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Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Fire Ants

   Fire ants picture: Closeup of ants forming a living raft in water
Fire Ant Life Raft
Photograph courtesy David Hu and Nathan J. Mlot
When a city floods, humans stack sandbags and raise levees. When a fire ant colony floods, the ants link up to form a literal life raft, such as the one pictured. Now, new research shows exactly how the ants manage this feat.

Engineering professor David Hu and graduate student Nathan J. Mlot at Georgia Institute of Technology had heard reports of ant rafts in the wild that last for weeks. (Watch a fire ant video.)Fire ants picture: Ants forming a raft on the water
Team Effort
Fire ants picture: Clusters of ants linked by a chain of ants
LifeLine

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