Works in the cemetery

October 20, 2020 .

Today an intense activity has begun in the cemetery of the ants. I worry, has the snail I gave them two days ago made them feel bad? Could it be that the elevated temperature in the house makes the ants more active?.

Many ants carry grains of sand that they deposit in chamber 2 of the cemetery, others carry pieces of agar with sugar that have given them days ago, some rotate several times through chamber 1 before placing them on the floor of the chamber.

The beginning of the works

I remind you of the shape of my anthill, the castle-nest in the area that would originally be foraging and the cemetery with its 5 chambers (c1, c2, c3, c4 and c5) in the cork part that was originally built for nest. Dead ants in c2.

My anthill, the cork chambers in the foreground, the foraging area and the nest in the background

At the end of the day, in addition to food and sand on c1, c2 (mostly) and c3, they have placed a difficult to identify object on c4.

The cork chambers at the end of the day

October 21, 2020.

The intense activity continues in the cemetery chambers, many ants transport grains of sand especially to chamber 2 of the cemetery, as the ant does "a", some ant places its grains of sand in chamber 3, as does the ant " b "(error or difference of criteria?), another ant, the" c ", moves the sand from chamber 3 to chamber 2.

Movements of ants during work

The ants do not obtain the sand from the area near the cemetery, such as the mountain, but from more remote areas, near the nest. I don't know how many ants participate in this activity, but at least I was able to count 5 simultaneously in the cork chambers.

The ants not only carry sand, they have filled c1 with poppy seeds and some chia and birdseed seeds. In the second drawing you can see how it looked at 10 in the morning. Although at night they had returned all the poppy and chia seeds to the nest. Poppy and chia seeds are only stored in the nest, there are none in the foraging area.

Racking of poppy seeds

October 22, 2020.

The ants continue to bring sand into chamber 2 of the cemetery. But camera 4 has changed, to the unidentified object that was two days ago they have added, dried squid remains, pieces of rape seed and ... the beetle.

Again the beetle! The artist ant expressing itself

The beetle still retains its shape, although it has lost its dark color and some of its wings have fallen off, but I see at least one of its wings among the objects in the camera.

An ant is dedicated to ordering objects, studies them and moves them around. After observing the ant's behavior for a certain time, I realize that it is the behavior of an artist.

October 23, 2020.

The objects placed in chamber 4 have increased: birdseed seeds, including one that I marked in red with acrylic paint, and I know that it was never inside the nest, the trunk of the cut plant, a green food compound, a piece cotton wool from the water tube and also a dead ant, possibly one of those that was buried in chamber 2.

I wonder if all the work of the ants is to transfer the four dead ants from chamber 2 to chamber 4. Part of what they have placed in c4 comes from c2, but there are also things brought from outside, for example the red canary seed.

They have added to the pile of precious objects one of the dead ants that was in c2

Meanwhile, the ants keep adding sand. I observe that the ants that put sand in c2 do it quickly, some so fast that they throw it without entering the chamber. But in general, they distribute it evenly on the surface.

Placing sand on c2

On c4 there is an ant that constantly arranges the contents of the chamber and carefully places the sand between the objects; seems to be making a mosaic in three dimensions, using sand as cement between the pieces.

Helping the artist ant

October 24, 2020.

Today they have put poppy seeds back in chamber 1 of the cemetery, but in the afternoon they were taken back to the castle-nest. I saw an ant posing the seed in chamber 2 of the cemetery, picking it up again, and walking around the chamber before marching with the seed to the nest. Other ants move sand from chamber 2 to chamber 4.

Strange behaviors in relation to the main chamber of the cemetery (c2)

October 25, 2020.

Work continues on the cemetery chambers. In the video you can see the artist ant or one of them placing stones in chamber 4 (speed increased).

The artist's work

In the following drawing the pyramidal shape of the objects and stones is better seen, resting them against the transparent plastic plate from where I can observe and make the video.

side view of c4, on the right the outside of the anthill from where I look

I have had the honor that the artist ant has chosen one of my hair, which must have fallen into the anthill, to be part of the objects in chamber 4.

View of c4 from inside, although it does not look very good there is a hair of mine

Today the ants have put poppy seeds back into chamber 1 of the cemetery and have taken them back at night.

October 27, 2020.

Today the ants are not moving at all, I don't even see them go out to drink. Maybe it's too cold, there's still no heating at home, I turn on a stove in the room.

The ants are very quiet, have they started to winter?

To see if they cheer up and continue the work, I put some chia seeds for them, they collect them and put them all in the nest. Then I put some poppy seeds, they also keep them all.

