Detecting ant species to swim

Scientists in North Queensland have discovered a new ant species, believed to be the only species that can live, swim and navigate underwater.

Ants reside in the underwater mangroves and live by hiding in air pockets and swimming on the water. Researcher Simon Robson said he accidentally discovered them while studying another project.

" I was working with the filming group about insects living in the hills and they wanted to shoot these ants. I said, 'Put it on a rock in the middle of a puddle, it won't be able to go.' But the creature immediately crawled down from the rock, swam across the water and disappeared . "

" We were all amazed ."

Dr Robson said it was amazing that ants could survive in such a pitiful environment: "We have done a lot of research about feeding behavior here and found that ants are prey of a lot. creatures, when they swim, fish can eat, brown butterflies will eat, crabs can attack, it seems to be a dangerous place to live and we are trying to understand how they survived. ".

MT