When The Ants Went Marching In.....The Ants' Legs.

the boring scientific,factual and technical ....all demands that i MUST elucidate a little... for the benefit of the ignoramus and the plebian...Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related families of wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. They are a diverse group of more than 12,000 species, with a higher diversity in the tropics. They are known for their highly organized colonies and nests, which sometimes consist of millions of individuals. Individuals are divided into sub-fertile, and more commonly sterile, females ("workers"), fertile males ("drones"), and fertile females ("queens"). Colonies can occupy and use a wide area of land to support them. Ant colonies are sometimes described as superorganisms because the colony appears to operate as a single entity.

the morphological divisions of the ant body is divided into the head,the thorax and the abdomen.the legs are six in number.... or as the esteemed entomolgists would jargon it..... 3 pairs of jointed legs...all of which arise from the thorax. each of the legs have 6 segments.... where the tibial spur is the vital segment which aids in motility,speed,defence and the other wondorus aspects of this little natural wonder.

the most fascinating ( only a 6 year old or a nature freak or a entomologist would find this fascinating....however... since im catering to a broad spectrum range)....is thatSome ants have a stinger and some can even inject poisonous acid from the stinger (the stinger is at the tip of the abdomen, the rear body segment).
i apologize( even though i am not responsible for designing or engineering the ant and its mechanisms).. that the sting is not a part of the leg.
partly because there is not much more to elaborate on the physiological or anatomical details of an ant leg....
and partly for the more flighty,err sorry.... LIVELY subjects......

heres the funny thing about the things that dont matter.......unless they are all over your bed while lie sleeping.....

they have been subjected to the mental vagrancies of peculiar scientific directions..... the long and short of it...... a certain Professor Harald Wolf of the University of Ulm, ( no i am not fabricating)....actually postulated that the ants have an in built pedometer....( that is an instrument which is used to measure distances travelled but counting the no. of strides on takes.)
the mathematics.... or simply the calculative results reveal... as per his research....it takes them a thousand strides from the nest to the feeder, they would of course assume that they needed to take another 1,000 strides to return to the nest.

"And if they take the 1,000 strides with shorter legs, this will take them over a shorter distance, and if the legs are extended it takes them over a longer distance"
here on.... the built in pedometer can be modified into a .... voila! ....odometer.!!!!(go look up the dictionary you nitwit)

and thus the attempt....prestigious study and scintific research which was of national importance revealed that ants could measure the distnaces that they walked etc.....and the final result of this swiss and german government funded study was published in the english journal called "LiveScience".
heres an extract from it.....

The ant "pedometer" technique was first proposed in 1904, but it remained untested until now.
Scientists trained desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, to walk along a straight path from their nest entrance to a feeder 30 feet away. If the nest or feeder was moved, the ants would break from their straight path after reaching the anticipated spot and search for their goal....
'Next, the researchers performed a little cosmetic surgery.
They glued stilt-like extensions to the legs of some ants to lengthen stride. The researchers shortened other ants' stride length by cutting off the critters' feet and lower legs, reducing their legs to stumps.
By manipulating the ants' stride lengths, the researchers could determine whether the insects were using an odometer-like mechanism to measure the distance, or counting off steps with an internal pedometer.
The ants on stilts took the right number of steps, but because of their increased stride length, marched past their goal. Stump-legged ants, meanwhile, fell short of the goal.
After getting used to their new legs, the ants were able to adjust their pedometer and zero in on home more precisely, suggesting that stride length serves as an ant pedometer."

this bought on a lot of outrage and reaction from amoeba equivalent animal activists.... in the form of juvenlie bloggers and drama queens.....and they used words like "karma whore".i plead stupidity and know not what and who is karma whore......

i do remember reading that the nobel prize winner in science... dr. richard feynmann had done a test on ants.... in a fit of boredom (and perhaps the sheer frustration of the inertia of his physics)... that he tried a memory test of sorts on ants......and tried to ferry them from point A to point B....using a certain amount of sugar.
the outraged ant lovers ..please note the act of kindness... and readers plz note that this wasnt a study of national importance.... but one of domestic disaster as the good mrs. feynmann had to deal with the loss of sugar and the sudden appearance of an swarm of ants....

i am unable to get poetic or even be literary about an ants leg in an abstract way.....im sure they are beautiful(!!!) and are amazing subjects of study......
but heres what is apparently true...( and very ridiculous too)....
that there are tips and conclusions of how toc athc ants,their dietary perferances....(they r VeRY fond of seeds).
activities like ant rearing and ant fighting are popular(dont ask in which circles...),there are certain insecta which MIMIC ANTS(!!!!!).....

Ants have been acclaimed for their wisdom since ancient times. They stand out at, or near, the peak of invertebrate development, displaying memory, learning, and the ability to correct mistakes. However, these intelligences are trapped inside rigid and programmed behavior patterns.

WHATEVER.....

theres jsut a couple of things that i have to mention...... in relation to ants....

there are frequent un precedented ant attacks in muy room in the hostel. i find ants ants crawling about all over the floor and the spew forth in the most lewd manner from all corners and crevices in between the tiles. the only effective way of dealing with this is...."puddling"
puddling is a system of flooding paddy nurseries.... a pre requesite in paddy agronomics to obtain a good crop.
puddling in muy room refers to the rapid emptying of about half a dozen buckets of water in muy room..... in the absecne of a hose pipe.... and allowing the water to naturally drain(read flow out) and artificially evaporate( read dry under the fan).

secondly.... there is a certain gentleman whom i had net some months back.... who "feeds" ants every evening while he stomps about on his evening walk.this comprises of sprinkling a mixture of flour and what not on the ant hills he sees on the roadside.
his rather beeligerent logic ...or counter question left me dumb founded....."who else will feed the ants..."

so much for them ants.....!!!!!!

Dear rest of the world.....

Ladies and Gentlemen
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.
The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience…I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked…
.You’re not as fat as you imagine.
Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you
Sing
Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss
Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.
Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch .
Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.
Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own..
Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.
Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.
Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on.

Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.
Don’t expect anyone else to support you.
Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.
Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it.
Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen…