Ant Bridge

As red ants scout their way to food, the terrain can sometimes get in the way. Here a leading scout has made their body into a bridge that their fellows can use to cross the watery gap. Take a close look at the water’s surface and you’ll see that the meniscus curves up to meet the rocks. That’s a clue that this image is really very small! For water on Earth, that curvature only occurs at lengths below a couple of millimeters, where surface tension has the power to overcome gravity’s efforts to flatten the surface. The ants’ bridge is only possible because the red ant is small enough and light enough for surface tension to support it. Learn more about the amazing interactions of ants and water in some of my previous posts. (Image credit: Chin Leong Teo; via Colossal)