Super-Colony of Ants Stretches across 4 Continents

New research on a mega-colony of Argentine ants has revealed that the colony has branches in Europe, California, and Japan. The ants from these colonies refuse to fight with each other and treat each other like family despite being separated by oceans. The colony is the largest known insect colony and rivals humans in it's scale and global domination.

In Europe, a colony stretches along 3,700 miles of Mediterranean coastline, while the California colony is about 560 miles long, and the Japan colony is comparable. The ants themselves are highly territorial and violent with any creature not belonging to the colony, be it native animals or rival insects, however, when the ants come into contact with those from one of the other branches of their mega-colony, they immediately know that they are dealing with a friend. The best explanation thus far, is that the ants are in fact family and they recognize each other based on the chemical composition of their cuticles. Ants from rival colonies (smaller such super-colonies exist) are very aggressive with each other. For example the ants from the Japan colony reacted very strongly to ants from a rival colony from the opposite coast of Japan.

Ironically, the mega-colony was created by humans inadvertently introducing the Argentine ants to other continents. "The enormous extent of this population is paralleled only by human society," writes the researchers in their report. At least it's comforting to know that a global society will live on after human beings have erased themselves from the picture.