17 replies to this topic

[Spazmops]

What are the smartest and dumbest ants you have? I think most ants have around the same level of intelligence, but some certainly act smarter than others. I think my smartest is a Formica fusca group colony, and my dumbest are certainly my P. occidentalis. 

[Swirlysnowflake]

What are the smartest and dumbest ants you have? I think most ants have around the same level of intelligence, but some certainly act smarter than others. I think my smartest is a Formica fusca group colony, and my dumbest are certainly my P. occidentalis. 

My veromessor are the dumbest. No hate to them, but I dumped them into their outworld and it took them 5 days to even find the hole that leads into the formicarium (they were in a mini hearth). It also takes them forever to find food, and I accidently flooded their mini hearth once and they just sat in the water, not even moving into the dry half of the mini hearth.

Smartest are most certainly my tetramorium. 10/10 escape artists, they find the smallest hole and escape. they even brought sand inside their test tube to moisten it, then brought it back into the outworld. eventually there was so much moist sand outside they just moved into the sand. (i had to excavate them )

Edited by Swirlysnowflake, December 12 2020 - 12:34 PM.

[Spazmops]

Surprisingly, my Tetramorium seem pretty smart too

[ANTdrew]

Tetramorium quickly and efficiently do everything one would expect for their colony to thrive. There is a reason they dominate wherever they occur. I vote for them being the smartest.

[M_Ants]

Collectively they are probably the smartest. Gigantiops destructor seem the smartest as far as individual worker intelligence to me.

Oops. Supposed to be ants we own... In that case my Veromessor are the dumbest and my C. absquatulator are pretty smart.

Edited by M_Ants, December 12 2020 - 1:20 PM.

[Manitobant]

My smartest ant colony is definitely my tetramorium bicarinatum. They are very good escape artists and have found out how to chew through tar heel ants nest plugs (rubber ones). My dumbest ants would probably be my messor structor. There is a theme with harvester ants here, and these are no exception. They rarely eat any of the seeds i give them and when they do they keep them in the nest trash pile for months, they haven't really grown at all since I got them around a year ago, and they are the wimpiest ants I've ever seen. Back when i had them in a fortress, putting food in the outworld or watering the water tower would cause the whole colony to flood into the outworld with their brood.

Also allow me to apologize if mentioning these messor trashes your nice thread.

[Devi]

My tetramorium are certainly the smartest.  They love to try to obscure my vision of them and even once all huddled into the side part, found like loads of sand, (apparently there is more sand in there than it looks like) and built this HUGE mound.  I haven't seen them in months.  

[Swirlysnowflake]

Through majority vote, tetramorium are the smartest ant kept by hobbyists. great job, tetras.

[Manitobant]

Through majority vote, tetramorium are the smartest ant kept by hobbyists. great job, tetras.

myrmecia is much smarter, but all the aussies are currently asleep.

[DDD101DDD]

Honestly I'd say my Camponotus are dumbest while my Lasius neoniger has been the smartest. My Camponotus will try to carry a whole cricket by themselves and instead of working together they'll try to drag it away for hours. My Lasius however actually work together and cooperate to bring food back to the rest of the colony. Also I don't know if this was intentional but they made a bridge out of sand connecting the glass and the water tower a few months ago. I'm not sure if it serves any purpose or how they did it but it looked cool. Then I moved the glass to steal some pupae and it broke.

[OhNoNotAgain]

My Prenolepis queens are by far the dumbest, I think. The queens are totally incapable of doing anything for themselves after their workers died.

 

Tetramorium are for sure survivors, though individuals can act really stupid. There was a Tetramorium escaped worker in a Camponotus test tube, and she kept trying to pick up a bit of food despite being attacked by Camponotus.

 

My Camponotus fragilis act both smart and really creepy dumb. In winter they eat their own brood. But they have some really interesting fruit fly harvesting behavior. For example, one worker runs around knocking down fruit flies from the walls (I have no idea if this is intentional or just this one worker likes to freak out). Other workers kill them and pile them up. Others bring the piles closer to the nest entrance. Others take them from those close piles into the nest. They had a chamber just for processing the dead fruit flies.

But getting them to EAT fruit flies was another trick. Their default reaction to live fruit flies was "enemy alert! Kill and throw away!" I tricked them into carrying dead fruit flies through their nest, though, and some smart nanny ant figured out the fruit flies were edible. The memo went out and gradually they all learned.

 

Veromessor pergandei have been really amusing at times. I fondly remember when my massive colony was tiny and one hardworking nanitic was dragging in dandelion seeds, and another nanitic would notice the fluff end and haul them out as trash.

Eventually they starting removing the fluff off the dandelion seeds, but they'd still leave the short stem, and that would get mistaken for trash sometimes.

The one nanitic also kept bumping into fluff at the test tube entrance. She'd try backing into the tube with her seed, get off course due to the fluff, and miss the test tube. Then she'd try again. And miss. And try again. It was really hilarious.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, December 13 2020 - 10:36 AM.

[NickAnter]

My Nylanderia are probably my smartest, figuring out that when their was a lethal mold in the outworld, they needed to plug the nest. They made their own cotton plug and saved themselves while I was camping.

I think all my Myrmicines are stupid. Myrmicines in general have been very, very stupid in my care, drowning themselves, and so on. Hypoponera seem to be on their level as well. I havent kept a Tetramorium colony yet though, so Ill have to see how they are.

[Manitobant]

I know this is off topic, but if we are talking about the smartest ant in general that would probably be myrmecia. They are very inquisitive ants that are known to follow you around the room with their large eyes. Some species can also jump, which takes a lot of intelligence to pull off as an ant.

[M_Ants]

Smarter than Gigantiops destructor?

[Manitobant]

Maybe around the same though in my opinion myrmecia are smarter.

[ANTdrew]

My Nylanderia are probably my smartest, figuring out that when their was a lethal mold in the outworld, they needed to plug the nest. They made their own cotton plug and saved themselves while I was camping.
I think all my Myrmicines are stupid. Myrmicines in general have been very, very stupid in my care, drowning themselves, and so on. Hypoponera seem to be on their level as well. I havent kept a Tetramorium colony yet though, so Ill have to see how they are.

Nylanderia are really smart.

[Steve]

I kept formica rufa on a small island in my garden pond and seeing them removing spiderwebs from an old log was quite amazing (and not a behaviour I've ever heard about anywhere else!). They're interested in everything, work really well together at prey capture and movement and are very alert and aware of the movements of people nearby. Easily my favourite ants, but live in much too large nests (and are quite big ants) to easily house in a vivarium.

[Ants_Dakota]

I kept formica rufa on a small island in my garden pond and seeing them removing spiderwebs from an old log was quite amazing (and not a behaviour I've ever heard about anywhere else!). They're interested in everything, work really well together at prey capture and movement and are very alert and aware of the movements of people nearby. Easily my favourite ants, but live in much too large nests (and are quite big ants) to easily house in a vivarium.

2 awesome things. you have formica rufa and you have a garden island. both i envy.