@@WhyWorldWet 8 million is peanuts, termite queens can lay 30,000 eggs per day, and live for 50 years max. And they do this with only 1 mate per queen.
5:45 The video cuts right before the ant Wil E. Coyote's itself after cutting the leaf off which it was standing on. I need the next portion of that video.
I'm pretty sure that's intentional on the ant's part. That way it can just start walking home with the piece of leaf after it hits the ground. The ant is not going to take any damage from falling no matter the height.
Even if it seems as if they have no grip after that! They hold on to the rest of the leaf and do not fall to the ground with their leaves! They take the leaf and run home
Huge amateur ant nerd here. Love the video and the visuals. I have a minor quibble. OK I'm a little confused when she suggests queen alates may need multiple mating in order to have different castes of workers. It's my understanding what determines if a worker is a major or minor is mostly how much they are fed by their older sisters as larvae. And not all ants with polymorphism practice multiple mating. The first reason she mentions, that it protects from disease is more likely. However this is a notoriously difficult question in myrmecology so I will be hitting the books!
Polymorphic species produce different castes as needed, and is often dependant on how much food they have currently. Typically a queen will only start to produce majors and super majors if there is enough food to feed them and the rest of the colony. I don't believe mating with multiple males, has any effect on caste diversity. Bonus fact, some ant species use their majors as giant food banks, nearly bursting with nutrition to then feed to the rest of the colony via trophallaxis.
How I understand it is that she's saying the biodiversity that comes from multiple mates is what allows for the physical diversity. with little knowledge on the subject its most likely a mix of genetics and resources that can impact how the ants develop.
I know this was about leaf cutter ants and not other ant species, but also remember that ants did animal husbandry before us too, in the form of raising aphids
So these ants have have working agriculture, roads, specialized workforce, communication networks, rooms with heating and a damn air conditioning. We should take notes.
Much of what you describe is analogy. They're not compressing a gas in a coil made from forged metal, developing concrete, or launching COM-SATs. Some moderation is required.
@@vanleeuwenhoek Its not analogy. They literally do those things mentioned. You're just limiting the scope of those words to exactly how humans in the west in the 21st century do them.
I had seen a video about why you don't spend the night in the middle of the Rainforest, and what he showed in the video was his tent getting dismantled by leaf cutter ants.😬💀
Hymenoptera are so regal 👑. It makes sense for the social ones to have made a peasant class to serve them. I like to think the only reason ants 🐜: • don't have a larva-like form for the queen ant like termites • often don't have multiple queens unless in a foreign environment is because of ego. The queens use their weak psychic power to unalive themselves, rather than be second best. Unless they are in a foreign land. In which case they are like "our species is better than all these other animals" and self-validate that way.
@crazywileycoyote It's too cold for too long and it doesn't produce the type of vegetation or a good environment for the fungus they like. They LOVE the southeastern US along the gulf.
No way! I literally just watched your Insane Biology of ants video from 3 years ago last night while going to bed and I get treated to this gem today! Thank you so much!
It'd also be interesting to see if the plants they harvest from specifically grow some leaves to have higher sugar content from the rest as a sort of sacrifice. If a leafcutter colony goes after a plant, and each leaf equally recieves damage from the ants, this should hypothetically be worse for the plant than 50% of the leaves remaining undamaged, and the other 50% being harvested. It's like how a human that has both their arms cut off at the elbow is worse off compared to a human that has one arm cut off at the shoulder, and the remaining arm is undamaged.
My only complaint about nebula is yhe lack of a watch list or playlist. I listen while working and dont always have free hands to pick the next video 26:25
There's Empires Of The Undergrowth, a top-down indie ant strategy game with different castes and scenarios. It's nice. Tho admittedly not as polished or fully realized as I would like.
Regarding their brains: ants aren’t intelligent individually. They aren’t even intelligent collectively. What’s so incredible about ants is that they are able to collectively carry out complex actions and solutions to problems *as if* they were intelligent. And it is evolution that brought them to this point one step at a time. Without teaching each other skills, they manage to farm and have a complex society just through the expression of their DNA. Amazing!!! (But not intelligent.)
