SimAnt: The Electronic Ant Colony – DOS Manual – English

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1: Introduction

Ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment. They farm
fungus, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies into war, use chemical sprays to
alarm and confuse enemies, capture slaves, engage in child labor, and exchange
information ceaselessly. They do everything but watch television.
- Lewis Thomas,
The Lives of a Cell

The Object(s) of the Game
About This Manual
Software Toys and System Simulations
Getting Started
Ants are simple, even stupid individuals. But an ant colony, through the
interaction of a great number of ants, displays an amazing skill at survival,
and a noticeable level of intelligence.
In SimAnt, you are the intelligence of an ant colony. The individual ants
are like the individual brain cells of your being. You will hop into and out
of individual ants, using them as tools. many of your ants will dies,
including at times the one you are inhabiting. but death of individual ants
will not greatly affect you as a colony. in fact, one of your ants dying will
hurt you about as much as a human trimming a fingernail.

The Object(s) of the Game
There are three ways to play SimAnt: Quick Games, Full Games and
Experimental Games.

Quick Games

In Quick Games, you are a black ant colony competing with a red ant
colony for food and territory. Your goal is to defeat the red ants and take
over your home turf—the local patch of ground in the backyard. Your
task will be complicated by marauding spiders, voracious ant lions,
torrential rains, crushing human feet and merciless lawn mowers.

Full Games

In Full Games you must take over the entire backyard section by section,
then take over the house and drive out the humans. in addition to hordes

of red ants and other pests, you will face the chemical death of
insecticides.

Experimental
Games

In Experimental games, you are a human playing and experimenting with
ants. Your tools let you build wall and barriers to run ants through mazes;
add food; add ants; dig or fill holes; test ants’ reactions to various
trail-marking and alarm chemicals; and play with insecticide.
In addition, there is a Tutorial mode that walks you through the basics of
life as an ant.

About This Manual
There are six parts to this manual. You’re in the first part, the
Introduction, now. Here’s a description of the other five parts:
2: Tutorial—Going for a Buggy Ride guides you through a SimAnt
game to let you become familiar with the basic tools and strategies. You
won’t learn everything here, but you’ll gain enough experience to start
exploring on your own.
3: Reference is a section containing a description of everything you need
to know about playing SimAnt.
4: Real Ants—Backyard Background is in-depth information on real
ants, ant colonies, and social insects. Reading this section will give you
the background you need to play SimAnt to the best of your abilities.
5: Beyond Ants—Ant-cillary Materials is a philosophical/literary
approach to ants. It contains quotes, myths, fables and legends, fictional
books and movies about ants, and covers a wide range of topics from
their uses by humans as food and in medicine to their role as “Mascot” of
the artificial-life branch of computer science.
The Appendix contains two parts. The first part, the glossary, defines
some of the words used in this manual. As you’re reading, it will be easy
to spot words that are found in the glossary — they are printed in blue.
Click on a word and you’ll jump to the spot in the glossary which gives a
definition of the word. To return to your reading, just click the Go Back
key located on the top menu bar.
The second part of the Appendix is the bibliography. It gives a listing of
non-fiction books about ants for people of all ages.
This manual was written to cover a number of computer platforms.
Everything in this manual will relate to most computers, but there will
occasionally be slight differences. The windows and graphics in SimAnt
will differ a little in size, shape and color depending on the computer and

monitor used. The screen shots used in this manual are primarily from the
high-resolution color Macintosh and IBM VGA versions. These should
look enough like the screen on your computer that you won’t be
confused. There will definitely be some differences on computers that run
in low-resolution (320 X 200).
Spread throughout this manual, you’ll notice many little icons that look
like the one in the margin. Click on the picture and a funny phrase about
ants will pop up. (Okay, they’re not that funny.)

Software Toys and System Simulations
SimAnt isn’t exactly a game...it’s what we call a “Software Toy.” Toys,
by definition, are more flexible and open-ended than games.
As an example, compare a game, tennis, with a toy, a ball. There is one
way to begin, one goal to pursue, and one way to end. There are infinite
variation in the middle, but they all start the same way, chase the same
goal, and end the same way. A ball is more flexible—there are more
things you can do with it. With the ball, you can play tennis. You can play
catch. You can throw it at someone. You can bounce it. You can make
up a hundred different games using the ball. Besides games, there are
other things you can do with a ball. You can paint it, use it to plug a
leaky roof, or just contemplate its roundness.
In SimAnt, the “toy” is a backyard filled with ant colonies.
When you play with SimAnt, or any of our Software Toys, don’t limit
yourself to trying to “win.” Play with it. Experiment. Try new things. Just
have fun.
There are many types of toys. SimAnt, like SimCity and SimEarth
before it, is a SYSTEM SIMULATION toy. In a system simulation, we
provide you with a set of RULES and TOOLS that describe, create and
control a system. In the case of SimAnt, the system is an ant colony. Part
of the challenge of playing with a System Simulation toy is to figure out
how the system works and take control of it. As master of the system you
are free to use the tools to create and control an unlimited number of
systems (in this case, ant colonies) within the framework provided by the
Rules.
In SimAnt, the Rules to learn are based on ant biology and behavior,
including:
Communication:

Ants have very sophisticated communication
methods.

