- Eight-legged epicure
- Fancy footwork
- Silk architecture
- Let sleeping spiders lie
- Lazarus fly
- Mile-high club
- Colorful compass clocks
- Reinventing oneself
- Bug brain
- My (six) aching knees
- The ants go marching
- Foreign invasion
- Snorkeling in the rain
- Sunny honey
- Working stiff
- The bees and the birds
- Twinkle, twinkle, little bug
- Body tunes
The ants go marching
Yes, they are communicating with each other. Ants live in social groups and have developed a highly sophisticated chemical communication system. They leave chemical trails to lead their comrades to a newly discovered food source (to the dismay of picnickers everywhere), release chemical alarm signals to warn of predators, and have a personal chemical "signature" that lets ants know who is a member of their colony.
Chemical signals that one animal releases to influence the behavior of another animal, usually of the same species, are known as pheromones. Ants have different types of glands that release pheromones, several of which are in the head of the ant. Ants detect pheromones using their antennae.
When ants encounter their nestmates on the trail, they also sometimes offer them liquid food that they can store for long periods without digesting in an expandable sac called a crop. This exchange may excite the ant receiving the food and make it more likely to follow the scent trail.