With your nebula advertisement, I see imagery implying heal strike walking/running is the natural and proper way to run/walk But this is not true, in fact stepping down flatly in the middle or even on the front of your foot and rolling back or just running on the front of your foot is better. The reason for this is better shock absorption thus less stress on joints.
2:44 "these little guys are F-ing farmers" Instantly subscribed FOREVER. SPEAKING LIKE A HUMAN IS MUCH APPRECIATED! Wait they edited, now it sucks, UNSUSCRIBE
Ant Moses is canon Criminal to make a video of leaf cutters without talking about their strength. They’re the second strongest animals on the planet, after the dung beetles.
Hey could you tell that what aspect of them you are studying about??? Is it about their mandibles or something like biochemistry??? Just a little curious 😅
@@lusciouslucius Sure one thing not mentioned in the video (and not a spolier about something were gonna publish in the future lol) is their colonies are actually a triple symbiosis as the ants also have a relationship with bacteria that live on their exoskeleton that they also deposit on the fungus to stop it from getting sick.
@@AlbequerqueJoe Use every tool at your disposal. I don't have a PhD, but I did my bachelor's thesis the same way. I watched a couple of videos on the topic before reading actual research papers because even though YT might be surface-level or partially incorrect it's still a good way to ease yourself into a new topic. If I ever did a PhD I'd do it the same way.
Just a few points: "concrete" has rocks in it, probably not the best material to pour into tiny passages. What was used is probably cement. And carbon dioxide is not "toxic", the reason it is dangerous is because it displaces oxygen.
Classifying fungus eating ants, that don't actually eat plants, as herbavores seems lazy. It's like calling a carnivore a vegetarian, because the meat is eats comes from animals that eat plants. Fungivore?
If it is actually required to mate with the right types of males to have the correct variance in ant types, then the answer is simple. Either they know a way to select them with phermones etc, or those colonies die off immediately due to the lack of needed diversity to function.
"but scientists think" 14:20 it's funny how you use that word ignoring the fact that you are a scientist yourself...i mean this is one of the best science channels on this platform so no one deserves a "scientist" title more than you do...
I just love your videos so much. I enjoy the legitimacy and depth of the information that you provide, but you also throw in lil funny comments like "absolutely yolked bodyguards" lol. 🆒🆒🆒🆒🆒🆒🆒
If human society was that structured, think of what we could accomplish, on top of what we have already accomplished! There is this pesky little thing called freedom though.
As far as I know they don't. They are happy to take all the available leaves even if it kills the plants. However, I imagine that when the plants die, new ones grow that can be harvested in the future.
6:40 my peeps come on ! I know I’m not a scientist but the males deciding how the year to year colonies gather build defend or search for food is wild ! Based on how each male performs that’s nuts and wild ! They possibly found a way to have a cast system not based on culture or any social construct. Fun fun
Proverbs 6:6-8 KJV 6 Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: 7 Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, 8 Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. Proverbs 30:24-28 KJV 24 There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise: 25 The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer; 26 The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks; They are wonderfully designed by the Creator
i wanted to know whether they can cut through skin and picked a soldier. It hat no troubles at all cutting through my thumb multiple times, as I didn´t get it off immediately.
I love observing and casually studying ants since my late childhood. And the fact that my favorite science channel made a video about leafcutter ants made me gasp and click in it so fast! Thanks for yet again another brilliant video and superb research and narration. Long live science researchers
Watching this documentary was like watching a work of fiction where the author hypes up some character or creature through monumentally overblown feats that defy sense or reason. All while being cognisant of the fact that this is all real and these ants really are that insanely incredible. So incredible in fact that we have yet to even understand how they achieve some of the things they do. One of my favorite videos of you that just makes you go "No way." over and over.
I remember back in the nineties we were afraid of being ruled by giant bugs. These guys have balanced defense, infrastructure, environmentalism, agriculture and communal integrity. Can we get a leafcutter ant to run a country sometime if they're ever not busy?
