More on the Eccentricities of Big Black Ants

Last Sunday there was an odd swarm of black ants in the driveway. There was an anthill near there, but they weren't working in long, orderly lines as they usually do. At first glance, I thought it was two rival hills having a war, as I have seen in the past.

They weren't fighting at all. They were. . .talking. Well, communicating somehow, anyway. It was rather disappointing because all this committee work started just about sundown and,being black on a blacktop driveway, they were difficult to see in the dusk. Furthermore, if you shone a flashlight on them, they would move out of the light and back to their silent campaigning in the dark.

Whatever they were discussing must have been serious because quite a few of them were carrying young ants around the melee. Just a guess--perhaps a part of the hill's citizens were being evicted, but how they were chosen, I could not guess.

I was a little disappointed that the light (or lack of it) made it impossible to watch them properly. I could recall just enough time-misted references to studies which linguists have done on chimpanzees, and even chinchillas, to make me curious as to whether there might be patterns in ant behaviour that could translate into a sort of "language". At the very least, it would be very helpful to know the proper phrasing for, "Please stay off my toe."