Deep in tropical jungles
lie floating kingdoms, ruled by beautiful and deadly masters. They're sort of the high elves
of the ant kingdoms; talented architects that
create castles and city-states. But they are also fierce
and expansionist warriors, and their kingdoms are ensnared
in a never-ending war for survival. 'Oecophylla Weaver Ants' [Intro music] Oecophylla weavers walk on long legs, have slender bodies, and large eyes, which make them look pretty cute. Although, their strong mandibles
and the ability to shoot acid also make them pretty good at killing. But more on that later. Their colonies usually have
two to three worker classes that vary dramatically in size: majors, minors, and sometimes
even tiny minim workers. Depending on location and species, they vary in color from dark
brown to emerald green. Other than their fancy looks,
what makes weavers special is that they're in the
kingdom-building business. They like to build at
pretty much all heights, starting in shrubs a few
centimeters above the ground, and up to 10 meters in the tree canopy. But, they're not satisfied
with ruling just one plant. Weavers will look for twigs or lianas
that bridge the gap to other trees, and expand to every plant they can reach. This way, colonies spread upwards
and sideways through the treetops. The largest weaver ant
kingdoms we know of occupy up to 1,600 square meters, around four basketball courts, a lot of ground to cover for tiny ants, and impossibly hard to control. So, weaver ants construct dozens of
nests scattered all over their territory: outposts to defend the kingdom, tubes or balls made from leaves,
and ghostly silk sheets. These masterpieces
of high-ant architecture are created by the weaver majors, the larger worker ants, which are
responsible for the more dangerous jobs like fighting, foraging,
and nest construction. To start a new nest, a major tries to bend different leaves
in her surroundings into a tube. If one of the leaves is flexible enough,
more workers will arrive to help. Chains of workers pull
the leaf's edges together or reach across gaps and grab distant
leaves to add them to the construction. While the bending and pulling is going on, other workers carry larvae from the
closest nest to the construction site. Usually, ant larvae spin themselves
a cocoon to protect themselves. But the weaver ant larvae give all of their
silk to the colony as building material. So, when the workers tap the
larvae's heads on the leaf, they release their sticky thread
like tiny, cute glue guns. This way, the workers sew the bent leaf
onto itself so it won't unfold anymore. This creates a central chamber, that's used as the basis for up to 300
more leaves that are wound around it. Together, they form little pockets and act
as additional rooms for the new outpost. To make it even more cozy, minor workers use the larvae to weave
additional floors and chambers. Nests are usually constructed as
barracks on the territory's borders, or as storage for brood and food supplies. This way, the ants don't need to cross
vast distances to the headquarters, but have soldiers close to
any potential point of conflict. Apart from one special nest
in the middle of the network, which is reserved for the
queen and her guards. Here, she produces
hundreds of eggs a day, which get transferred to suitable
nests with brood chambers. So, a colony is a network
of little castles and moats, connected by suspension bridges
made from leaves, lianas, and twigs. An established colony easily has half a
million individuals that need to be fed. Fortunately, weaver ants
evolve to have very close and beneficial relationships
with their hosts: shrubs and trees. The tree gives the ants a home
and access to sweet sap to drink. But maybe even more importantly,
it allows them to cultivate cattle, like aphids or caterpillars, that
produce honeydew for them. This would usually hurt a tree, but these insects belong
to a small group of VIPs. Only a few selected neighbours and the
ants' cattle are allowed on the fruit tree. Many other insects, and even
larger herbivores are scared off, or even killed and eaten. So in most cases, the tree only has to
tolerate acceptable levels of damage while being protected from
more dangerous pests. The weaver ant kingdom could be an
ant paradise if there wasn't competition, mostly from other kingdoms. Just like medieval humans, every queen seeks to conquer others
and make their land their own. Controlling fertile land is the
key to survive in the jungle. And if a kingdom loses too much of it, it
shrinks and is overrun or starves to death. So expanding and defending their borders
is critical to keep the colony alive. When a kingdom invades another, it first gathers an army of
a few thousand majors who make their way towards
the opposing colony. The goal is to steal a bit of
territory and take it over. Defending weaver patrols
quickly spot the invaders and immediately release
an alarm pheromone. Some rush to the front to defend, while others rush to the
closest outposts for help, marking their route with pheromones. Whenever they meet other sisters, they jerk their bodies as if in a fight, to signal them to follow the
pheromone trail to the front line. At the site of battle, majors from
both parties raise their bodies, circle each other with
mandibles wide open, and try to seize their opponents. If an ant gets a hold of her opponent, the victim is pulled into a group of
allied majors and pinned down. The ants then rip the victim apart, clipping off antennae and legs, and slicing open their abdomens. To slow down the advance of the attackers, the defending majors squirt
formic acid over the battlefield, to chemically burn their targets. This is soon answered in the
same way by the attackers. In the chaotic battle, both parties lose countless fighters
on the increasingly acidic battlefield. After a few minutes, the backup
from the outposts arrive, and the time window for a
successful attack slowly closes. This is when the battle turns. The defenders slowly push
back the attack party. In the end, the attackers can't
keep up and have to retreat. For both parties, it was a costly battle. Thousands of corpses lie piled up
on the ground under the battlefield, and many ants are severely injured. The defending colony's nests
and brood are safe though. The attackers' attempt to steal
new valuable territory has failed... ...for today. They'll try again soon. But the kingdom will be ready. For the high ants of
the floating kingdoms, war is nothing special. It's just a fact of life. Because as we know, empires
never, ever have enough. And the weaver ants are ready to fight. This video is part three in a series that was developed with the
support of CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service, with thousands of documentaries
and non-fiction titles. CuriosityStream was founded by the same
people who started the Discovery Channel, so it's all about documentaries on
science, nature, history, technology, and pretty much any other topic
of interest you can think of. If you're the same as us and love to
learn things while watching fun videos, this is for you. For example, David Attenborough's
Ant Mountain, the perfect sequel to this video, to let you stay in the ant
realm for a little longer. You can watch thousands of
documentaries and non-fiction TV shows on all streaming devices
for only $2.99 per month. And there's a special treat
for Kurzgesagt viewers. By clicking the link in the inbox
and using the code 'Kurzgesagt', you get 25% off your annual plan. That means it's just $14.99 for the entire year. Thanks to our friends at
CuriosityStream for supporting us and making ambitious and beautiful
projects like this video happen. Stay antsy for part four and visit 'curiositystream.com/kurzgesagt'
to claim your discount. Thank you for watching. [Outro music] *quack*
[Outro music] [Outro music]
I would like to know more. Ants Canada delivers
Obviously evolution by natural selection is the way it happened but there are certain behaviors that just seem so amazingly complex that it’s hard to imagine how it started. Weaver ants using their larvae as tools to glue leaves together is one of those things. How the hell did that start?
This might be the most beautiful Kurzgesagt video (artistically) they‘ve made until now.
Now I want Sim Ant 2!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdpGAdB_zpc
That battle was very reminiscent of this BBC doco
This is basically the BBC video animated. You can watch the actual video of this instead of this animation and miss nothing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdpGAdB_zpc
Where's the Ant Man film about this?
Oh sweet, this is the video sequel that I've been the most unreasonably excited for in a while.
The wood elves of the insect world.