I think the explanation is that the ants use external memory: instead of
trying to keep information in their tiny brains, they rely on chemical
markers. If an ant finds something tasty, it starts laying down a "great
food this way" trail on its way back to the anthill. Other ants follow
it, and when they find tasty food they also start to lay down a trail.
Eventually a very strong and straight trail emerges, bringing lots of
ants.
In your case I guess it must have been the nectar and ambrosia of ants
they discovered, so they really poured on the trail. When the food
vanished they still follwed it, and since they don't have a "nothing to
see here" trail chemical it remained, diverting ants from more
productive work. In time it will evaporate, but if there are traces of
the nectar nearby they might still be confused enough to replenish the
trail.
Hmm, might be useful for a "nice" pesticide: spray trail chemicals
around so that the ants will waste their resources. It will only work on
ants, and perhaps only on a single species of ants, but it sounds really
ecologically friendly (with the caveat of removing the ants, of course).
Extropian relevance: shows the power of spontaneous orders, and how a
very simple such order can sometimes go wrong. Foresight helps.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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