WHAT ARE WE TO ANTS?
Known for their immaculate order of doing things, Ants are no doubt one of the most organized living creatures on the planet. Being a descendant of the formicidae family, along with associated bees and wasps, more than 13,800 of an estimated figure of 23,000 known species have been categorized(using elbowed antenna and varying body structure). They also belong to the class of Insecta and Phylum Arthropoda of the Animalia Kingdom.
Now here is the question that has been the center of my curiosity ever since I became aware of their existence and I know isn’t foreign to you too:
What do Ants make of us? Are we like giants to them? Do we make their earth tremble when we walk? Do our footprints make deep holes that they can fall into?
These series of fascinating questions bothered me persistently as a child and eventually became the thriving factor that led to this article.
The answer is "Yes" and "No"
Do not panic. It’s not as confusing as it resonates. Here’s a better clarification:
From the human point of view, yes, this is hundred percent true. We are giants to them. And of course we know this because our sight is a lot more sophisticated and we are intelligent enough to calculate sizes and length of objects. Let's take a moment and put ourselves in their tiny boots.
All insects have compound eyes, including Ants. Each compound eye is made up of units called ommatidia. These units vary in different sizes of Ants. Bigger ones like Australian Bull Ants can have their eyes made up of 650 ommatidia, while smaller ones like electric Ants can have up to 150 ommatidia. An ommatidium is similar to an eye lens and each one sees one cropped piece of the total image in view. So the whole eye sees one image but different segments of it. Just like a puzzle(or in this case a micro-puzzle). The higher the number of ommatidia, the clearer an image will appear.
Still perplexed? Worry not. We're getting there.
Due to the inability of their eyes to adjust to focal lengths, closer images appear clearer than distant ones. Although all images are blur, distant ones appear blurrier. So when our feet or hand becomes an obstacle in their path, they most likely only see our skin layer and nothing more. Hence, not being able to adjust to focal lengths and a non-complex intellectuality depriving them of the knowledge to survey the size of their obstacle. In layman’s terms, they don’t know what we look like.
Also when blocked this way, their only reflex choice is to detour around the hindering object, relocate their trail(hopefully), and continue with what they have going on. Because trust me, just like Bees, they can be very busy too.
