Ants walk in line in order of age

A surprising study carried out by the University of Lausanne has revealed an aspect of ants that we did not know. We already knew that ants are a social animal more sophisticated than it seems at first glance, but we did not know how far his behavior reaches.

And it is that, apart from caring for the babies, cleaning the nest, looking for food, defending themselves, etc., there are much more subtle elements that give us a sample of his intelligence. Apparently, each ant knows what to do throughout the day based on a strict division of tasks that is determined by age. Surprising isn't it? Next, in a PROFESSOR, we explain more to you.

To make the discovery, the researchers used heat maps. Thus they monitored each ant of six colonies for 41 days, with the aim of discover their role and their patterns.

The roles appear to follow a distribution that varies over time. Thus, the young ants have nursing duties and remain in the nest. Instead, the old women venture around in search of food.

Both nurses and food seekers are highly social, as evidenced by their strict monitoring. However, those dedicated to cleaning the nest, whose age is intermediate, have weaker social interactions. In this way, it is believed, when working in more widely spaced areas they communicate less. Definitely,

Finally, it should be mentioned that this sorting by age is quite strict And it can be seen in certain ant alignments, something very surprising to see, judging by how tiny they are.