The cosmos ’s small diamond stealer was foil during a stickup where an pismire tried to make off with a diamond back in 2018 . Though bold , the sweat was n’t terribly consider through , taking station in full sight of a person work with several gemstones in full visible light – but we commend this tiny dirt ball ’s shamelessness all the same .
A grating eyeball estimate would put the adamant at around 0.5 carats , think of look on the lineament it could convey around $ 1,000 . Ants do collect things to integrate into their colonies , but while it ’s a delightful idea that this particular insect had heavy dream for national medal , the more probable explanation for the holdup is that the diamond was coat in something that conduct the ant to think it was something else .
Antsare famously good foragers and will trek Brobdingnagian distances into their environment so that they can return home with precious loot . As well as going in lookup of snacks , pismire will carry permissive waste and numb pismire out of the colony to keep thing safe .
Some think this may explain why we occasionally find what facial expression like funerals lay out by ants , with idle dirt ball found besiege by petals , includingother antsandbees . One ant farm possessor witnessed his colony pile their dead on top ofTrix cerealin a very odd funerary pattern indeed .
Ants also gather up item they need for the settlement . One incredible exemplar isleaf - cutter emmet , which do n’t really eat leaves themselves but have a bun in the oven them back to their underground lairs to bung the fungal overlord that keeps them stocked up on edible mushroom-shaped cloud . The fungus actually head the ants where to go , and when plants react by loading up their leaves with harmful fungus , it tell apart them to move on to a different botanic victim .
Ants are renowned for being capable to conduct objects much big than themselves – but when they cooperate as a group , they can move even larger chunks of food back to their nest . Researchhas bump that this is achieve thanks to “ lookout man ” ants who link in the lifting , and train the grouping by subtly pulling in the correct direction . Rather than resisting , all the other ants follow suit .
Ants are also eco - warriors that ferry seed around , helpingtrees to distribute . So , while some rogues opt a life of crime , for the most part , they ’re very toilsome , honest make for animals .
[ H / T : populate Science ]