Could the multiple baby daddies also provide familial pheromones similar to the super colonies of I think fire ants in the SW US? So many males mating from so many colonies means multiple colonies interbreeding. Multiple male siblings from one colonies mating with multiple females from several colonies would provide similar DNA so would these multiple future colonies be related and if not colorare then at least not attack each other? Maybe even on rare occasions accept another queen as their own in the event of a queens death. They definitely seem advanced enough for this.
Shout out to the scientist who tracked the queen ant amongst the millions. Like how
Queen Ants are lowkey Pernstars lol. 8 Baby daddies gangbang?! danggggg. 8 million babies?? dangggg
@@WhyWorldWetlmao hahahaha
@@WhyWorldWet 8 million is peanuts, termite queens can lay 30,000 eggs per day, and live for 50 years max. And they do this with only 1 mate per queen.
Just find their chamber while the colony is small.
Then wait for it to grow.
5:45 The video cuts right before the ant Wil E. Coyote's itself after cutting the leaf off which it was standing on. I need the next portion of that video.
Lol
They just fall with the leaf as a sort of parachute
I'm pretty sure that's intentional on the ant's part. That way it can just start walking home with the piece of leaf after it hits the ground. The ant is not going to take any damage from falling no matter the height.
Even if it seems as if they have no grip after that! They hold on to the rest of the leaf and do not fall to the ground with their leaves! They take the leaf and run home
That's called minimizing transport time.
This has got to be the best video from Real Science. It shakes up our "place" in the world regarding agriculture.
Im doing a mycology class rn and we had a seminar presentation about leafcutter ants. Nice!
I love when things align like that. That's awesome.
This makes me think of the channel AntsCanada and the video series with his giant rainforest vivarium. A pretty fun watch if you like nature shows!!
That guy puts out some of the highest quality content on TH-cam.
Same!
He's amazing. Way too high production quality!
"but this was no ant Moses"
You have no way of knowing that.
Huge amateur ant nerd here. Love the video and the visuals. I have a minor quibble.
OK I'm a little confused when she suggests queen alates may need multiple mating in order to have different castes of workers. It's my understanding what determines if a worker is a major or minor is mostly how much they are fed by their older sisters as larvae.
And not all ants with polymorphism practice multiple mating.
The first reason she mentions, that it protects from disease is more likely.
However this is a notoriously difficult question in myrmecology so I will be hitting the books!
Polymorphic species produce different castes as needed, and is often dependant on how much food they have currently. Typically a queen will only start to produce majors and super majors if there is enough food to feed them and the rest of the colony. I don't believe mating with multiple males, has any effect on caste diversity. Bonus fact, some ant species use their majors as giant food banks, nearly bursting with nutrition to then feed to the rest of the colony via trophallaxis.
It is confusing as she does later say the queen changes what is fed/nutrients to change the type.
How I understand it is that she's saying the biodiversity that comes from multiple mates is what allows for the physical diversity. with little knowledge on the subject its most likely a mix of genetics and resources that can impact how the ants develop.
I agree. I think that it is food related as opposed to gene related. Imo
its probably a bit of both. I don't think we fully know how much each influences it
I know this was about leaf cutter ants and not other ant species, but also remember that ants did animal husbandry before us too, in the form of raising aphids
Hearing "baby daddies" in a science video makes me laugh 🤣
So these ants have have working agriculture, roads, specialized workforce, communication networks, rooms with heating and a damn air conditioning. We should take notes.
Much of what you describe is analogy. They're not compressing a gas in a coil made from forged metal, developing concrete, or launching COM-SATs. Some moderation is required.
@@vanleeuwenhoek Its not analogy. They literally do those things mentioned. You're just limiting the scope of those words to exactly how humans in the west in the 21st century do them.
I had seen a video about why you don't spend the night in the middle of the Rainforest, and what he showed in the video was his tent getting dismantled by leaf cutter ants.😬💀
If you consider the colony as a colonial organism, the emergence of the winged reproductive ants is like it's broadcasting gametes to the wider world.
Why do ants follow the money? They're attracted to the cents.
