Incredible ANT-ics! Close-up photography shows the amazing strength of these tiny insects

By HELEN COLLIS

Show of strength: The ants demonstrate their power by balancing giant seed pods from a Mimosa tree above their heads

Rarely have ants been captured on film in such a way that demonstrates their incredible relative strength and balance.
These fascinating close-up shots even appear to capture the character of each ant, as it 'performs' for the camera.
The incredible stunts range from balancing giant seed pods from a Mimosa tree above their heads to dramatically clinging on to each other in diamond formation on a tiny plant. And in an amazing show of strength they even move into different gravity-defying shapes as they carry their food back to the nest for the rest of their colony.
The stunning snaps were taken by keen photographer Eko Adiyanto, 40, who used a special macro technique to get up close and personal with the fascinating creatures.
Eko, from West Java, Indonesia, said: 'The ants are so small and to see how much power they have in their tiny bodies is fascinating.

The stunning snaps were taken by keen photographer Eko Adiyanto, from West Java, who used a special macro technique to get up close and personal with the fascinating creatures

Photographer Eko said the results are 'amazing, especially when the red ants appear to perform tricks' like this for the camera which are unseen to the naked eye

The stunts include dramatically clinging on to each other in diamond formation on a tiny plant

'There are a lot of insects roaming around near my house and I find it really interesting. I use macro photography to find out more about what they do.
'It's quite a difficult process but the results are good - and because it's difficult, when I get a good shot it's that much more satisfying.'
Eko said this unique perspective of the humble ant can only be captured in macro format and it requires 'a lot of patience, tenacity and high spirit because it can take a long time'.
He said: #But the results are amazing, especially when the red ants appear to perform tricks like this for the camera which are unseen to the naked eye.

Helping hand: 'The balance and strength is remarkable and something I will always remember,' said Eko


Eko, 40, used a special macro technique to get up close and personal with the fascinating creatures

'The balance and strength is remarkable and something I will always remember.'
Red ants live in colonies where each has their own role as either worker, drone or queen. The colony is so important they would sacrifice themselves to protect their home.
More than 11,000 species of ant are found across the world but the red ant is the most common and can be found in most gardens.

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Antsy fantasy: Russian photographer creates a fairytale world with obliging insects

By REBECCA SEALES

F-ANT-astic: The ant army shows off its teamwork, building a bridge against the backdrop of a glowing sunset. Photographer Andrey Pavlov hopes his pictures will form a bridge between reality and the world of fairytales

Is this real life? No, it's a beautiful f-ANT-asy.
These incredible pictures depict the imaginary antics of the humble ant, and could have been lifted from the pages of a fairy story.
In fact, they were shot by Russian photographer Andrey Pavlov, who spent hours setting up the scenes.

Bringing in the harvest: While Mr Pavlov spends hours creating scenes for the insects to inhabit, he says the natural curiosity of ants helps his work enormously

The intriguing insects are pictured carrying out a variety of unusual tasks, from sewing to weightlifting.
Mr Pavlov shot the images at an anthill just metres from his home in Moscow, Russia.
The snapper explained: 'For the last seven years I have always had my camera with me, but it was only when I had children and started reading them fairytales that I realised it was something I never did as a child.

Heave! The amazing creatures can't resist checking out the props, and look exactly like they're on a team fishing tip

'That's when I decided to make up for it and start creating some fairytales of my own.
'I used to work in theatre which was a big help when it came to making props, and I chose ants because I respect them and their way of life.
'They care about their children and look after the elderly. They have lived for millions of years.
'I take my inspiration from humans but luckily for me ants are quite inquisitive, which seems to make them very willing participants.'

Timeless: The amazing detail and unlikely juxtapositions give Mr Pavlov's pictures a make-believe feel - though of course, the ants are real

It's an ant's life: Shot in close-up, the insects on the left could be fighting - or passing something between them. On the right, an adult ant is seen carrying a youngster.


How do you drive this thing? The ants may be pondering how to transport the juicy morsel planted by the photographer, who says his prop-making skills come from his background in theatre

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Welcome to a brave new world: Genetic scientists create freakish man-made monster ants with huge heads and jaws

By ROB WAUGH

A supersoldier next to a normal ant: Scientists say they can create the supersoldiers at will by dabbing normal ant larvae with a special hormone - the larvae then develop into supersoldiers rather than normal soldier or worker ants

Nightmarish 'supersoldier' ants with huge heads and jaws have been created by activating ancient genes.
Scientists believe the monster ants may be a genetic throwback to an ancestor that lived millions of years ago.
Scientists say they can create the supersoldiers at will by dabbing normal ant larvae with a special hormone - the larvae then develop into supersoldiers rather than normal soldier or worker ants.

