Super colony of ants
I maintain that there are many other species more successful in the occupation of the planet than our own. Leaving out microorganisms I suspected ants to certainly be one of them. There are over 12000 known species of ants found almost on every corner of the world. The number of individuals one can imagine has to be staggering
Now there seems to be some evidence for this. Reported here and here. The original research appeared in the journal Insect Sociaux.
Apparently the Argentine ants have formed a global supercolony. The first question I guess comes to mind is how to define a supercolony. The simple definition used in this research is colonies that are not aggressive towards each other and comprise of individuals of the same species can be considered to be one. More or less I agree to this notion. Ants are territorial and colonies have been known to fight with each other.
So what has been observed here is that individuals belonging to colonies which may be continents apart appear to be tolerant of each other and show no signs of aggression.
The interesting thing is that the creation of the ant supercolony may be attributed to humans. By connecting the continents together humans may be responsible for spreading the Argentinian ants to different parts of the globe.
Interesting tidbits
* As few as ten workers and a single queen can establish a new colony
* ants may be the only group apart from mammals where interactive teaching has been observed
* ants may contribute 15–20% (on average and nearly 25% in the tropics) of the total terrestrial animal biomass, which exceeds that of the vertebrates
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