Articles
Ants: Swarm Intelligence
by Paula Weston
The behaviour of ants has long fascinated scientists. And why not?
These insects have the strength to carry food up to seven times their
own body weight, and set up amazingly complex colonies, with social
'castes' in which every member has a role.
In fact, ants are not only fascinating just to entomologists looking
at them under the microscope. In recent years, computer scientists
have been paying great attention to the way in which a colony of
ants can solve complex problems; in particular, how it finds the
shortest route to a food source.
Each insect in a colony seemed to have its own agenda, and yet the
group as a whole appeared to be highly organized. This organization
was not achieved under supervision, but through interaction among
individuals. This was most apparent in the way in which ants travel
to and from a food source.
Ants form and maintain a line to their food source by laying a trail
of pheromone, i.e. a chemical to which other members of the same
species are very sensitive. They deposit a certain amount of pheromone
while walking, and each ant prefers to follow a direction rich in
pheromone. This enables the ant colony to quickly find the shortest
route. The first ants to return should normally be those on the shortest
route, so this will be the first to be doubly marked by pheromone
(once in each direction). Thus other ants will be more attracted
to this route than to longer ones not yet doubly marked, which means
it will become even more strongly marked with pheromone.
Soon, therefore, nearly all the ants will choose this route. But
what if the ants happened to return from a longer route first, marking
it most strongly? Computer simulations show that this problem is
solved if the pheromone decays or evaporates slowly. This makes it
harder to maintain stable pheromone trails on longer routes.
Studying this uncanny skill has enabled researchers to create software
agents capable of solving complex IT problems, such as rerouting
traffic in a busy communications network.1
The Saharan Desert Ant has an equally amazing way of finding its
way back to its nest, involving complex mathematics called path integration
and horizontal projection.2
There are about 8,000 species of ants in the insect family Formicidae
(order Hymenoptera). They live all over the world, although they
generally prefer warmer climates, and range in size from 2 mm to
25 mm (0.08-1 inch).
Ants live eight
to ten weeks, passing through a four-stage life cycle—egg,
larva, pupa and adult. The workers are sterile females and do the
labour of the nest; the larger ones (the soldiers) defend
the colony. At certain times of the year, many species produce winged
males and queens. These fly into the air where they mate (with the
male dying soon afterwards). The fertilized queen then establishes
a new nest, and spends the rest of her life laying eggs.3
The social behaviour of ants is among the most complex in the insect
world. They communicate by touch and smell, constantly touching each
other to pass on their nest odour. There are also some fairly aggressive
tendencies exhibited by many ants (which, fortunately for our children,
recent animated films like Antz and A Bug's Life did not emphasize).
For example, ants have the ability to take over the nest of other
ant species, via a 'parasitic queen' and 'enslave' the inhabitants.
The queen will attack and kill the queen of the other species, and
then cover herself with the odour of the other queen so she will
be accepted by the colony residents. This is done by touching parts
of her body to all the open wounds of the dead queen. She then lays
her eggs, which are cared for by the colony ants. As the parasitic
eggs hatch and the new queen's ants become more abundant, they capture
the larvae of the original colony and use them as slaves when they
hatch. These 'hostages' grow up and must take care of the upkeep
of the nest and its invaders.4 Not a pretty thought!5
All ants have
amazing design features. They have two sets of jaws—the
outer pair is used for carrying objects and for digging, while the
inner pair is used for chewing. Some ants can lift food items (be
they leaves, grains or other insects) that are up to seven times
as heavy as themselves.
All ants play an important role in the economy of a fallen world.
They control the population numbers of many other species. Ants can
eat animals (vertebrates as well as other invertebrates like themselves),
plants, and even the seeds of many plants, as well as eating and
thus recycling dead organic material. Most ant species live in soil,
but some, like carpenter ants, live in wood (although they don't
actually eat the timber).
Ants are proficient hunters and are relentless in their search for
a nest, food, or even slaves. They are able to mount a coordinated
raid on an enemy colony, and are quick to defend their nests against
intruders.
Some ants have what is described as mutually beneficial, or 'symbiotic',
relationships with other insects, and even, in some cases, with fungi
(see aside below). One of the best examples of this mutualism occurs
with aphids ('plant lice'). These sap-sucking insects produce a sweet,
sticky substance known as honeydew, to which ants are highly attracted
as a food source.
The way this relationship works can be seen in the Cornfield Ant
and the Corn Root and Strawberry Aphids. Apparently to ensure they
remain well supplied in honeydew, Cornfield Ants will foster these
aphids, ward off any of their enemies and protect their eggs in winter.
