![]() Its called the death spiral because they continue to go in circles until theyre exhausted and die. Actually, its a circular mill, first described in army ants by Schneirla (1944). The vortex of ants, called the ant death spiral by some, is a circular mill where a group of ants (sometimes hundreds to millions of ants) get separated from the main swarm and ended up following each others scent in a circle. When one ant starts to walk in a circle by mistake, others follow, marching in a circle until they are exhausted. Soldiers of army ants (Eciton species) have disproportionately large heads that house large adductor muscles that operate the equally large, ice-tong. A phenomenon where army ants follow each other in circles, sometimes until they die and thus known as an ant death spiral was captured on camera at a university in Venezuela. Ants follow a chemical trail left by the ants in front of them. Browse 349 death spiral photos and images available, or search for ant. ANTS Animal psychologist Ted Schneirla first described the army ant death spiral in 1944, based on his observations on Barro Colorado Island (BCI). "You'd think spiral-induced mortality would be selected against, that ants would have evolved a counter-measure to such obviously maladaptive behavior. From The Ant Room: This is one of my favorite things about ants the ant death spiral. Find Death Spiral stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. It's an odd phenomenon, but the more interesting question - from an evolutionary point of view, is why haven't ants over time learned to Un-spiral? Alex Wild, the photographer biologist whose blog, Myrmecos, I'm paraphrasing here, points out that getting into circular death traps is not exactly the best way to get your genes into the future. Her 'lead' role seems entirely random one moment she's moving along behind some other ant, then she just steps into a gap at a random moment, turns and without intention, the Death Spiral begins. ![]() ![]() If you watch it a couple of times you can find the "lead" ant inadvertently causing the trouble, but the 'leader' isn't a Napoleon type commanding the troops she's an accident. ![]()
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