Ant troops in fight to the death
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09/27/2002
In some down-to-earth news, more than 1,000 ants were observed fighting a pitched battle at a local military camp, leading to hundreds of deaths, Shanghai Morning Post reported.On September 22, Sun Xilun, a deputy director of a branch of the Shanghai armed police, led other armed police to a vegetable field near their camp at 9:00 am. They worked in the field as usual. After about 20 minutes, he suddenly noticed that at least 1,000 black ants, led by an ant general, were approaching a red ant fortress 30 metres away. When they were about 6 metres away from the red ant colony, about 400 red ants, also under the leadership of a general, climbed out as if in response to an alarm. They waited for several minutes as the black ants advanced towards them. A battle began. Though the black ants were slightly smaller than their opponents, they had the advantage of numbers. Two or three black ants would surround an enemy ant and bite it to death. The two groups fought each other for about 90 minutes. In the battle, the red leader was slain and most of the red ant troops were slaughtered. Police said the aim of the black ants had been to steal eggs from the red ant colony. Black ants can often be seen creeping into a red ant nest to carry off eggs, but it is very unusual to see ants fighting a major battle. China Daily news
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