This goes for most insects afaik, but why are ants always going as high as they can? When I have one check my hand out they always run up 
(I can understand that for insects with wings, not so much regular ant workers)
Also how come some are extremely hectic and prone to running off edges and falling? I understand there are different kinds of workers, but this ultra hectic behaviour doesnât seem useful at all haha
Honeypot ants are found in North America, Mexico as well as Australia. What makes their abdomens stretch has to do with the structure of the insect abdomen.
@anon63424221 , I will have to do some research into the erratic behavior, but I think the climbing can probably be explained with some reading on ant exploratory behavior (they tend to look for boundaries in enclosed spaces). But I will double check and write a full report in a bit.
Hmm⌠Iâm really liking these ants. Not sure why 
Or should my appropriate response be that I would avenge them? 
Edit: Thanks for the info! Iâve always thought ants were pretty cool 
Sony has enough money to buy take two?
Thatâs so cool! Thanks!
how long before those SA jungle militant killer ants make their march to the rest of the globe and swarm humankind (becoming the new dominant species) -and could they adapt/survive the cooler northern climate if they âdecidedâ to invade ?
(ie. AM I SAFE IN SCANDINAVIA FROM THESE VERY REAL but tiny MONSTERS?) 
To first try and address @anon63424221 's question: some ants simply move way faster than other ants. The Formica ants especially move quite quickly. And as I mentioned in Coralinecastellâs question above ants can cling to surfaces using those claws and hairs at the ends of their legs. The faster an ant moves the more likely they are to âmisstepâ (the same is true of people, which is why you shouldnât run on ice or uneven surfaces). So depending on the species ants may not be âjumping off edgesâ as much as they are falling off by accident. Larger ants are even more likely to fall than small ones, but some small ones can also fall.
The hectic behavior in question may just be because you are a big scary shadow, that disturbs the ants and causes them to try and run away (or seek shelter). Them falling off the ledge may have less to do with the speed of their motion and more to do with them trying to get far away from you.
To return to the question of why climb up? Ants are big on determining the boundaries of a space (especially trying to determine the extent of their own territory) rather than what a space contains. This helps a colony take up the largest territory possible, at least theoretically. Of course, taller objects like blades of grass or other plants tend to have insects on them, so a foraging ant looking for some food would be wise to climb up those structures looking for insects.
@yoel666 I donât consider myself educated on the topic, but I doubt Sony has the liquid assets on hand to simply buy take two, especially given the fact that GTA 5 is the most profitable entertainment product ever. However, if they were willing to mobilize some of their physical
investments or other forms of capital I donât doubt that Sony could make a pretty good offer.
To answer this question with ants, I am going to take a page out of âBunnies & Burrowsâ, and say that to the ant (which can count the number of steps between them and their nest in order to find their way back home When Ants Go Marching, They Count Their Steps | Live Science Oh,@yitzilitt thatâs another one⌠the stilt experiment was still big when I was entering grad school) both Take two and sonyâs respective cashflows would be huge and immense distances they wouldnât ever consider walking, the influx of respective cash would be on par with the caloric intake of the biggest ant colonies on the planet. I doubt ants would consider it ânormalâ for those two companies to try and merge into one. In normal ant colonies the only reason for those sorts of interactions is that one of the companies would be feeling incredible stress from another direction and had no other choice but to try and muscle in on the territory of the other colony. Ant colonies create little zones of âno mans landâ between them and typically have very little actual combat between colonies of the same species.
@Gnuffi I am unsure what ants you are referring to, the bullet ant perhaps? Or maybe some internet invented army ant? Ants have already shown themselves to be quite adaptable to cooler climates, and with global climate change they are likely to be able to enter further north. The biggest issue facing the northern expanse of SA jungle ants would be the loss in biodiversity that the are so dependent on. The main reason so many tropical ants are so big and so âexoticâ is the huge food availability the colony can access year round. So as the ants go north they are likely to grow smaller, as they have less food available to them. Also, if they were to expand up into NA they might face some issues from the already invasive species (especially the 2-3 argentine ant colonies that make up all of California).
Antwiki identifies 75 ant species known to Sweden, so Scandinavia certainly has some potential for new ant species to join the mix. http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Sweden
In all honesty, you have more to fear from the smaller invasive ants that plague many port cities moving in to city spaces.
remember seeing something about them marching/âmoving colonyâ quite far too, and sorta âlaying areas bareâ in their wake 
-sounds kinda like scary little critters 
If you want to learn more about them⌠Gotwald is your man. http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Gotwald,_William_H.,_Jr. (Link is now broken, will find new one at some point).
He wrote the book on army ants, quite a good read in my opinion.
As to if they could manage in particularly cold climates⌠It doesnât seem likely, the furthest north they go is probably South of Central USA. They tend to be found in deserts/jungles. A shame if you ask me.
Fun fact you might not know: army ants actually support entire subcommunities of myrmecophilic insects and arthropods (like there are a tremendous number of organisms that are âhangers onâ around an army ant colony, and they are not found anywhere else. Like silverfish, beetles and others.)
Trigger warning for @coralinecastell more ant feet (sort of):
But army ants even have birds that follow in their wake and catch insects that fly away from the advancing armies. Following the army ant-following birds | OUPblog
