I have a new queen. Lasius brevicornis. The queen is about 9mm Her nanitics are so tiny I'm going to cry. They are 1.5mm and transparent yellow.
They are smaller than the antennae on my Camponotus pennsylvanicus queen. Nanitics are the first workers in a colony and they are often smaller than the workers produced later when the colony is better established. But this is out of control. They are just so small.
They would make a fruit fly look like an elephant.
They still have six legs, tiny mandibles and tiny ant intentions and projects they are working on with their mother.
What do they have in their legs? One muscle fiber per joint?
They are so complex and tiny it's breaking my brain a little.
I don't understand why people aren't freaked about about this more often.
@futurebird As a youngster, I thought a lot about time perception in bugs and other small creatures – how they move SO fast, in proportion to their body size, and their reaction time is so fast... Couldn't get my head around it.
Definitely mind-bending how such small critters contain such incredible complexity!! So strange and wonderful
myrmepropagandist
merlin / alex glow