Monday, July 7, 2008

Ants!

Coinciciding with my picking up the "Ants" book, from Bhanu at the MNS AGM, I returned home and came across this colony of ants in my bathroom door, making further inroads into the masonry, and looking like they were under mass migration.

Fire ants are they?  I was so intrigued that I ran off, got my handycam, and took a quick movie (rather shaky), as I'm no good at this.

Apologies for the amateurish clip - I am no pro - and I was just so intrigued by these ants.  (Never mind, that they probably will end up in my clothes and I will get bitten for my troubles....





The book is fascinating in a horrible way, if you know what I mean. Great pictures, and the writing is so readable. Amazing creatures from all accounts, though I dont know if I "like" them.  They take slaves, kill off any other female ant beside the queen who goes and lays eggs....

The book is definitely worth it, and reads like a gory story of colonial rule!  Its called On A Trail With Ants:A Handbook of the Ants of Peninsular India. You can check out excerpts from the book here.

And the authors are Ajay Narendra and Sunil Kumar M.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Ambika,

    That was great job capturing the ants. I presume these might be busy transferring the eggs to safer place to protect from rain...

    I am sure you can send the clipping to the authors of ant book for identification.

    Hey I am impressed with your enthusiasm. Keep up & wishing you all the best for some anting around!!

    Cheers
    Bhanu

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi. Splendid post. Bhanu's comment seems to be accurate.

    Good enthu... keep it up.

    Regards. Bharat Bhushan

    ReplyDelete

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