Ants will not get lost

Ants don't get lost.

Ants are social creatures. In the warm weather. They sometimes go out far in search of food.

Returning home from a long distance is not an easy task, but a small ant does not get lost. So how exactly do ants find their way home? We decided to find out through experimentation.

We put forward some hypotheses about the ant pathfinding method and designed the verification schemes separately.

1 Suppose an ant uses its antennae to find its way: choose an ant that is about to return to the nest, pick it up and use tweezers to remove its antennae, and then put it back in place to see if it can still follow the team back to the nest.

2 Suppose the ants use the surrounding scenery to find their way: while a group of ants are on their way back to the nest, use a simple screen to enclose them, and then use a flat plate to place it very low above the returning ants so that they cannot see the sky and the surrounding scenery. Under such conditions, if the ants can still return the same way, it means that the ants do not necessarily rely on the surrounding scenery to find their way.

3 Suppose the ants leave a scent on the road they have climbed on, and use the smell to identify the road when they return: on the road surface on which the ants have crawled, draw a line with your finger to disrupt the continuous scent. If the ants can still go back the way they came, it means that the ants are not using the smell left by themselves to find their way; Conversely, if the ants are confused for a short period of time, it means that the ants may be using smell to discern directions.

Through experiments and research, we have come to the following conclusions: ants are very keen on vision, and not only the scenery on land is used by ants to identify directions, but also the position of the sun and the sunlight shining from the blue sky can be used by ants to identify the direction of returning to the nest. In addition, in addition to relying on their eyes, ants can also recognize their way based on smells.

Some ants leave a scent on the ground they crawl on, and as long as they follow it when they return, they will not go astray. There are also ants that don't leave any special smell on the road they crawl on, but they can remember the smell of natural gas on the road to and from them, so they won't get lost.

Because ants have the ability to recognize their way, even if the sky is thick with clouds, or when the smell on the ground is destroyed, as long as there are still some clues that can be used, they will still find the nest, but it is just a few more detours.

Because of the ants' ability to recognize their way, even if the sky is thick with clouds or the smell on the ground is destroyed, they will still find the nest, but only walk a few steps.