Air-conditioned ants: The secret behind their vast underground cities... ventilation



They are known for their industrious nature. But the humble ant's sophisticated home-making skills has left some of the brightest scientific minds in awe of the tiny creatures.



Researchers have discovered the vast underground colonies where up to seven million of the insects live have their very own in-built ventilation shafts.

It is thought the 'air-conditioning' helps ants tend to a delicately-balanced fungal garden that feeds their young.

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Hard workers: Underground ant colonies are so complex, they even have ventilation shafts

For years scientists have been at a loss as to how the industrious ants were able to keep their nests at just the right temperature to allow the fungus to grow... until now.

New research has shown that the insects make specially-constructed turrets which ventilate the nests for optimum growth.

According to a study published in the Journal of Insect Behaviour, the ants carefully create the turrets with highly porous walls which allows air to flow through the chambers.



It was already known that ant constructed the turrets, but this study is the first to reveal how they do it, it has been reported.

Sophisticated: Scientists could not work out how the ants built nests that stayed at the right temperature... until now

A team of researchers took a colony of grass-cutting ants into the lab to test their nest-building techniques with a range of different materials.

The ants were given clay, coarse sand and fine sand, with scientists regularly changing the quantity of the material and pouring water over them to simulate rain, according to the BBC.

Leading the study, Dr Marcela Cosarinksy, from Buenos Aires' Agentinian Museum of Natural Science told the BBC: 'When [the ants] finished a turret, we analysed the arrangement of the building materials [under] the microscope.

'The ants construct the turrets by stacking sand grains and little balls of clay that they mould with their [jaws].'

When pores collapsed under water, the walls would compact - and immediately the worker ants removed the materials and re-worked the turret wall.