No, this is not deleted footage from Ant-Man & The Wasp, this is actual footage of an ant trying to steal a diamond.
Unlike some insects who are completely useless to planet Earth (I’m looking at you, wasps) ants are a productive species who are important to the very fabric of nature itself.
As a team, they are an unstoppable unit. On their own, they’re not as useful – or so I thought. As it turns out one ant can be a very good diamond thief.
What do ants need with diamonds anyway?
The footage was recorded at a diamond wholesaler in New York City. The person filming the attempted heist spotted movement on the table. When they zoomed in to find out what it is, it turned out to be a cheeky ant attempting to do a runner with one of the store’s diamonds.
To be fair I’m pretty impressed that an ant has the strength to lift up a diamond and keep on moving. However, ants – like most insects – are quite strong. According to Futurism, they are able to lift three times their own bodyweight and they can dangle while holding 100 times their own weight.
Which explains why this ant, in particular, had no trouble lifting the diamond. It’s got me wondering, where is he going with it? It’s not like they can pawn it off anywhere. Maybe it was sent on a solo mission on behalf of the colony to collect resources for a megastructure they are building which will one day eliminate the human race.
My God, I’ve been reading way too many sci-fi novels. That being said, maybe the notion isn’t too far off. Just like humans, they’ve conquered the world. You can find different species of ants all across the world – save for Antarctica, the Arctic and a few islands.
Ants work as a hive mind, with an army of them essentially acting as one entity. If you want an example of their ruthless efficiency, check out this video of a million ants coming together to form a bridge to take down a wasps nest.
Watch the amazing work of the ants here:
The incredible footage was taken in Brazil, and shows hundreds of thousands of ants clambering over one another to build a living bridge.
The video was filmed and shared on Twitter by electrical engineer, and apparent part-time ant enthusiast, Francisco Boni.
In Francisco’s video post he added a caption which read:
Attack of legionary ants (also known as army ants or marabunta) to a wasp honeycomb. Impressive the level of swarm intelligence and collective computation to form that bridge.
Flexing his knowledge on ants, he added:
When this type of attack happens, the wasps usually escape and the ants do not leave until they’ve completely looted the honeycomb, carrying pupae, larvae, and eggs, as well as some adults who did not manage to escape
They can even build across the water!
It’s official, my newest fear is human-sized ants coming to take over the world.
Time to call in the exterminators.
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