The sun is scorching, the air is scorching, and the whole world seems to be in a microwave oven.

For the paver ants who rush to transport fruits, this is not a relative preference for cool temperatures, let alone a comfortable working environment.

Even though they are known for their industriousness, these ants have to sacrifice efficiency when carrying fruit, and try to choose shady routes, and the whole transportation line seems crooked.

Generally speaking, the most ants prefer a temperature of 25-35 degrees Celsius, which is similar to the preference of homeothermic animals like humans. Outside of this comfortable temperature, the ants will lose their vitality, and if it is too hot or too cold, beyond the range of 0-40 degrees Celsius, then the ants can easily die, or stay in a relatively safe and comfortable nest and refuse to go out.

But there are no absolutes, and there are some ants that can adapt to extreme temperatures.

For example, the Defective Bowback Ant, also known as the Tokyo Bowback Ant, and the Latin scientific name Camponotus vitiosus, is a widely distributed arboreal ant species. This kind of ant tree nests, and in the cold winter, the heat preservation of the tree hole is far less than that of the underground nest, so to speak, not much warmer than the outside.

But even in an environment of several degrees below zero, these flawed hunchback ants can still lay eggs and grow, and even continue to expand their nests, which is really not afraid of the cold.

Interestingly, the reason why the Blemishes Humpback Ant got its name is not because of the mischief of the namer, nor because the ant really has any natural flaws. The Latin name has no flawed connotation, but rather a vicious connotation. It seems that the person who named it lacks a good impression of this ant, could it be that it has been bitten? On the contrary, the common name of the Tokyo Bowback ant is more neutral.

Another similar example of strange naming is the fraudulent bowback ant, whose Latin scientific name is Camponotus decipiens, and the nickname "decipiens" originally means "deceitful, deceitful".

Why is there such a strange name? In fact, when it was first discovered, it was recorded as an ant variant with another scientific name, Camponotus marginatus. At that time, there were as many as 5 varieties of this species, all of which have now been proven to be different species. But at the time, they were all identified as the same ant, but they differed greatly in body color. The fraud humpback ant is similar in appearance to one of the so-called variants, but the color difference is very large. From the ant-scientist's point of view, he will think, "Small, don't you know you if you paint red?" "You can't fool me", hence the name. He thinks that the difference in body color is a "cheat", but in reality, these are two different types of hunchback ants. The reason why "fraud bowback ant" instead of "deceptive bowback ant" as the Chinese name was finally chosen is because the latter is more like a verb here, and it seems that "bowback ant" is "deceived", and "fraud" is relatively better, so the former was finally chosen as the Chinese name.

There is also a kind called the sacred bowback ant, the Latin scientific name Camponotus sanctus, the species nickname "sanctus" means "sacred", Chinese directly translated as "sacred bowback ant".

This species of hunchback ant was first found in Jerusalem, Israel. Jerusalem, as a holy place of Christianity, Judaism, *** religion, and the three religions, ant scientists have discovered new ant species here, so they are named with the word "holy".

In addition to those who are not afraid of the cold, there are also ants who are not afraid of the heat. The Saharan silver ant, known as Cataglyphisbombycina, feeds on insects and other dead arthropods, can survive in desert environments with surface temperatures of up to 70°C, and is one of the most heat-tolerant insects known, morphologically and physiologically adaptable to dry and hot environments.

The ants only go out to forage when the outside temperature reaches above 46 degrees Celsius, and can endure the heat until their body temperature reaches the tolerance limit of 53 degrees Celsius. This change in adaptability allows it to avoid some predators with poor heat tolerance.

Not only are Saharan silver ants heat-tolerant, they are also quite fast crawling fast, reaching speeds of up to 280 miles per hour, or 450 kilometers per hour, if converted to human size. After all, walking on the scorching pan-like sand every day, if you don't run faster, it's really easy to get burned to death.

To get back to the point, although the paver ants are also hardy and can even go out on sunny winter days, they are more afraid of the heat.

It's the hottest time of the year, and it's been a human being, but the weather has been unusual, and there has been no heavy rain, and scattered showers are not enough to cool the thirsty and scorching earth.

The sun was unleashing its heat, and the sky had lost even the protection of the clouds, and the whole land was scorched like a furnace, and the surface temperature was estimated to be close to fifty degrees, which was enough to cook an egg on a stone.

At this temperature, even the flying knights have to reduce their attendance, so only species like the mysterious ant or the Saharan silver ant don't care.

If it weren't for the damn food, the paver ants would never have gone so far to feed. Even now, they can only work in the shade of the trees, and dare not provoke the scorching sun.

It's not as easy to carry these fruits as you think, whether it's plums, peaches, or grapes, it's not something that ants can carry.

They can only cut the skin of the fruit and check the condition of the fruit. If it is a fruit that has just landed with a lot of moisture, the paver ants will drink a full meal of juice to replenish the lost water, and at the same time consume some sugar to replenish the energy needed for work.

Although the sweet dried fruit in the nest is almost exclusive to the male ants and queens, on this occasion, the male ants in the lead will not interfere with the eating of the worker ants.

Only those fruits that have been naturally dried or air-dried to a slightly lower moisture content will be cut into small pieces by the paver ants with their large jaws and carried back to the nest.

These slices of fruit are dried on rocks near the main nest and guarded by special worker ants to prevent bugs from stealing their food. Eventually, the dried fruit enters the granary and becomes a luxury food in the nest, which can be soaked with water when it needs to be eaten.

The large swarm of paving ants did not attract the mysterious ants in the [Purple Leaf Plum City] not too far away, and the mysterious ants were still searching for something, but they did not enter this fruit grove.

While the Mystic Ant is able to find nearby Paving Ant units without the need for a Scout, this ability also has a range limit.

It was in this relatively safe environment that the paver ants harvested a batch of grain.