Supersoldier ants can occur naturally in the wild, but only rarely. In the deserts of America and Mexico, their job is to protect the colony from raids by invading army ants.
The supersoldiers use their enormous heads to block the nest entrance and attack any enemy ants that get too close.

Scientists created the monster ants in the laboratory by activating ancient ancestral genes

Scientists showed that ordinary ants of the species Pheidole morrisi contain all the genetic 'tools' needed to turn them into supersoldiers - they just need a hormonal push.
The research is reported today in the journal Science.
Authors Dr Rajendhran Rajakumar, from McGill University, Canada, and colleagues wrote: 'We uncovered an ancestral development potential to produce a novel supersoldier subcaste that has been retained throughout a hyperdiverse ant genus that evolved 35 to 60 million years ago.'
The results suggest that holding on to ancestral development toolkits may play an important role in evolving new physical traits, say the researchers.

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The ant who uses his marbles to scale giant green bubble that just won't burst

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Not budging: The tiny ant refuses to move as the wet rolling marble comes towards him

These fascinating pictures have captured the hilarious antics of a stubborn ant who refuses to move out of the way of a rolling marble.
The brilliant little critter refused to be fazed by the giant obstacle which formed a shape like a bubble due to rain.
The tiny ant must have thought he was losing his own marbles when - despite his best attempts - the towering 'bubble' just wouldn't burst.

Attack: The brave ant decides to climb on top of the marble which due to the rain water gives off the appearance of a giant bubble

The hilarious images were captured by amateur snapper Teguh Santosa outside his home in Indonesia in January.
Mr Santosa had placed marbles on a wall to try and divert the marching ants towards him - but this one refused to be moved as a marble set off down a slope.

Frustrated: The ant just can't get the 'bubble' to burst as he tramples all over it

'But this one refused to do so and just went over it.'
Amateur photographer Mr Santosa who began taking pictures 20 years ago with a loaned camera, got up at 6am to catch the ants on their morning hunt for food in his garden.
He added: 'For me ants are very expressive animals. Ant's movement seem to be the personification of man.
'Photographing ants require patience, because their beauty lies in the funny moments, which you have to wait around for.'

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He ANT heavy, he’s my son: Mother shows her strength with a bit of child’s play

By EMMA REYNOLDS

Flower power: Mother ant lifts her son high overhead while standing on top of a budding plant

The mighty ant can lift food and building materials 20 times its own bodyweight.

But these fascinating photos reveal the softer side of a bug's life.

A spindly yellow ant looks bewitchingly human as she lifts her son high overhead in a game that will be familiar to any parent.

Perched on a purple flower, this mother looks as loving as any from our species.

And further images show the entire close-knit family climbing on each other's backs, clinging to a branch together and rearing up on their back legs to gently touch feelers.

Photographer Thanh Ta Quang spent a month taking more than 2,000 shots to get the perfect pictures of the beautiful insects.

The 47-year-old studies the movements of his tiny subjects so he can work out the best time to catch them exhibiting their most interesting behaviour.


Back me up: A yellow insect poses gracefully on top of another, who balances on just one leg

He gets up early to head to forests, parks and grasslands for 8am, when the ants begin their working day and the light is at its best.

Another one of his pictures shows a group of the ants carefully transporting a cocoon, which larvae spin around themselves out of silk.

The colony also use the silk to stick together pieces of leaf from which they build their nests.

The grown ant will eventually emerge from its cocoon a pale yellow colour, which will gradually darken as it gets older.


Nice to meet you: Two of the amazing creatures touch feelers in what looks remarkably like a human handshake

Its exoskeleton will also harden as it grows, making it better at carrying heavy objects and performing the acrobatics seen in these shots.

The photographer, known as Adegsm, said: 'Finding the ants is easy but taking a good picture is difficult.

'It requires patience and a lot of time.'

But the committed artist added: 'I find photography entertaining and love the adventure.'


Wrapped up: The ant family give a lift to one of the children who is still wrapped up in its silk cocoon

He has also photographed ants fighting and performing acrobatic feats at Gia Dinh Park, near his home in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

There are more than 10,000 ant species around the world, especially in tropical forests.

Yellow ants like these are common in the south of Vietnam, often swarming over plants that produce sweet fruit.

Ho Chi Minh City even has a hotel called the Golden Ant.


Hanging out: Two relaxed-looking ant friends mirror each other as they dangle from a tiny twig

The amazing lighting does make the ants look as if they are glowing. But their gentle appearance belies a crueller side.

