This morning while in the outdoor shower I noticed a group of ants clustered on the side of a little solar lantern that sits on the wall. The lantern doesn't work very well any more and it's been a while since it's been picked up or moved.
The ants were just under the lip of the top piece. When I leaned in, I saw that they were coming from a hole there, carrying egg cases.
I watched them carry the cases one by one down to the bottom of the lantern
and then disappear underneath it, only to reemerge and run back up for more.
I want to know why. Did the colony grow too large? Was it getting too hot in the lantern top, now that it's August and in the high nineties and the heavy rains are over? And aren't the ants beautiful? I think I can safely say I've never looked at ants as closely as I did today. Observing this group made me feel sort of protective, or at least made me want to just leave them alone, unlike the antvasion that I washed down the kitchen sink an hour ago.
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