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標題: [瞬間看地球] 巴西發現龐大螞蟻地下之城 [打印本頁]

作者: vandas    時間: 2012-2-11 05:24 AM     標題: 巴西發現龐大螞蟻地下之城

The bug society: Scientists excavate underground ant city that 'rivals the Great Wall of China' with a labyrinth of highways

A sophisticated underground ant city once populated by millions of insects has been discovered by a team of scientists.

The abandoned megalopolis, which features vast subterranean highways, paths and gardens, was found buried beneath the earth in Brazil.

It is thought to have housed one of the biggest ant colonies in the world. But no one is sure when the leafcutter species left and what caused their demise.


Underground city: The network of tunnels and dens built by millions of Leaf Cutter ants in Brazil

Experts poured ten tonnes of concrete into holes on the surface – which served as air conditioning ducts for the ants – to expose the tunnels by solidifying in the space.

It took ten days to pour the material down the labyrinth of channels, which covered an area of 500sq ft and extended to 26ft below the surface..

After a month, scientists, led by professor Luis Forgi, began digging and revealed the incredible city described as the ‘ant equivalent of the Great Wall of China’.

The community of ants – described as a ‘superorganism’ because of the way they coordinated themselves – carried out a Herculean task building their giant home.


Sophisticated: Scientists reveal concrete casts of the circular chambers and roads connecting them


Vast: The Leaf Cutters are said to form the second most complex society after our own

Each insect would have repeatedly carried loads of earth, weighing more times more than the worker, a distance of what would be just over half a mile in human terms.

In total, they excavated around 40 tonnes of soil to create the labyrinth, revealed the Nature’s Secret Power documentary, also featuring Dr Bert Hölldobler from the Arizona State University.

The network was designed to allow good ventilation and provide the shortest transport routes.

It features scores of highways connecting the main chambers – and, off the main routes, are side roads.

From there, paths branch out and lead to the many rubbish pits and fungus gardens, which are grown from the vegetation collected by the workers.

Leafcutter ants, which can produce similar colonies in a space the size of an acorn, have created such societies – all governed by a queen – all over the Americas.

The leaf-chewing creatures are understood to form the second most complex societies on Earth after our own.

A single queen will collect the 300million sperm form males before she sets up her colony.

Then, her spawn – whose size will determine their function and future caste – will go about building and collecting vegetation.

This plant matter is used to produce fungus, which sustains ant larvae – but must also be fed  itself with leaves.

Other ants’ sole role will be to take care of waste. They tend to be the older or more disposable of the community.

They store rubbish in dumps and then transport it outside of the city. In particular, they are responsible for the removal of dangerous parasites such as the phorid fly.

This creature sows its seed of destruction by laying its eggs into the crevices of the worker ants' head.


Detail: The tunnels, filled in by concrete, are dusted off to show its complexity


Signs: Holes on the surface provided the only clues of what was beneath


Method: Ten tonnes of concrete was pumped into the labyrynth

WHO LIVED IN THE MEGALOPOLIS?
The vast complex of tunnels in Brazil was once populated by the leafcutter ant.
The leaf-chewing creatures, pictured below, are understood to form the second most complex societies on Earth after our own.

A single queen will collect the 300million sperm form males before she sets up her colony.

Then, her spawn – whose size will determine their function and future caste – will go about building and collecting vegetation.


This plant matter is used to produce fungus, which sustains ant larvae.
Other ants’ sole role will be to take care of waste. They tend to be the older or more disposable in the community.

In particular, they are responsible for the removal of dangerous parasites such as the phorid fly. This creature sows its seed of destruction by laying its eggs into the crevices of the worker ants' head.

Larger ants, known as majors, are used to deter such enemies and are, in essence, an organised army. They can lift up to 50 times their weight. As with the armed forces in human societies they sometimes help with engineering projects such as digging tunnels.


作者: vandas    時間: 2012-2-11 05:25 AM


  (綜合外電報導)日前,一支科學家研究小組在巴西境內發現一個龐大的螞蟻地下之城,這是一個可棲息上百萬隻螞蟻的地下巢穴。

  這個龐大的切葉蟻地下之城是被廢棄的,裏面有大量的大道、小徑和菌圃,科學家認為這是世界上最大的螞蟻巢穴之一。但沒有人知道為什麼這個切葉蟻群會搬遷離開,荒廢這個地下巢穴。

  研究人員傾倒了十噸混凝土至這個地下巢穴,地下通道是螞蟻的通風管道和路徑,經過混凝土澆灌之後便將這個龐大的地下之城變得實體化。

  據悉,共花費了10天時間用來向這個地下螞蟻之城傾倒混凝土,該地下巢穴覆蓋面積達到500平方英尺,從地面延伸至地下26英尺深。

  經過一個月,該項研究負責人路易斯-福爾基(Luis Forgi)教授開始挖掘並呈現這個令人驚異的地下之城,它被稱為「螞蟻版中國長城」。

  螞蟻群體被描述為「超個體」,這是由於它們個體之間能夠協調工作,共同完成一項艱巨而龐大的建築任務。每只螞蟻在建築過程中將負載大量的泥土,更超過人類工人的負載比例,相當於人類負載物體每次往返半英裡以上的路徑。

