>> ^Yogi:
>> ^zombieater:
I was just at a social insect conference this weekend with Walter. He's a great speaker and really into fire ants! Makes me want to study them.

Did you get laid?


I did. But after I went home to my wife. Does that count?

I was just at a social insect conference this weekend with Walter. He's a great speaker and really into fire ants! Makes me want to study them.

Awesome! I want to see an ant mascot doing it too. Go social insects!

Wait, I didn';t know we had a bee! Yay for social insects. Now, we need wasps and termites.

MachineGunrock: From my forum, "Drone is not a myrmecological term, which is to say it has no formal use in regard to ants. As an entomological term the word refers only to the males of honeybees. In non-entomological language as applied to humans, drone refers to the concept of a mindless, duty-bound laborer, and there is a military use of the term as an unpiloted spy plane. Neither has anything to do with the apiarist's meaning of the word, though the first is somewhat similar to the way workers in a social insect colony are viewed. Either way, you won't see the word drone used in any scientific, or even in well-written popular writing on ants."

None. They do work together. One lone ant is dumb. Group of ants = smart.

In reply to your comment:
“amazing. a strict sense of moral duty built in.

no leaders? what, of any kind?



In reply to your comment:
“No one really knows. There are no leaders. Queens doesn't tell them what to do. They just do it and they communicate as social insects.

In reply to your comment:
“ so do ants know how to act due to a built-in genetic code that hardwires them for a task, or do they work using some form of collective consciousness? just wondering.



In reply to your comment:
“I don't rememeber if I sent you this quote before: "For me, the smartest animal's a pigeon." "Huh?" "1,000 cars on the turnpike, they find mine." "My vote goes to the ants." "How do you figure that?" "Know those farms they build? They build those things without plans. To ants! For all you do, this one's for you." --Cheers (unknown episode)””t””

amazing. a strict sense of moral duty built in.

no leaders? what, of any kind?



In reply to your comment:
“No one really knows. There are no leaders. Queens doesn't tell them what to do. They just do it and they communicate as social insects.

In reply to your comment:
“ so do ants know how to act due to a built-in genetic code that hardwires them for a task, or do they work using some form of collective consciousness? just wondering.



In reply to your comment:
“I don't rememeber if I sent you this quote before: "For me, the smartest animal's a pigeon." "Huh?" "1,000 cars on the turnpike, they find mine." "My vote goes to the ants." "How do you figure that?" "Know those farms they build? They build those things without plans. To ants! For all you do, this one's for you." --Cheers (unknown episode)””t”

No one really knows. There are no leaders. Queens doesn't tell them what to do. They just do it and they communicate as social insects.

In reply to your comment:
“ so do ants know how to act due to a built-in genetic code that hardwires them for a task, or do they work using some form of collective consciousness? just wondering.



In reply to your comment:
“I don't rememeber if I sent you this quote before: "For me, the smartest animal's a pigeon." "Huh?" "1,000 cars on the turnpike, they find mine." "My vote goes to the ants." "How do you figure that?" "Know those farms they build? They build those things without plans. To ants! For all you do, this one's for you." --Cheers (unknown episode)””t

Ants, wasps, termites, bees, etc. are all social insects.