" Antbook "- A new Social Network...

                       Don't kill me by seeing a start like this. As soon as June approaches, my camera feels like it is getting new life ( It's pity that i can understand how my camera feels). As monsoon approaches earth, camera approaches my hand. Long before monsoon, i  got curious about ant mimicking spiders, as me and Sumukha had some crazy discussions. Ants are literally everywhere. So normally i don't observe them much.

                      When first rain hits earth, nature falls in love with rain drops (Now u feel like killing me , because again i'm taking you guys in rain. Please save me for love of rain). It's the purest form of love. It's an active day for critters. It's like festival for insects. They start ramp walk on green carpet created by nature and dress designed by God. As i kept walking in rain, at first i found a red ant artillery. So many red ants completely involved in their work. Their hard work, dedication and co-ordination is just phenomenal to observe.

 

Red ants in action...

                    As i was happily enjoying the view, with a well known" falling mechanism" where insects fall from leaf in order to protect from predators. When i tried to touch an ant, it fell like a water drop. It was fun to observe. When i touched one more ant, it hanged in between leaves instead of falling. I was shocked! i failed to notice that red ant mimicking spider. How amazing na? it was a spider which mimics ant, so that it can catch some ants! I failed to spot the difference in thousands of similar looking ants (they looked like tiny version of Korean people - so identical). This is  not it. I found a silver ant and a golden ant with spines all over the body - which was so gorgeous.

                                Silver spiny ant - Polyrhachis Sp.

                       Sometimes i wonder why ants fail to notice a spider in their territory. May be it's possible. In-spite of having so much of intelligence, we fail to notice intruders among us. But how ants identify themselves? do they have names for each other? Do they have relations like cousin, sibling etc? Do they marry ? Because they all look like they want to say something :P They behave like they have so much emotions . can they spot differences between them? They all look similar to our eyes :P

                

                  Ants are freakishly strong as you all know. But it is shocking to know that their total biomass is equal to biomass of humans combined. To me communication between ants looks like a social network. Something like Facebook :P  

Golden Spiny Ant - Polyrhachis Sp.

                        Assume ants are defined in their own social network per say "Antbook " :P They have lot of groups like Super silver ants to showoff,  Patriotic soldier ants who strive hard to save the community , Carpenter ants who discuss about building stuff, Thief ants who discuss about stealing stuff etc. ( FYI, all thse kinds of ants really exist- Google it if u wish to). There comes some talented ants who have their own page with some awesome skills - such as leaf-cutter ants.  Some ants are celebrities like Panda ants with page likes from all over the world. There comes a spider in the group just to ruin the group and invade its privacy. They post their photos with different titles. They go for travelling and upload an album in Antbook :P They do give some funny poses. They often do politics - just not as bad as humans.

                

                       Now let us look at ants in different perspective. Sometimes i feel like their life style is similar to humans. To them butterflies are like airplanes. They just feel like flying and curse god for not making them like birds.  They build their own house .They bring food. Scientists believe that communication and networking between ants is similar to TCP-protocol. They share their food. They send elders to protect the young. They often do signalling via ""Pheromones"" .

Carpenter ant - Camponotus Sp.

                 Ants are so innocent you know? They do everything to get " honeydew". Sometimes insects take their advantage and let their children to be raised in ants territory - free of cost :P  "Formica ants" have slavery concept, which still exists in Humans. By getting luxurious accommodations, ants repay by protecting plants. Ants form super-colonies , something like a big queue in Tirupathi temple.

                

                    It is so amazing that our life style is not something we discovered out of intelligence. Everything existed in nature. We just adapted and inspired from aspects of nature. When you try to observe nature with open mind, you feel like it is just reflection of our lifestyle. More intelligence made us unique and powerful.

Karengga ant like Spider - Myrmarachne Plataleoides

                        Next time when you look at ants, observe them. There are lot of stories. There is dedication, there is love, there is coordination, there is a family commitment, there is generosity, there is smartness, there is politics but there is respect and hard work. We are here for a purpose, there is lot to learn from nature. There are some things that exist outside Google. Surely you can find some of them in nature.

Some reference links to images and story :

Golden Spiny Ant - Noah Link

Carpenter Ant - Noah link

Ant mimic Spider- Noah Link

If you want to know more about Spider ant mimicry, Please consult me.