  為了建築這個龐大的地下螞蟻之城,共計挖掘搬運了40噸泥土,從而形成迷宮般的地下巢穴。關於這個神奇的地下螞蟻之城將在紀錄片《自然的神秘力量》中詳細介紹,由美國亞歷桑那州大學伯特-霍爾多伯勒(Bert Holldobler)博士講解。

  這個地下螞蟻之城設計實現了最佳通風效果,可提供最短的運輸路徑。其內部有大量的路徑通往主巢穴,除了主要路徑之外,還有一些小通道相連接。這些路徑可用於運送垃圾和通往菌圃,菌圃是工蟻採集植物培育生長的地方。

  切葉蟻可在橡子大小的空間裡建築巢穴,形成一個螞蟻群落,由一隻蟻後來統治,切葉蟻巢穴遍及美國境內。切葉蟻被認為是地球上除人類之外第二個懂得構建複雜群落的生物。

  蟻後在收集3億個雄性螞蟻精子之後才開始建築它的地下城市,之後它排出蟻卵,不同體形大小的螞蟻將決定未來它們的職責和地位,它們將建造巢穴和收集植物。

  收集的植物用於産生用於餵養蟻卵的真菌,其他一些螞蟻的職責是處理地下巢穴中的垃圾廢物,通常它們是較年長或者自由性較強的群體。它們負責存儲和運輸垃圾,最終將這些垃圾傾倒在巢穴之外,它們還負責將蚤蠅等危險寄生蟲從巢穴中清除。據悉,蚤蠅的播種方式是將卵排在工蟻頭部的縫隙之中。


作者: vandas    時間: 2012-2-11 05:39 AM

[youtube]lFg21x2sj-M[/youtube]
作者: sam3537    時間: 2012-2-11 01:27 PM

thanks for sharing
作者: fatstore    時間: 2012-2-12 01:35 AM

據生物學家的估計,全球螞蟻加起來的總重量,比全人類總重還多。
作者: zeus87    時間: 2012-2-12 08:00 PM

WAO....
作者: rexchen    時間: 2012-2-19 03:10 AM

thxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
作者: strawberrychic    時間: 2012-2-19 04:26 AM

another form of life under the ground
作者: suncall    時間: 2012-2-20 12:03 PM

奇迹
作者: stayalert    時間: 2012-2-21 04:25 PM

这真的太神奇了!
作者: man911    時間: 2012-2-21 05:16 PM

奇迹啊
作者: 子七    時間: 2012-2-24 01:31 AM

大千世界真是无奇不有!
作者: AP1010    時間: 2012-2-24 01:53 AM

大自然的神奇!!
作者: Thierrymissu    時間: 2012-2-29 05:25 PM

thanks for sharing^^
unbelievable!! many things we dont know,
作者: mjwai    時間: 2012-2-29 09:02 PM

thanks for your sharing
作者: mikoo    時間: 2012-3-4 12:07 AM

神奇的自然现象
作者: bccd    時間: 2012-3-5 11:01 AM

thanks for sharing
作者: seraph111    時間: 2012-3-10 11:20 AM

好強
作者: erpkpk    時間: 2012-3-11 07:14 PM

gooddddddddddddddddddddddddd
作者: bccd    時間: 2012-3-15 09:07 AM

thanks for sharing
作者: balotan    時間: 2012-3-15 04:40 PM

it's really amazing...!!!!!!!!
作者: hwl198659    時間: 2012-3-20 02:30 PM

乖乖恐怖啊
作者: collin6232    時間: 2012-3-22 02:10 PM

龐大螞蟻巢穴,世界真是无奇不有!难得一见。
作者: wing1970    時間: 2012-3-25 11:18 PM

Thanks for sharing!
作者: nml422    時間: 2012-7-7 04:10 PM

太厲害了
作者: qiqigoh    時間: 2012-7-10 11:10 PM

哇,真的很大,好可怕
作者: wupv    時間: 2012-7-11 04:46 PM

大自然的奧妙..
但看起來好噁心..
謝謝分享
作者: ottngoi    時間: 2012-7-12 11:19 AM

大開眼介
作者: iop999    時間: 2012-7-12 08:52 PM

ding~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
作者: lhkeong    時間: 2012-7-14 12:41 PM

提示: 作者被禁止或刪除 內容自動屏蔽
作者: w6381    時間: 2012-7-14 01:05 PM

蟻後在收集3億個雄性螞蟻精子之後才開始建築它的地下城市
如果d蚂蚁走晒出黎就真系恐怖
作者: 神影者    時間: 2012-7-17 07:57 PM

有夠厲害的建築師,人類也不得不佩服。
作者: 果鲁鲁    時間: 2012-7-17 10:02 PM

這個片子貌似我也看過的,好像後來他們灌了好多水泥到螞蟻洞裏面,看看到底有多大的,具體多少噸水泥忘記了。哈哈~
作者: sundragon    時間: 2012-7-17 11:00 PM

thanks for sharing^^
作者: pavan    時間: 2012-7-19 04:56 PM

螞蟻版中國長城.....Thanks




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