Quote:
Originally Posted by jwb
You should go on YouTube and look at bbc empire of the ants with Attenborough. It shows just such a super colony which he says has millions of queens. Sharing food and cooperating in farming aphids, etc. Maybe it's a more recent observation or maybe they're lying. But that'd definitely the impression they give.
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Saw it this morning
Although it doesn't go into the many conflicts that exist in anthills, and maybe more so in colonies consisting of many families, it still was a very good documentary, I thought.
I have also taken a quick look at some of Wilson's ideas which don't quite seem as radical as my first impression was, though still enough to cause noise among evolutionary theorists. I won't comment too much on it yet as I've written enough to digest.
As a closing comment for now, I do have the impression that super colonies may be made possible by the ants pheromone system. It is key to how they interact and it is also how they create infrastructure (scent highways), another arena where they could benefit from cooperation. The pheromone system is also something that sets them apart from other social hymenoptera like honey bees who do not form super colonies. At the same time, ants are kinda dumb with pheromones, like how they'll be easily fooled by anything that smells right.