Army Ants

Anthony Palmieri
November 20, 1996
Contemporary Science Topics

Army Ants
A quote made by Lewis Thomas, "Ants are so much like human beings as to be an
embarrassment. They farm fungus, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies into war, use
chemical sprays to alarm and confuse enemies, and exchange information ceaselessly.
They do everything but watch television." I am going to focus this report on the part of the
quote, "..launch armies into war..," which sets a metaphor of ants and our armies in today's
society. Ants have many tactics, so to speak, that are similar to the way our armies have
when going to war.
Ants have many different roles in their society. One of the main roles that army ants
or soldier ants have is that they forage in masses for food. These masses of ants travel
together and are able to overcome and capture other social insects and large anthropoids,
they may occasionally kill larger animals but they do not eat them. As the need for food for
the larvae increases, food gathering raids become more intense.
The hunting raids made by ants are carried out by "armies" of thousands of ants and
set out from the bivouac in various directions. They form two or three parties going out
simultaneously in different directions for 100 yards or more. In the U.S. army we attack
countries in different areas to weaken the force we are attacking. We send out thousands of
troops in various directions and try to surround the source of the location being attacked. For
instance, if there are several locations that needed to be attacked to weaken the enemy,
like their weapon storage or air force base, we send several sets of troops to attack each
individual location. This is very similar to the way army ants set out on a hunting raid. They
will send out thousands of ants at once in two or three different directions.
When ants go out on their raids, a subgroup called Dorgline ants, walk along
margins of the trails as though protecting the smaller individuals in the center. Dorglines are
large soldiers that broaden the trail where it follows a narrow ledge of bark and twigs or
smooth the path where it crosses a rough plate and they do this with their own body. They do
this because footing for the large ants is better along the margins than in the midst of dense
mass of scurrying ants.
When the army wants to invade or occupy a county, they usually will set up aircraft
carriers in the surrounding oceans and set up air forces in neighboring countries. They do
this to protect the inside forces of troops and clears out a root for them to attack. They did
this type of tactic during the Persian Gulf War when we sent aircraft carriers into the Persian
Gulf and the Mediterranean and set up air forces and troops in the neighboring countries to
set up an attack. We later launched sea and air attacks to weaken the forces in Iraq. We
need these forces surrounding the area to launch missions to kill or damage the powerful
sources and then we send in the troops to tack care of the rest, like taking hostages or
capturing any of our hostages.
When the ants are sent from the bivouac, the leading ants have no odor for others to
follow. They often hesitate and hold back an advance but the pressure built up from behind
forces on side of the front line to bulge forward. As this movement slows down because of
the relief of pressure behind it, a new bulge develops and extends forward in another part of
the front. The result is a series of advances of different parts of the front which suggests
flanking movements. A presence of prey will accelerate the advance but the capture will
slow down as the prey is dismembered. So in turn, insects that ants come upon are attacked
very quickly by the mass of ants rushing upon them. Their pieces are brought back to the
biouvac for food and other sources of energy.
As the United States Army is sent from the homeland or base, they are very similar
to the way army ants behave. The Army sends a front line, as do ants, which is usually made
up of tanks and armed troops. As they advance closer to the site of the attack the front line
slows down till a backup force of a second and third line reaches the site. This is very similar
to the ants' flanking motion. A presence of the enemy will accelerate the attack from the
masses of troops and tanks that were formed. When the enemy has control of the attack
slows down and it brings any hostages or injured troops back to the home base. The army
ants have a very similar tactic in the presence of prey.
Both the army ants and the United States Army have many of the same military
tactics when going into war. It is amazing that ants and humans have some of the same
styles of launching wars and yet we are very different in physical attributes.