Austin (Kxan) – Residents of the capital of Texas are reporting ants floating on flood waters, who are making alive rafts from their bodies.
On Wednesday morning, an ostenite shared a video of such a fleet on Lake Travis.
When their underground nest is flooded, fire ants combine their legs and jaws together, which are together to make self-socks mounds. These floating colonies can have thousands of ants – and they can still bite or sting if they are upset.
Fire ants are widespread in Texas, and researchers at the University of Texas A&M are studying how they respond to floods.
Insects cut each other and interlock their organs, tightly packed rafts that do not drown. Their waxy skin helps in removing water and helps to preserve the group, as seen in the video from David Tod, a viewer of KXSAN’s KXAN:
Ed Labran, a research scientist at Bracanniase Field Lab, Texas at Central Austin, said, “This is called a self-ingredient or self-government process. And it only does social insects.”
“There are many other structures that make ants in an equal way. For example, army ants will be built beyond rivers,” Labran said.
Creating a “fleet”, however, is more rare in the world’s world: the only type of fire ants that do so according to the Lebon.