Chia and poppy seeds always cheer

In the morning there were about 40 poppy seeds in chamber 1 and three of chia. During the day they placed part of the seeds in chamber 2, but all of them were taken back to the nest. At night there were roughly the same number of seeds in chamber 1 and none in chamber 2.

Why would they put the seeds in c2 before taking them to the nest?

October 28, 2020.

Today I have seen a dead ant in the foraging area, it is a small ant and it is supported by its back against the plastic piece to place sugar water. It is near a piece of sugar agar that I put for the ants in that piece of plastic, and that they pulled out and distributed in various areas. Due to the posture of the dead ant (b) it may have been moved, since the typical posture of a dead ant is looking down (a).

Why do I think that the dead ant in the foraging area has been previously moved?

There is very little movement in the anthill, I only see a small ant at the entrance to the water tube with cotton wool, but it is not drinking, it has been immobile for so long that I can draw it. It only moves away when another ant, which is going to drink water, pushes it.

Is this ant sad?

The ant moves away from the water tube and goes to the bottom of the foraging area, passes near the dead ant, I have the impression that it knows it is there, but does not come close. She remains still on the plastic for a long time, looking out at the world outside the anthill.

Melancholia...

At the end of the day the ants have emptied the cemetery chambers of poppy seeds and have placed many behind the vertical tube of water, where they usually have a canary seed store.

Unusual site for poppy seeds

October 29th.

The dead ant is still in the same place as yesterday. The ants have cleaned an area between the two water pipes where I usually put food on them. There were seeds to which they had given little importance, like a slice and some pomegranate seeds and a few pieces of noodle. Although they had been walking over the seeds for many days, without seeming to bother them, now they had placed them at the bottom of the anthill, on the piece of blue plastic for the sugar water. I thought that maybe that was a garbage dump for ants.

Today there were no longer any poppy seeds in the foraging area. In the morning, the poppy seeds were distributed between chamber 1 and chamber 2 of the cemetery, a little later all the poppy seeds (approximately 80) were in chamber 1.

New movements of poppy seeds

In chamber 4 an ant was working intensely repositioning the objects in the chamber. You can see a bit of their activity (increased speed) in the video.

Intense work on camera 4

30th of October.

The dead ant is still in the same place, but now I see that they have put sand from it to the bottom of the plastic piece, where the seeds and objects that they placed yesterday are, along with others that they have placed tonight. I realize that it is not a garbage dump, it is a construction in honor of the dead ant.

The pile of sand and objects on the blue plastic plate is NOT a garbage can, but a tribute area

In chamber 4 of the cork cemetery an ant continues to work. They have taken a lot of sand out of chamber 2 and now one of the dead ants is half dug up. Some ants carry poppy seeds from chamber 1 to the nest.

Activity in cork chambers, half-buried dead ant in c2

At night I see a couple of ants enter the cemetery chambers. You may wonder why I point that out, many ants enter the cork chambers and sometimes two or three coincide, but you can tell that each one is going to do a specific job. In the latter case the two ants do not seem to have a specific objective and seem to be trying to decide something.

What are these two up to?

31 October.

The ants have moved their dead sister to the bottom of the blue plastic plate, and have placed near her the broken shell of the snail that I put days ago. But they have also removed the beetle from chamber 4 and possibly the dead ant that was in that same chamber, and now they are placed at the bottom of the blue plastic plate between a piece of noodle and a dried piece of pomegranate. They have added more sand and birdseed.

The beetle and the dead ant from chamber 4 become part of the new tribute area

Reviewing the photos taken with the mobile phone, I saw that the beetle was already in that same place on the 30th, but it was difficult to recognize, in the photo of the 31st (increasing the contrast a bit) it is already better recognized.

How difficult it can be to recognize the beetle among the pile of objects

The ants seem more excited today than normal, when I carefully turn the ant box to see the cork chambers, many come out of the castle-nest, some with their larvae. In the cork chambers, what is most striking is a large quantity of poppy seeds in chamber 1 (more than 100). In chamber 2 you can still see a bit of the dead ant. In chamber 4 an ant is still working.

Situation of the cameras on the 31st in the morning

What I tell you I saw early in the morning, the rest of what happened that same day I tell you below.

In the afternoon, the activity in the anthill was very great; in a few hours they had emptied the poppy seed bin from chamber 1 and placed them around the mountain.

