ANTS

 I’m 78, a retired educator and living an enforced life-style because of the Corvid 19 virus.

I live in New Mexico, in a beautiful area called Eldorado, about 8 miles south of Santa Fe.

. An enthusiastic amateur naturalistI, I go for a 2 mile walk every morning, just as the morning sun lights up the beautiful  but very dry countryside - we’ve had just one day of what I call WET rain in the past three months. When I walk, my eyes are everywhere, looking at the dried grasses, the cacti, the cholla, the lively lizards, the occasional bird , and I’m always checking on the numerous ant hills that are in the middle of the path.. 

Ants fascinate me and I stand and watch the mass of activity over and around each ant colony…………..ants searching for food to take back to the queen who’s overseeing her huge family of up to 50,000 offspring

 I used to know a lot about how ants live, how the newly impregnated Queen makes a home (usually around August ), lays eggs that hatch into male workers (known as SLAVE ants that make the nest much, mjuch bigger, search for food and feed the next batch of eggs that are winged males and females), then eggs that hatch into winged males and females. I know that ants don’t like ants from other colonies.

In fact, I wrote a book on Ants for teachers way back in the late 1960s. 

I know about the process of trophylaxis, the way in which ants communicate with each other, how winged males and females leave the nest late in the summer, mate in mid flight, and, thus start a new colony.

But, now, as I stand and watch them scurrying around outside the nest, I’m fascinated by their individual strength. I see individuals carrying food bigger than themselves in their mouths. I see them pushing stuff much bigger than they are. This morning, I saw two ants, working as a team pushing a big seed towards the nest. How do they know when to help each other? Trophylaxis? Some kind of body language that sends the signal "I NEED HELP?

Dunno.......

Occasionally, I see a single big black beetle hovering around the entrance to an ant colony. Do they feed off ants? Don't know the answer to that either.............but I'll see one morning the answer to my question.