Re: [Epic] Tyranids vs Tyranids

From: David Lado <lado_at_...>
Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 14:55:03 -0400 (EDT)

>>>On the other hand, I sure would like to know if an ant is isolated from its
>>>nest and queen will fare. Anybody aware of this kinda experiment ever
>>>conducted ?

>> Okay, so, if a fly gets trapped in your car, and you drive 50 miles and
>>the fly buzzes out at your destination, does it feel disoriented or lost?

>nOt QuITe SurE, wIlL tRy To AnSWeR aGaIN laTeR...
>
>But flies are not colony based aren' they ? But if we replicate the same
>exp. on a bee, but place it like 1000 miles away, the result would be
>interesting.

True, and your common house flys don't have a "nest" of any kind, and so
would be indifferent (indeed, completely unaware) of any translocation.
A displaced bee would probobly not "feel" anything, since bees probobly
don't have emotions of any kind, they operate strictly by stimulus-
respones (theirs is not to reason why...). Such a bee would continue on
what ever behavior it had been previously be doing (collecting nectar),
and then try to find it's way home. It would simply continue to look
until it found it's way home or died. By the way, honey bees navigate
in part by celestial cues, so it is possible that the bee could find
it's way home, even from 50 miles out. Unfortunately, your average bee
only lives about 8 days, so if it's too far away, it'll die of old age
before it makes it (plus, I don't know how often they need to eat).

>p.s. There are ant colonies that attack one another, and IIRC there is some
>kinda of slavery involved, if the assaulting colony wins.

Yes, they are some type of formic acid using ant. They raid the nests
of a related species, carrying off eggs and larvae. The larvae are
raised in the slavers nest and are imprinted to that colony, treating
it as their own, and doing their normal ant buisiness. The victim
species is also an acid spraying ant, and the slavers are immune to
their attack, so the raids always succeed. They never destroy the
nest though; they need a continuing supply of slaves since they hatch
no workers of their own.

David
Received on Sun Aug 31 1997 - 18:55:03 UTC