Ba dum, tzz
Wow I didn't know the answers such an amazing sophisticated creature thank you for letting me know I loved it
I love nature documentaries. Fireant mounds in the southeast are everywhere, the ones you step on with a boot and step back. It's like an invasion.
Hymenoptera are so regal 👑.
It makes sense for the social ones to have made a peasant class to serve them.
I like to think the only reason ants 🐜:
• don't have a larva-like form for the queen ant like termites
• often don't have multiple queens unless in a foreign environment
is because of ego.
The queens use their weak psychic power to unalive themselves, rather than be second best.
Unless they are in a foreign land. In which case they are like "our species is better than all these other animals" and self-validate that way.
Several baby daddies, 3 to 8 sperm donations at once?? 😳 Call it what you want but the Queen Ant belongs to the streets 😂
Prostitution is the oldest profession.
Well, they do build roads. Maybe the workers know it too.
Tremendous research and presentation. Thanks.
Great job!
this is so cool im so happy u made this thank u ❤❤❤
fascinating documentary. thank you very much.
These ants are also fascinating from a pest control standpoint when they start attacking flowering plants in suburban neighborhoods.
Currently taking a class in pest control and never thought about that I guess they don't come to Canada
@crazywileycoyote It's too cold for too long and it doesn't produce the type of vegetation or a good environment for the fungus they like. They LOVE the southeastern US along the gulf.
Thinking about how ecologically devastating an Atta species would be if it became invasive
I love that pink armadillo art 💗
No way! I literally just watched your Insane Biology of ants video from 3 years ago last night while going to bed and I get treated to this gem today! Thank you so much!
It'd also be interesting to see if the plants they harvest from specifically grow some leaves to have higher sugar content from the rest as a sort of sacrifice. If a leafcutter colony goes after a plant, and each leaf equally recieves damage from the ants, this should hypothetically be worse for the plant than 50% of the leaves remaining undamaged, and the other 50% being harvested. It's like how a human that has both their arms cut off at the elbow is worse off compared to a human that has one arm cut off at the shoulder, and the remaining arm is undamaged.
My only complaint about nebula is yhe lack of a watch list or playlist. I listen while working and dont always have free hands to pick the next video 26:25
Leaf ants need a 4X game. I can already see myself throwing 70 hours on it and forgetting to tend to my social life.
call it
L I F T
There's Empires Of The Undergrowth, a top-down indie ant strategy game with different castes and scenarios. It's nice. Tho admittedly not as polished or fully realized as I would like.
Regarding their brains: ants aren’t intelligent individually. They aren’t even intelligent collectively. What’s so incredible about ants is that they are able to collectively carry out complex actions and solutions to problems *as if* they were intelligent. And it is evolution that brought them to this point one step at a time. Without teaching each other skills, they manage to farm and have a complex society just through the expression of their DNA. Amazing!!! (But not intelligent.)
But... but... how does the stridulation lead to stiffer leaves???
Im wondering the same...
Ant Queens have d the ultimate harem
With your nebula advertisement, I see imagery implying heal strike walking/running is the natural and proper way to run/walk But this is not true, in fact stepping down flatly in the middle or even on the front of your foot and rolling back or just running on the front of your foot is better. The reason for this is better shock absorption thus less stress on joints.
2:44 "these little guys are F-ing farmers" Instantly subscribed FOREVER. SPEAKING LIKE A HUMAN IS MUCH APPRECIATED! Wait they edited, now it sucks, UNSUSCRIBE
You should watch the Mola video😂
Was there an edit? For me it just says "These little guys are farmers"
@@MasterPleeb There's clearly a really bad cut there. I didn't notice it the first time through
Such a great video!
Be advised: "It's called obligate multiple mating and it is natural" will not save your marriage.
correct lol unless you are an Atta queen
@@realscienceyeah, ig you'll have to call ur wife atta queen (instead of atta girl), and that should do it
Yeah. But it's worth giving it a shot 😄
You are not ants. You are human. Your spouse would get angry if you cheat.
@@finaltheory778good thing you reminded them, you might've saved a few relationships.😶
My favorite type of ants. Farming before farming!