In the case of the Corn Root Aphid, Cornfield Ants will collect aphid
eggs in the autumn (fall), protect them in their nests over winter,
then in spring, carry the young to smartweed and grass roots, where
they obtain nourishment. These young nymphs grow to become wingless
females, called stem mothers, that can produce live young without
mating. These stem mothers raise two or three generations on the
host plant, after which the ants return to carry the aphids to young
corn roots where the aphids breed another 10-20 generations.6
Under the care of the ants, the aphids thrive. The ants gain the
aphid honeydew 'excrement'; the aphids gain protectors who also act
as 'chauffeurs'. However, the ants, not the aphids, appear to control
the relationship. This is demonstrated occasionally when a winged
female aphid is hatched, and then tries to fly off to a different
host plant, away from the ants. It is then that the ants show their
authority by seizing the female and carrying her back into their
nest.4
The ant's highly complex social structure, life cycle, strength,
navigational abilities and the intelligence to 'farm' aphids, are
all said to be the result of evolution. Such a claim defies logic
and plain common sense.
When do evolutionists say that ants evolved? Britannica acknowledges
that there is disagreement among entomologists as to when members
of the order Hymenoptera first appeared on this planet. Some believe
it was 225 million years ago (allegedly the same time as the first
butterflies, moths and flies); others believe it was more like 150
million.
Britannica states
that many fossil ants are known from the Early Tertiary Period
(allegedly 60 million years ago), at which time 'males,
females and workers were already clearly differentiated'. Some of
these fossil ants—supposedly 60 million years old—have
been assigned to 'living genera'.7 In other words, fossil ants look
so much like ants today, they are classified in the same genus! What
this really means is that fossil ants were ants—no evolution
has taken place.
References and notes
1.
Bonabeau E. and Théraulaz G., Swarm Smarts, Scientific American
282(3):55, 2000.
2. Sarfati, J., Ants find their way by advanced mathematics, TJ 15(2):11-12,
2001.
3. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ed., 1:437, 1992.
4. Topoff, H., Slavemaking queens, Scientific American 281(5):60-66,
November 1999.
5. Such behaviours seem likely to be post-Fall, not part of a perfect
world. But caution is needed: insects (like plants) may not qualify
as 'nephesh' life. Not only might they have 'died' before the Fall,
but equally, in creatures at this barely sentient level of existence,
'suffering' may be a non-issue.
6. Grennstem, P.,
The ant and the aphid, <www.hortsource.com/gardenerseedfactstips.htm>,
12 June 2001.
7. Insects, Hymenoptera, Paleontology and classification, Encyclopaedia
Britannica CD-Rom, 1999.
Ants—NO
EVOLUTION
(See photo at link) The unusual-looking ant Zacryptocerus aztecus
from Mexico is identical to its ancient counterpart found in Caribbean
amber, supposedly 15-45 million years old. Think how many ant generations
would pass in such vast time periods. There are hundreds of examples
of such 'living fossils', highlighting the mythological nature
of the notion of evolution and millions of years.
(See photo at link). The same Caribbean amber also entombed this
Honeypot Ant (Leptomyrmex). Yet the identical species can be found
living today (less than an hour's drive, in fact, from Creation magazine's
office in Brisbane, Australia).
Fungus-growing ants
A group of ants known as the Attini, (which include the Leaf-cutter
Ants of southern USA) has developed a 'mutualistic' relationship
with a fungus. The ants 'farm' the fungus, protecting it from other
consumers, and so have on hand a ready food supply for the colony.
The mutually beneficial relationship works as follows:
Sections of leaves are cut from vegetation around the ant nest by
specialized ant workers;
The leaf sections are taken back to the ant nest, where they are
given to another group of specialized workers that process the leaves;
The processing workers reduce the leaf fragments to a mulch, which
is used to feed the ant colony's fungus garden. The fungus lives
on the nutrients in the mulch and uses the nutrients to grow. It
also produces special structures called gongylidia, which are eaten
by the ants;
The queen sits in the fungus garden laying her eggs. When the eggs
hatch, the larvae that emerge will eat the gongylidia while they
are being cared for by specialized nurse worker ants;
When the nutrients have been removed from the leaf material, the
waste is transported to special dump chambers, where dead ants and
dead fungus are also placed.1
Ants and their interactions with other organisms, <www.zi.ku.dk/personal/drnash/atta/default.htm>,
12 June 2001.
http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/413
Used
by permission of Creation Ministries International: wwwcreationontheweb.com
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