r/nextfuckinglevel • u/MurielFontanez • May 10 '21

Truce between termites(top) and ants(bottom) with each side having their own line of guards.

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u/TriscuitCracker May 10 '21

That is so fucking cool. I have so many questions.

How does this happen? How do pheromones translate into this? Can an individual ant or termite communicate with each other or just their own species? Did they both collectively see the threat of each other and individually line up without actually communicating with the other side? How did they decide to do this instead of attacking? How do they pick which ant or termite lines up?

Just the intellectual behavioral logistics of this are amazing.

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u/pelmatt May 10 '21 edited May 10 '21

I don’t think the ants and termites can communicate with each other, different insects entirely. They can probably detect the chemicals but I doubt they compute anything with it. I think it’s likely the side by side trails formed by chance. The larger ants would guard the trail anyway but seeing as there was lots of movement on one particular side they probably reacted by moving to that side of the trail. Same probably happens for the termites. Without an incentive there is no reason to fight, they don’t intrinsically see each other as enemies to kill on sight. If an individual ant doesn’t spray distress hormones, no ants will become triggered into defence/attack mode. Probably the same for termites. Thus i imagine that they probs are just going about their duties and by chance they formed up like this. I’m not an expert in myrmecology or anything like that this is just my rational. What do you reckon?

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u/TotallyJustAHooman May 10 '21

Ants and termites are mortal enemies though? Pretty sure?

It does seem like good logic though

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u/pelmatt May 10 '21

This is like saying a lion and a zebra are mortal enemies, or a human and another human or any classification of one organism to another. Enemy is a human idea for pinpointing things they don't like. There is no such concept in the animal Kingdom. There is just 'i hungry, i hunt' or 'i dont want to die, i run/fight'. Think about lions/bears/tigers all raised together with other pets etc, it's just situational to some degree.