To: Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University
From: David R. Woolley
Subject: Motionless Ant Colony
Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998
Prof. Wilson -
I'm sure you're very busy, but as an authority on ant societies I'm hoping you
might be interested in my question.
Last September, I was hiking with two friends on Mt. Tamalpais in the San
Francisco Bay area, when we came upon a large ant colony inhabiting a patch of
barren ground. The remarkable thing about it was that most of the ants were not
moving. A few of them were scurrying about as ants typically do, but the vast
majority appeared frozen in one place. Many of the motionless ants appeared to
be gripping one another.
We stood a few feet back and observed this scene for a few minutes, and it
didn't seem to change. Finally I moved in to take a closer look. When I put my
foot down near one edge of the colony, it seemed to break the spell, so to
speak: a wave of movement began near my foot and quickly spread across the
entire colony, so that within a 2 or 3 seconds all the ants were rushing about
this way and that, just as I've always seen ants behave.
I'm very curious about what the ants were doing while they were motionless. I
had never seen nor heard of such a thing before. Can you shed any light on this
behavior?
To: David R. Woolley
From: Kathleen M. Horton
Subject: FROM E O WILSON
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998
Dear Mr. Woolley:
Yours is an easy question. You witnessed a territorial war between two
colonies, a common event in the ant world. Such events typically entail
one-on-one combat between workers gathered in masses.
With best wishes,
E. O. Wilson
EOW:kmh
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Kathleen M. Horton Tel: 617-496-1034
Assistant with
Professor Edward Osborne Wilson
Pellegrino University Research Professor
and Honorary Curator in Entomology
Harvard University
Museum of Comparative Zoology
26 Oxford Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138-2902, USA