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@futurebird So tell me, she who knows, I've got some bugs coming up in the next section of my series of novellas. What's a good documentary on ant behaviour, possibly bees, for me to steal some cool bits for my alien bugs? My characters will be literally crawling into the nest, so I need a good primer. A lecture recorded at a university might also work.
I'm so glad you asked. These are general overviews of some of the most famous kinds of ants that everyone should know about.
The Wood Ant Supercolony
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXKn1f5yVe0
Atta Cephalotes: The Leafcutter Ants, Ants who Farm Fungi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n0SkIGARuo
Weaver Ants (Ants who live in trees and make silk nests)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSmM3fVHwQQ
Army Ants (Ants that inspired horror stories)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prwdLQi2LFQ
Bull Ants (one of the largest ants)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vRRYsVUkwU
The most common error I've seen in #scifi representations of social insects is a deep misunderstanding about the role of the queen and the nature of the "hive mind" (such as it is)
1. Queen ants are not rulers, they are more like ovaries. The colony is like a body every cell is important.
2. Ants are individuals and do whatever they want. It just so happens that what they want is for the colony to thrive, but they can get in 'arguments' about HOW to do that most efficiently.
My least favorite scifi social insect trope is the one where they kill the queen then the whole colony dies or falls apart.
I've written a bit about what happens when the queen dies in real ant colonies here:
https://www.tumblr.com/futurebird/687923061354364928/the-queen-is-dead?source=share
@futurebird @golgaloth Such a beautiful article 