Thursday, 2 July 2009

Ant Mega-Colony Takes Over World


A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered. Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same interrelated colony, and will refuse to fight one another.

The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination. In Europe, one vast colony of Argentine ants is thought to stretch for 3,700 miles along the Mediterranean coast, while another in the US, known as the 'Californian large', extends over 560 miles along the coast of California. A third huge colony exists on the west coast of Japan.

3 comment(s):

Pam Walter said...

If I thought about this too much I would lose sleep at night. www.satisfiedsole.com

Anonymous said...

I for one welcome our new insect overlords.

Cruiselife & Co said...

And I thought the red ants in my backyard were bad. Ugh