Calling the ants "yoked" was not something I expected to hear on this channel lol. Made me snort a bit :P
Recommendation: the thumbnails should've been an ant holding a leaf
I saying it, this is THE best series ever. I just about trip over myself in excitement when I see the words “The Insane Biology of:” ion my feed!
Ant Moses is canon
Criminal to make a video of leaf cutters without talking about their strength. They’re the second strongest animals on the planet, after the dung beetles.
To plants this video is a horror film. These ants are not collecting leaves. They are dismembering them.
Currently doing my PhD research on Leafcutter ants 🐜 so I will be watching very closely lol
give us some fun fact about them
Hey could you tell that what aspect of them you are studying about???
Is it about their mandibles or something like biochemistry???
Just a little curious 😅
@@lusciouslucius Sure one thing not mentioned in the video (and not a spolier about something were gonna publish in the future lol) is their colonies are actually a triple symbiosis as the ants also have a relationship with bacteria that live on their exoskeleton that they also deposit on the fungus to stop it from getting sick.
It's terrifying there's going to be another "doctor" out there with a youtube education.
@@AlbequerqueJoe Use every tool at your disposal. I don't have a PhD, but I did my bachelor's thesis the same way. I watched a couple of videos on the topic before reading actual research papers because even though YT might be surface-level or partially incorrect it's still a good way to ease yourself into a new topic. If I ever did a PhD I'd do it the same way.
go check out some ant hill castings. using molten aluminium instead of concrete. some really cool structure hiding just under our feet.
Ants are amazing!
Have you seen the channel AntsCanada? He's got an awesome video series with a rainforest vivarium!
5:35 I can't wait for this episode of Maury
I wonder how practical it'd be to sneak in a bug bot into a nest.
I love the smell of ants so much. It triggers something inside my brain.
Just a few points: "concrete" has rocks in it, probably not the best material to pour into tiny passages. What was used is probably cement. And carbon dioxide is not "toxic", the reason it is dangerous is because it displaces oxygen.
Nah, CO2 is toxic and its not just the air/oxygen displacement
9:22 Bruh imagine being that guy filming a close up of a super major biting you...
8:52 attaquate!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻10/10
If some nests grow to millions of individuals with just one queen, how long does she live?
“They’re fucking farmers” oh my god that’s insane
Did these farmers give permission? 😢
That appears to have been edited out already :(
Classifying fungus eating ants, that don't actually eat plants, as herbavores seems lazy. It's like calling a carnivore a vegetarian, because the meat is eats comes from animals that eat plants. Fungivore?
WOOO I LOVE REAL SCIENCE VIDS
I subscribed because I love animals too (video ideas the insane biology of mongooses)
If it is actually required to mate with the right types of males to have the correct variance in ant types, then the answer is simple. Either they know a way to select them with phermones etc, or those colonies die off immediately due to the lack of needed diversity to function.
"but scientists think" 14:20 it's funny how you use that word ignoring the fact that you are a scientist yourself...i mean this is one of the best science channels on this platform so no one deserves a "scientist" title more than you do...
Did you want them to say "we scientists" every time?
I just love your videos so much. I enjoy the legitimacy and depth of the information that you provide, but you also throw in lil funny comments like "absolutely yolked bodyguards" lol. 🆒🆒🆒🆒🆒🆒🆒
Phorid gnats also parasitize and eat land snails and will wipe out your pet snail population if they get in.
It's truly mind blowing to think that insects figured out farming long before humans even existed.
I wonder if I could befriend an ant. They're kindof adorable.
They stole my joint 1 time i let them have it
they grew mushrooms with it, thats pretty funny
She keeps "sperm" for 20ish years is crazy. But how did that sperm live 20ish years? Crazy.
The spermatheca acts as an incubator to keep it alive.
@patrickmorrey8722 it's still pretty old sperm lol.
If human society was that structured, think of what we could accomplish, on top of what we have already accomplished! There is this pesky little thing called freedom though.
these damn queen ants be playin civ6 for 2 decades
I am very doubtful that their polymorphism is caused by the queen mating with multiple males.
