Ant season 2012
Ant season again! Its been suprisingly warm and humid up here, and the ants are coming back early. The carpenter ant colony hasn't been active, but the F. glacialis nest sure is busy today.
I saw a glacialis worker dragging the body of a fellow worker, whose mandibles where fastened on the body of yet another glacialis worker, this one still living! I can't imagine how the two got attached. My best guess is that one worker had been injured, and another tried to haul it to the burial grounds (injured ants are usually treated as dead) but was killed in the process. Or maybe it was attacking a glacialis worker from another colony. I cant locate another colony in the area, though. Maybe it was just the results of a domestic squabble. Maybe F. glacialis is domestically aggressive? Its not a very documented species, so I'm just shooting in the dark.
Either way, I'll definently do some research on that rigor mortis that causes the ants to have such a secure hold on things, even after expiring. Seen it twice so far and its very interesting.
