This reddit comment on #spiders #ants and #bees is quite interesting

https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureIsFuckingLit/comments/1jwpxxs/comment/mmm3m7i/

Copying it here if you don't want to click, links with reference at the end might be broken.

-- /u/lamplorde --

So I'm gonna bore people because I'm a bug nerd but:

There is a lot more going on in the insect world than we give credit to, because we simply dont have the technology to accurately study them at that size. Its funny to think about when we have microscopes that let us see the fundamental building blocks of the universe, but when it comes to insect physiology and how their brains work we know very little.

For instance, studies have lead to the theory that Bees most likely do have emotions. It was a simple study, done using Blue Flowers and the fact that Bees still kept a "heightened state" around the color blue when they started to associate it with food. But it doesnt stop there: there were also studies done on Ant colonies regarding their sleep schedules and we came to find that Carpenter Fire Ant Queens sleep for about the same amount of time as us humans, just in lots of little naps. But the interesting part of that one is not just how much they sleep but how. Scientists observed the Ants antenna twitching very similarly to our eyes during REM sleep, leading to the theory that Ants might dream. One last fun tidbit: Jumping Spiders are opportunistic pack hunters. They spend most of their life solitary, but are known to hunt together in mated pairs, becoming extremely effective together with the smaller Male often distracting the prey while the Female pounces. The odd part comes from the fact that they appear to communicate before hunts via a "language" done through foot stamping to plan. Not only that but Jumping Spiders are one of the few insects that display an understanding of Object Permanence, ranking them at least a little above an infant (not that that is saying much).

At the end of the day, we have so much going on below our feet. Entire little lives that we know so little about. Its an interesting and vibrant world.

EDIT By popular demand, things I should have included to begin with (the all important sources):

Bees and Emotion

Ants and Dreaming (My apologies, it was Fire Ants, not Carpenters

Jumping Spiders and Object Permanence

Which, when trying to find my old sources funnily enough brought me to a new (to me) study that Jumping Spiders might also dream

le 14 février, je déposais à l' #ANTS un dossier de demande de renouvellement de permis de conduire pour ma compagne. On m'annonçait 52 jours de délai !! c'était faux.C'est plus.
hier, on m'a dit que sa photo, validée par l'ANTS, était refusée à l'imprimerie nationale. Elle coche pourtant toutes les recommandations du site. Je viens de passer une heure à refaire la demande et c'est reparti pour une durée indéterminée. 12 justificatifs divers dans le dossier #Kafkaien. #servicepublic

"Resource exchange is a fundamental mode of cooperation in biological systems [1]. When multiple actors engage in the exchange of resources, they form transportation networks [2]. The emergence of these networks brings profound changes for its members, who are now exposed to the success or failure of other actors. The collective impacts of these interactions rippling through the network create their own emergent properties."

#ants
#hymenoptera

@futurebird

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2024.2342?af=R

Ants: Day 3. If you're just joining me: The ants arrived 2 days ago. I sprayed a citronella insect repellent under the kitchen window where their trail seemed to be. The next day (yesterday), their numbers were diminished, but they were still there. So I tried one of Martha Stewart's ant remedies: pepper. She said use ground pepper, but I saw cayenne pepper recommended somewhere else, so last night I sprinkled cayenne where the ants seemed to be.

Still not completely gone today, though. Some walked through the pepper, and others found a way around it. I saw they were definitely using a specific trail up to the window sill, and when I looked under the sill, I saw a tiny hole in the caulking that they would disappear into.

Not having any caulk handy, I hit on the idea of putting a bit of masking tape over that hole. Boy, did that cause some consternation! The traffic all backed up at the hole, and I could just hear them saying to each other, "This is the hole, right? WTF?! What are we supposed to do now?"

I imagine some intrepid souls will find another hole. Next step is probably Bob Vila's borax/sugar bait. I prefer deterrence to poisoning them, but the deterrence strategies aren't working.

"In the jungles of Borneo, there live soldier #ants called Colobopsis explodens that defend themselves by exploding themselves up. Victims are mostly small female workers. Larger workers grow a giant head. When an enemy threatens the nest, the worker ant sticks its large head into the opening, effectively blocking the entrance. These workers are also sterile females." #trivia #nature #animals

#Ants, like these _Oecophylla smaragdina_ weaver ants we have in our Social Insect Research Group at #ASU, really like juicy ortopterans. These weavers have no trouble catching, physically immobilizing (no paralysis), and transporting them. Crickets are *too slow* to escape.

A living door ant, Colobopsis impressa, has a cork-shaped head for plugging up her nest. Florida. #ants #colobopsis #interesting #insects

I like the imagery, but not the text. Title this cartoon!

@futurebird

This beautiful lady is Solenopsis invicta. Measuring barely over 2 mm long, she is a member of an incredibly successful species.

Unfortunately, she is far outside her native range, and doing incredible damage to her local ecosystem.

It isn't her fault that she's a fire ant.

#nature #natur #insects #insekten #ants #waldameisen
Häuschen bauen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59NPPsnLiKo

Noticed a couple #ants today on my walk that seemed to be... fighting was my first thought, but is almost certainly wrong. Communicating, I would guess, though it looks to me like one of those slap-fights in cartoons.

@futurebird probably knows what they're up to.

A winged ant on a floating leaf. He was in the water until he washed up on the leaf's shore, Robinson Crusoe-like. Here he stands, drying himself in the sun.

Saw one in my backyard today.
https://mastodon.art/@jencmars/114248382633016749
jencmars@mastodon.art - Expansion

The winter ants were deploying alates this afternoon

Expansion

The winter ants were deploying alates this afternoon

Partly sunny with a chance of passing showers and flying #ants.
#PRwx #mastodonPR #PuertoRico

cc @futurebird