The sting of the yellow ant is poisonous to humans - meaning that looking at these photos may be a safer bet than getting up close.

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Tasting the rainbow: The ants whose multi-coloured abdomens show exactly what they've been eating

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

A good palette: Some of the ants even wandered from one colour to another, creating new combinations in their stomachs

The saying 'you are what you eat' is true for these insects as stunning pictures show their abdomens changing colour as they sip on sugar drops.

Father of three Mohamed Babu set up the photographs after his wife, Shameem, showed him some ants had turned white after drinking spilt milk.

He gave the creatures the brightly coloured sugar drops and watched as their transparent stomachs matched the food they were eating.


Ring of colour: An ant's transparent abdomen shows the colour of the food they have eaten


Some of the ants even wandered from one colour to another, creating new combinations in their bodies.

Scientist Dr Babu, mixed the sugar drops with edible colours red, green, blue and yellow and placed them in his garden to attract the insects.

By placing them on a paraffin base the drops kept their shape when touched by the ants.


Eating their greens: The ants seemed to prefer lighter colours such as greens and yellow to darker blues

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Jungle insect shows amazing balance on one leg

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Talent: It's a safe bet that if this was an audition, this ant is through to the next round


It's like an audition for Insect's Got Talent - marvel at the amazing photograph of a fire ant performing a break-dancing move.

Robertus Agung Sudiatmoko captured the pose when a trail of fire ants passed near him in the small village of Cibinong, Indonesia.

He took lots of incredible snaps, but the most spectacular was undoubtedly the dancing ant, which unexpectedly hoisted itself up onto one of its right-hand legs for a staggering 30 seconds.


In another of Robertus' shots, one ant stands on top of a mini mountain, crossing his arms in prayer.

And just like the infamous biblical scene in which Moses receives the Ten Commandments from God, rays of light shoot from the sky, illuminating the tiny praying ant.

Another shows the animal’s super-human strength as it lifts a gigantic leaf - that measures more than 10 times its height - above its head, which is easily carried along on the ant’s journey.

Astonishingly, these pictures were Robertus’s very first attempt at close-up photography.

Robertus, who lives in Jakarta, said: ‘I only started doing macro shots in September, after saving up for the equipment - but I wanted to capture the best shots of the ant that I possibly could.

‘Then suddenly, when I least expected it, the ant just lifted itself on to its leg in a break dancing pose.

‘I've never ever break danced myself but instantly it reminded me of that.
‘I was really happy when I looked back through my shots to see the ant dancing as I was worried I had missed it.

‘For my first go it was a good shot - it will be hard to better that.’


On a wing and a prayer: This ant seems to have found religion


He added: ‘I took the pictures when a group of us got together hunting for good macro photo opportunities.

‘I was really desperate to get a good first shot so stood out in a rain storm waiting for the ants to come back out once the sun reappeared.’

Robertus, 29, who captured the astonishing images on his trusty Canon 40D with a 100mm macro lens attached, added: ‘I like ants because they are so independent - living and working together.

‘Ants are just like humans in that they are very organised and all go to work.

‘In larger colonies the sterile ringless females form groups of workers, soldiers or other specialised groups just like us.

‘They are simply fascinating.’


Leaf it out: Ants can easily carry many times their own weight


Robertus has shown the fire ant in their possible light, but rile them and you’d very sorry. They possess a fearsome sting that victims have likened to being burnt by fire – hence their name.

What’s more, the fire ant uses its pincers to lock itself onto its prey so it can inflict the maximum number of stings.

Each fire ant nest normally contains several hundred thousand insects and sometimes multiple queens.

The U.S spends a staggering $5million a year combating fire ants and treating people they’ve stung.


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Photographer snaps amazing picture of insect carrying petal back to its nest

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

The hard-working ant balances a huge yellow petal above its head as it marches on its hind legs back to its nest


This hard-working ant balances a huge yellow petal above its head as it marches along on its hind legs.

The 1cm-long insect carries food and flowers left for him by photographer Andiyan Lutfi under a mango tree near his house.

The red ant used the material to build a nest before queuing with other workers to quench his thirst on water droplets caught on an over-hanging branch.

Andiyan, 36, snaps away as the ants go about their day-to-day lives in Cibinong Village, Indonesia.

He said: 'I observe the amazing behaviour of the ants under the mango tree almost every day.

'I like to take photographs of the ants to show how extraordinary they are. They can work well as a team or as individuals.

'The ants take leaves or whatever else there is under the tree and make a nest out of them.

