An ant nest can appear to be a jumble of tiny bodies moving independently. But every so often, something remarkable happens: much of the colony springs into action almost at once. These sudden ...

Moving from ant to ant, motion then ripples through the colony, activating a significant portion before the wave eventually runs its course. "In many collective systems, such cascades typically appear ...

An ant colony is sustained through complex social dynamics, with each member—the queen, males and workers (sterile females)—contributing to the greater community. Some species add complexity to this ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. The Argentine ant is one of the most invasive species of ...

One night, Mikey Bustos looked around a room he kept filled with ants in his home in Manila. “I have,” he announced, “a very serious problem.” His colony of fire ants was plotting an escape. Bustos is ...

Biologist E.O. Wilson once wrote that "ants are the most warlike of all animals," noting that clashes between ant colonies dwarfed the human battles at Waterloo and Gettysburg. But sometimes ant ...

In one ant species, a single female holds absolute reproductive power over her entire colony through a brutal act performed ...