Researchers from the University of Western Australia tested different military strategies with the help of ants, reports the daily newspaper La Libre Belgique with reference to the British press.

Before setting up this experiment, the researchers simulated various battles in the video game “Age of Empires II”. The process was simple. In the first challenge, a group of “Teutonic Knights” faced off against a group of “swordsmen with a sword in each hand.” The knights, being stronger, defeated the swordsmen. But in subsequent tests, scientists multiplied the number of fencers by five. After this change, the results were the opposite.

These strategies were then applied to ants. The researchers decided to contrast two different species: Argentine and Australian meat ants.

The Argentine ant is only two millimeters in size and creates large colonies. This species corresponds to a group of swordsmen in a video game.

The Australian meat ant is much larger, its weight for its size is 40 times greater than the Argentine one. Therefore, she represents a group of knights.

Then the tests were done. To begin with, it was observed that Australian ants did not attack Argentine ants. However, Argentine ants sometimes tried to confront their opponents, but did not hold up in the fight. After 24 hours, none of the Argentine ants survived.

Researchers from the University of Western Australia made other observations. The more Argentine ants there were, the more Australian ants were killed. They also found that Australian meat ants were more resilient in a complex environment than in a simple one.

Finally, the researchers concluded their experiment with the following observation: “Environmental complexity influences the relationship between group size and group fighting ability.”

The paper, Complex battlefields favor strong soldiers over large armies in animal social warfare, was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). (Source: News.ro / Photo: Dreamstime.com)