WOOOO LEAF CUTTERS my favorite ants
My old ass tv doesn’t support nebula or Magellan but when I have to replace it I get both yay
I thought you were gonna say the strigulation turns their mandibles into a multi-tool
You telling me an ant cut this leaf?
Perhaps they leave some leaves so that the plant can recover?
As far as I know they don't. They are happy to take all the available leaves even if it kills the plants. However, I imagine that when the plants die, new ones grow that can be harvested in the future.
Step aside Aliens, this is the true Perfect Organism! 😂
Easily one of my favorite species. Imagine if they combined with Herder ants
3:07 It's not agriculture it's fungiculture.
We need more ant videos
Thumbnail: "Jaws as strong as steel"
Me: crushes an ant with two fingers, jaws and the rest of its body
Sure are...
6:40 my peeps come on ! I know I’m not a scientist but the males deciding how the year to year colonies gather build defend or search for food is wild ! Based on how each male performs that’s nuts and wild !
They possibly found a way to have a cast system not based on culture or any social construct. Fun fun
Could humans also cultivate that fungi for our benefit?
5:20 what you mean?
- he says with 5 half brothers and sisters and 1 little sister.
15:08 Are you telling me that Aunt Moses is so fat that she leaves a cleared trail behind her on the forest floor.
Proverbs 6:6-8 KJV
6 Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: 7 Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, 8 Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
Proverbs 30:24-28 KJV
24 There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise: 25 The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer; 26 The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks;
They are wonderfully designed by the Creator
i wanted to know whether they can cut through skin and picked a soldier. It hat no troubles at all cutting through my thumb multiple times, as I didn´t get it off immediately.
For people who want to watch it happen, here is Coyote Peterson's leafcutter ant bite video:
th-cam.com/video/HtLddZHaXOk/w-d-xo.html
Loved video, Giant African Land Snails pleeeeaaase!
I love this. No Make up. No drama. Just Science. Subscribed!
It's no mistake that the designer creator of those ants inspired solomon, to say, go to the ant thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise
Immediately goes and plays Empires of the Undergrowth.
AY MY MAN!
Leafcutters used to be broken man I can't believe they got nerfed (and will get another)
searching for this, I wasn't disappointed
I love observing and casually studying ants since my late childhood. And the fact that my favorite science channel made a video about leafcutter ants made me gasp and click in it so fast! Thanks for yet again another brilliant video and superb research and narration. Long live science researchers
I just wish that I can direct or teach house ants to find the damn Queen termite somewhere beneath our house and eat it
Why do ants never get sick? It's because of the anty bodies.. 😂
Watching this documentary was like watching a work of fiction where the author hypes up some character or creature through monumentally overblown feats that defy sense or reason.
All while being cognisant of the fact that this is all real and these ants really are that insanely incredible. So incredible in fact that we have yet to even understand how they achieve some of the things they do. One of my favorite videos of you that just makes you go "No way." over and over.
I for one, welcome our new insect overlords! 🐜
11:31 That larva egg is looking kinda sus.
Please make a video about insect antennae.
I also think wind plays a part too
Wh 40k is ants!
woooohooooo :D got 2 colonies of these and am huge fans :D cant wait to learn some stuff about em
Nature is amazing but also creepy and gross AF 🤣. Another great video mate 👍
I love ants
Me 2
me 3
Brilliant they are. Me 4.
You want to find out? Im 6ft
I remember back in the nineties we were afraid of being ruled by giant bugs. These guys have balanced defense, infrastructure, environmentalism, agriculture and communal integrity. Can we get a leafcutter ant to run a country sometime if they're ever not busy?
Could the multiple baby daddies also provide familial pheromones similar to the super colonies of I think fire ants in the SW US? So many males mating from so many colonies means multiple colonies interbreeding.
Multiple male siblings from one colonies mating with multiple females from several colonies would provide similar DNA so would these multiple future colonies be related and if not colorare then at least not attack each other?
Maybe even on rare occasions accept another queen as their own in the event of a queens death. They definitely seem advanced enough for this.