Tunnels Under Anthill

Ever wonder what "the architecture of the subterranean nests of the Florida harvester ant" looks like? How about what the tunnels under an anthill looks like? Walter R. Tschinkel wanted to know, so he poured plaster into an anthill to find out. What he found was just another cool surprise from nature. The tunnels can be as deep as 3m, with about half the total area of the nest contained in the first 25% of the nest depth. The nest in the thumbnail image to the right was created by about 5,000 worker ants excavating 20kg of sand in about 4-5 days. A typical ant colony constructs one or two of these nests per year. In the nests, the ants arrange themselves with older ants in the upper parts of the structure, and the younger ants taking up positions in the lower parts -- with the younger ants tending to dig more than their older counterparts. The ant colony behaves like a superorganism. The findings are an interesting read -- and totally cool!