Poppy seeds surrounding the old mountain, the dead ants and the beetle to its right on what looks like a new tribute mountain

The view from the castle nest was exciting. The drawing below is what I saw:

A bridge built with sand and seeds crossed the river of death. The dead ant was helped to cross it with the help of the beetle and the other dead ant. Poppy seeds served as a guide

The vision is not completely mine, it was the one that the Mayans had when they buried the dogs (the xoloitzcuintle) with their masters to guide them to the other world.

By the end of the day the ants had removed all the seeds from the foraging area.

November 6th.

It has been a week since the ants decided to place two of the dead ants on the blue plastic of the zona de forrajeo del hormiguero.

In the last few days there have been no big changes, but today I see one of the dead ants that had been displaced to the center of the foraging area.

The walk with the dead ant

A little later I see an ant moving the dead one to the place marked in the drawing with an x, I thought they could have decided to put it in the cork chamber where there were other dead ants. But it was not that, a few hours later it was at its original site (0). What I saw was simply a walk with the dead ant.

November 7 and 8.

On the 7th they had emptied the cork chambers of poppy seeds, they had all taken them to the nest. The two dead ants were still in the new burial mound, on top of the blue plastic.

No poppy seeds in the chambers

In chamber 2 a dead ant continued to be seen half-dug up. The next day they had put the poppy seeds back in the cork chambers and now there were 4 dead ants on the blue platform, one of them the one that was in chamber 2 yesterday; it is possible that the fourth ant also came from that chamber.

In one day they have refilled poppy seeds in chambers 1 and 3 and have taken at least one of the dead ants from c2 to the new mountain

These days there is a lot of activity taking sand to the new mound.

Bringing sand to the new tribute zone

There is also activity in the cork chambers bringing and carrying sand and seeds. Also, there are some ants working on chamber 2. Many of the objects from chamber 4 have passed into the mound in the blue plastic.

Bringing and carrying sand, but emptying c4

November 11.

In the morning I see that they have completely emptied chamber 4 of the cork anthill, all the contents are now in the new burial mound on top of the blue plastic. At 6 o'clock in the afternoon there is a dead ant in the foraging area, between the blue plastic and the entrance to the cork chambers, an ant approaches it, holds it with its jaws and for approximately 10 minutes it is dedicated to walking with the dead ant the cork chambers juggling some games that remind me of a dance.

The dance with the dead ant

In the diagram you can see the journey of the couple of ants during the 10 minutes that I followed them with the mobile camera. During the tour, the dead ant was perched on the ground at the points where an ant is drawn, meanwhile the transporter ant took a few empty laps through the chambers, like the one with the blue line. The video corresponds to the path drawn in red.

Dance path, in red what was recorded on the video

This second video is a detail of that journey at a slower speed.

Detail of the dance at normal speed

At night the dead ant had returned to the burial mound on the blue plastic.

November 13

This morning there is a lot of ant movement in the cemetery chambers; They may be scared when I changed the water for them. I see an ant that looks dead in chamber 2 of the cemetery, but no ... something is moving, it is not dead yet. It is not a small ant, because of its size it resembles the artists who worked in chambers 2 and 4.

Ant dying in chamber 2

The reaction to the dying ant was very varied: a small ant that entered the chamber got scared, recoiled and quickly returned the way it had come (1), others tried to help the half-dead one (2), even one of they transported the half-dead ant to chamber 3 (3), would she think that chamber 3 was more related to life than chamber 2?

Different reactions to the sister who dies

I don't know if she did it alone or was helped, but after a few hours, the ant was in chamber 2, completely dead.

At the end of the day the dead ant was transported to the new cemetery in the foraging area, next to the water pipe with cotton. But before removing it from the cork chambers, an ant performed the ritual dance, transporting the ant between chambers 2 and 1.

The dance path before the transfer of the dead woman to the new mountain in the forage area

It has been hard for me to see this ant die. It is not the same to see a dead ant as to see it die; especially when you think she may be one of those artists that you have admired so much. I have decided to open the bedroom window to lower the temperature. In part, it will decrease the activity of the ants, and on the other hand, it will also prevent me from observing them too much.

Let's see if the temperature drops and they start to winter

Today the situation of the cemeteries is that of the following drawing, the new cemetery between the water pipe and the plastic wall of the foraging area, the old cemetery in C2, in which I think there must be a dead ant because it still has sand. The upper chambers, C1, C3 and C5, are used as seed storage, especially for chia and poppies, but not always, because from time to time they are all taken to the nest.

The new cemetery is now within the foraging area, there is some old cemetery left in chamber 2, the c4 cemetery project was totally abandoned and the chamber emptied

With this I conclude my observation diary on the cemetery of my messor barbarus ants.