Re: Egalitarian societies and language and film studies

John writes:

>
> Research with ants in fact show that they do wages chemical and even
> biological warfare against each other. Some rainforest species of ants
> are shown to raise fungi which are species specific biological agents
> against other, more agressive species of ants. Other ants have evolved
> special soldier casts with glands that squirt jets of hydrochloric acid
> against possible invaders.
>

Gerry: What are you calling chemical and biological warfare? WOW. I
had no idea that ants were such bellicose critters! They squirt jets of
hydrochloric acid? You mean they actually manufacture the acid within
their body! It's a natural resource and one that should be tapped.
(you're not putting me on, are you?)

> Other special varieties of trees have evolved special ant-attracting
> secretions, as the presence of an active ant hive living in the tree is
> a very good preventative measure against leave and wood eating borer
> catapillars.
>

I had no idea ants were so fascinating. I need to read EO Wilson.
Thanks for the tip.

> Chemical and biological warfare is nothing new, it may be as old as the
> Cretaceous Period - 100 million years ago! The language of ants is
> also a very sophisticated biochemical one, based on modulating
> different secretions from different parts of the antenae, head and
> thorax segments. Ants are capable of responding to concentrations of
> these chemicals mixed to a dilution of one part to a billion! This is
> a nose that makes ours look "sightless" by comparison, and runs rings
> around even the most scent sensitive bloddhound.
>

WOW again. So chemical and biological warfare is "natural". And the
language of ants is bellicose too. QUESTION: these ants that respond
to secreted chemicals: are the attracted to it or repulsed? Either way,
I say we should extrapolate the formula and package it! It's the
perfect War & Peace solution.

> The biological world is not only stranger than we imagine, it is
> probably stranger than we are capable of imagining.
>
> John
>
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Gerald Reinhart
Independent Scholar
(650) 321-7378
waluk@...
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