibalistic feeling. I wonder what could have happened if a queen ant was introduced to the colony as a sort of experiment
So the lower colony eats fallen ants, but not all otherwise there'd be no lower colony.<p>If they were stacking bodies, was this excess food or parts they didn't eat?
Really fascinating article. I also went for a rabbit hole by clicking the tag “cannibals”; there are more articles available than I thought there would be.