Hole-plugging ants let armies walk all over them

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2007

PARIS (AFP) — When a rampaging column of 200,000 army ants hauling prey encounters a gaping pothole, volunteers bridge it with their bodies so that comrades can walk over them at full speed until the day's work is done, according to a new study.

And if the road-repairing ants -- which can vary in size by a factor of five -- are too small or too big for the job, others will keeping plugging away until a perfect match between insect and hole is found.

The study offers "rare quantitative evidence that extreme specialization" among a sturdy few with a lot of backbone can improve the performance of a majority, conclude Scott Powell and Nigel Franks, biologists at the University of Bristol.

The researchers observed the species Eciton burchellii -- better known as...