'These photos show a male ant biting into a yellow petal I gave him and taking it to their nest. They will bite into anything I give them.

'The female, or queen ant, usually stays in the nest.' The red ants, known locally as Rang-rang, live in colonies where each has their own role as either worker, drone or queen.

The colony is so important to the creatures that they would sacrifice themselves to protect their home.


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Buzz off, this is OUR dinner: Angry wasps airlift ants away from their food

By MATT BLAKE

Angry wasp: Instead of finding his own food, the barb-tailed bully swoops in, sweeps them up and airdrops the ants elsewhere before guzzling their tasty haul himself


He should really mind his own buzz-ness, but this angry wasp's not going to listen to a tiny ant's terrified pleas.

Instead of finding his own food, the barb-tailed bully swoops in, sweeps them up and airdrops the ants elsewhere before guzzling their tasty haul himself.

Sometimes they return in greater numbers to reclaim the lost meal, biting and spitting acid at their resilient mugger. But the determined wasp just picks them up again and dumps them further away - and from a greater height.

And he's not the only one of his kind to use his superior size to muscle smaller competitors away from a feast.

Scientists at Victoria University, in Wellington, New Zealand, say wasps have developped the tactic to gain access to food they wouldn't otherwise have.


Determined: Sometimes the ants return in greater numbers in a bid to reclaim the lost meal, biting and spitting acid at their giant mugger. But the determined wasp just picks them up again and dumps them further away


They made the startling discovery by studying interactions between native ants and invasive wasps in South Island beech forests.

Videotapes taken at bait stations show that wasps frustrated by having to compete with ants will pick them up in their mandibles, fly off and drop them away from the food.

As the number of ants on the food increases, so does the frequency of ant-dropping and the distance the ants are taken.

For the ants, say researchers Dr Phil Lester and Dr Julien Grangier, the experience is the human equivalent of being thrown up to half the length of a football field.

The ants are not physically hurt but appear stunned by the drop and often do not return to the bait station.

The wasp, Vespula vulgaris, is on the list of the world’s 100 worst invasive species and reaches the highest known density in South Island beech forests.

There, when competing for food, they dominate just about every animal except native ants.

'Despite being 200 times smaller,' said Dr Lester, 'the ants are able to hold their own by rushing at the wasps, spraying them with acid and biting them. Eventually the wasps get so angry they pick up the ant, take it away and return to eat the food.


Tactics: Wasps often drop the competitor from a great height which doesn't always hurt but they often decide not to come back


'The strategy works. It’s giving the wasp access to resources it wouldn’t otherwise have.'

Dr Grangier added: 'To the best of our knowledge this behaviour has never been observed before.

'Our results suggest that these insects can assess the degree and type of competition they are facing and adapt their behaviour accordingly.

'It’s a new interaction between a native and an invasive species and a wonderful example of behavioural plasticity.'

He says the wasps’ ability to tune their behaviour according to the abundance and identity of competitors could help explain why they are so widespread and invasive.

The research findings are published today in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, one of the world’s leading publications in the field of biological sciences.

Dr Lester says other data gathered during the research suggests that ants may actually attract wasps in the first place.

'Wasps seem to hear ants "talking". They have nerves in their antennae that pick up pheromones or communication chemicals given out by the ants. So it could be the foraging ants that bring wasps to the food resource. Once there, they adjust their behaviour according to the level of competition imposed by these ants,' he added.


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Water way to go: The unlucky ant trapped in a raindrop grave

Doomed: The unlucky insect is unable to escape from his tiny water prison after being caught in a sudden downpour, in Queensland, Australia


This extraordinary image shows an ant trapped in a tiny perfect sphere of water, totally unable to escape, after being caught in a sudden heavy downpour.

The unlucky insect found itself literally caught in the rain after it decided to take a stroll outside in Noosaville, Queensland, Australia.

Photographer Adam Gormley, 34, was there at exactly the right moment to to snap the incredible image. He said: 'I had been using specialist close-up camera gear to snap spiders in his neighbour's garden.

'I wasn't having much luck because of a short but heavy shower of rain. So I decided to photograph the little water drops sitting on the leaves of the plants.'

Adam had no idea there was an ant in one of the three millimetre droplets until he viewed the images later on his computer.

He added: 'I thought it was some dirt inside the drop, and it was not my main focus, I liked the way the drop was sitting on the aloe-vera leaf, with the tiny hairs.

'When I uploaded the shot to my PC, I viewed it large, and I think I shouted out loud in excitement when I realised what I'd captured by accident!'

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