Ants adapt tool use to avoid drowning

[Still Waters]

A laboratory experiment has shown for the first time that a species of ant has the remarkable ability to adapt its tool use. When provided with small containers of sugar water, black imported fire ants were able to float and feed on the surface, but when researchers reduced the surface tension, the ants started depositing sand grains on the inside of the container leading out of it.

"We found the ants used sand to build a structure that could effectively draw sugar water out of the container to then to be collected" said Dr. Aiming Zhou, an associate professor at Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China, and a lead author of the research. "This exceptional tool making skill not only reduced the drowning risk of ants, but also provided a larger space for them to collect sugar water."

The sand structures were found to be so efficient that they could syphon almost half of the sugar water out of the containers in five minutes.

https://phys.org/news/2020-10-ants-tool.html

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13671

[DebDandelion]

Well, there is a Bible verse that says 'goes to the ants and get wise', given I translated it from my mother tongue, but heck, this is amazing! 

[DebDandelion]

20 minutes ago, seanjo said:

I for one welcome our Ant overlords...

I am sorry to offend (if I offend) but I laughed really hard at this.