Hi!
Herodotus mentions 3.102-105 gold-digging "ants", in size bigger than foxes but
smaller than dogs. Around 1995 someone called Michel Peissel claimed to have
solved the mystery in that the "ants" were marmots see e.g
http://www.marmotburrow.ucla.edu/goldants.html
http://www.marmotburrow.ucla.edu/time.html
and the "favoured explanation" how Herodotus could have come to have thought
they were ants is alledegly that the (old?)-persian word was marmot was
literally "mountain-ant". Despite attempts I haven't found out what
this Persian word actually is. Does anyone by chance know, or know how I
could find out (it's not mod. pers. it seems and it's not in Altiranisches
Worterbuch under the regular "ant" root 'mûra(ka)- or Av. maoirya).
Thanks! Harald