Bert Hölldobler: 3 ideas worth knowing

3 ideas from Bert Hölldobler, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.

Weaver ants glue leaves together using their own larvae as glue guns
To build a nest, weaver ants pull leaf edges together with their bodies, then carry their own silk-spinning larvae back and forth along the seam like living glue guns. The larvae s…
— Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson, Weaver Ants: Social Establishment and Maintenance of Territory
Some ants turn their own nestmates into living jars of honey for the whole colony
In honeypot ant colonies, certain workers called 'repletes' are deliberately overfed sugary liquid by their nestmates until their abdomens swell to the size of grapes, after which …
— Bert Hölldobler, Edward O. Wilson, The Ants
A single ant is almost helpless. An ant colony can act like one giant animal
No individual ant plans the colony's nest layout, food supply chains or defense, yet together thousands of ants reliably solve all three, through nothing more than simple local sig…
— Bert Hölldobler, E.O. Wilson, The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies

Five ideas worth knowing, every week