The leaf-cutting ant accelerates when it feels like it's going to rain

Leaf-cutting ants are very hard to carry with wet leaves, so they run to avoid the rain. If their spoils get wet, they will leave and lose their accumulated achievements of the day.

In the empty rain forests of Central America, ants cut leaves to collect the leaves that they grow mushrooms on to make food. But rain can be very hard to resist, especially with a small ant. According to a study on the Sociaux Insectes in May, when ants cut leaves to feel that it is about to rain, they will rush to crawl to their nests.

Leaf-cut ants accelerate to keep the primer dry for proper reason: a heavier wet leaf piece doubles as a dry leaf piece.

Researchers from Argentina, Mexico and Peru have experimented with an Atta cephalotes leaf-cutting ant , in Costa Rica dealing with rain. Scientists put empty boxes filled with moist cotton on the ant's road in the forest.

When A. cephalotes passed through the boxes, they found the relative humidity higher, as if it was about to rain. In another experiment, scientists poured water on trees next to the path to simulate rain drops. Both situations make weaver ant colonies come to the nest 30% faster than normal, from about 1.21m / minute to 1.49m / min.

Scientists think that leaf-cutting ants accelerate to keep bait and dry themselves, with the right reason: a heavier wet leaf is twice a piece of dry leaf . In this study, when ant colonies or leaves were wet, ants were willing to leave the bait and return to the nest. But thanks to the rapid movement at the first sight of the rain, ant colonies can keep themselves dry and keep the leaves.