No, they didn't survive for years. They died after a short time, but their ranks were continually replenished by fresh ants falling from a colony above.
The ants who fell in died after a while, but the story is really about how they survived to form a colony close to a million through survival by cannibalism.
I guess the interesting thing is they built and maintained a nest which looked mostly like a colony. The colony's food source being the fresh falling ants you mentioned.
> "In total darkness, they have constructed an earthen mound, which they have maintained all-year-round by moulding it and keeping the nest entrances open," researchers wrote in a study in 2016, noting these ants are "a far cry from a fully functional colony".
"Difficult to tell from this vantage point if they will consume the captive Earth-men or merely enslave them...one thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here! And I for one welcome our new insect overlords. Like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality I could be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar-caves."
This is the kind of story older ants tell young ones about what happens when you stray into dark and forbidden tunnels.
No, they didn't survive for years. They died after a short time, but their ranks were continually replenished by fresh ants falling from a colony above.
The ants who fell in died after a while, but the story is really about how they survived to form a colony close to a million through survival by cannibalism.
I guess the interesting thing is they built and maintained a nest which looked mostly like a colony. The colony's food source being the fresh falling ants you mentioned.
> "In total darkness, they have constructed an earthen mound, which they have maintained all-year-round by moulding it and keeping the nest entrances open," researchers wrote in a study in 2016, noting these ants are "a far cry from a fully functional colony".
With no queen how could they reproduce down there after the originals died of old age though?
From the article:
> They were not reproducing, though. Instead, the population was being replenished through sheer accident.
Thank you. I was trying to figure out how entropy was maintained after food was metabolized.
Kill 1 ant, 2 more shall rise to take its place
Or fall.
ants of Theseus
So very happy that the story ended with them giving the trapped ants a path back to their colony
"Difficult to tell from this vantage point if they will consume the captive Earth-men or merely enslave them...one thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here! And I for one welcome our new insect overlords. Like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality I could be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar-caves."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4jWAwUb63c
(2019) with ants
Vyell, fak.
Imagine visiting the basement at Omelas and this happens.
Poor ants.
Literal hell for ants, until they were saved by a supreme being.