Nest Building:

Ants dig for safety and temperature control, and
to make brood chambers for the young.

Foraging:

Ants must find food and return it home safely.

Brood Care:

Ants tend and protect their eggs, larvae and
pupae.

Altruism:

Ants must protect the queen and brood at all
costs.

Territoriality:

Ants defend their home turf from all competitors.

Cooperative
Behavior:

Groups of ants working together can bring home
large pieces of food and defeat much larger
enemies.

The Tools provide you with the ability to grow, lead and experiment with
an ant colony.
Begin with one queen and one worker and grow to a colony of a
thousand ants.
Dig underground nests that can accommodate and protects your ants.
Search for food to keep your colony alive and growing.
Defend your colony and food sources from other ant colonies.
But the most important Tool of all is the simulator itself. Test your
knowledge, plans, theories and ideas as you watch your colonies develop
or decline. Experiment with the ants and test their intelligence and
adaptability to various conditions.

Getting Started
Hardware
Required

IBM or 100% compatible computer, 286 12 Mhz or faster
386 recommended
2MB RAM required
3.5” high density drive required
Hard disk with up to 2.5 MB free space required
Microsoft-compatible mouse required

Software
Required

MS-DOS or PC-DOS 3.3 or above
Microsoft Windows 3.0 or above

The On-Screen Tutorial
An on-screen Tutorial is built into SimAnt. There is also an off-screen
Tutorial in the next section of this manual. Some people prefer their
tutorials on-screen, others prefer them of. Most people don’t prefer them
at all. The information in each of the tutorials is slightly different, so
playing through both won’t be a waste of time.
To start the on-screen Tutorial, click on the Tutorial button in the Select
Game Window. It looks like the this:

2: Tutorial–Going For A Buggy Ride

None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing.
- Benjamin Franklin
Poor Richard's Almanac, 1736

Before You Begin
The Game is Afoot
Now for the Long Run (Full Game Features)

BEFORE YOU BEGIN...
Before playing SimAnt there are a few things you'll want to know:
BASIC STRATEGY
In a Quick Game, you lead your ants to food, defend your nest and
queen, and destroy the red colony. You win when you kill the red queen.
In a Full Game, you do the same, plus breed new queens, send them out
to make new colonies, and take over the whole house and yard. You win
when you eliminate all the red colonies in the yard and you drive the
humans out of the house. In an Experimental Game, you do whatever you
want. You win when you decide you've won.
DYING
Ants don't care much about individualism. Even to each other they all
look alike. When an ant dies, it's no big deal (even to the ant that dies).
It's the safety of the queen and whole colony that counts. The death of
any ant other than the queen is not important --- even you.
Because of this, in SimAnt, unlike in most other games, dying is not
losing. It's not the end of the world, much less the end of the game. You
just lose a little time and energy.
REPRODUCTION
In the ant world, very few ants can reproduce. Most ants --- all the
workers and soldiers --- are sterile females. Only at certain times are the
males and fertile females who can start new colonies produced. The
reproductives, called Breeders in SimAnt, are large, use up a lot of food,

and do no work. Only a colony that stores up enough extra food can
afford to make Breeders and reproduce.
OF MICE AND KEYBOARDS
SimAnt is much easier and more fun to play if you have a mouse.

THE GAME IS AFOOT (ALL SIX OF THEM)
STARTING A
NEW GAME

The first thing you will see is the Select a Game Window. Click on Quick
Game.

THE
ANTICS
BEGIN

You will now see four windows: the Edit Window (your close-up view),
the Map Window (your overall view), the Behavior Control Window (for
telling your ants what to do), and the Caste Control Window (for
controlling what kind of ants your colony produces). Your screen should
look similar to the screen shown, but depending on your computer, may
vary a little.
The Edit Window is active and on top. Near the top of the Edit Window
is a Message Bar. Keep an eye on it for helpful hints during the game.
Above the Edit Window is a control panel with lots of buttons. Click on
the PAUSE button to stop the game while we look around (it’s the
button with a picture of PAWS on it).
Click and hold on the Help button --- the one with a question mark on it.
While you hold it down, it displays an explanation of each button on the
control panel. Most windows have a Help buttons. On some computers,
click the right mouse button and then click on any of the buttons on
screen for help.
To the right of the Help button is the Tool button. Don't worry about it
for now.

I GET
AROUND

There is a lot of ground to cover, and a number of ways to do it. There
are the usual Scroll Bars, Boxes and Arrows, and also a number of
buttons that let you jump around quickly.

The buttons on the control panel each change the view in the Edit

Window. Click on them and see what they do. Notice that as the view
changes in the Edit Window, it also changes in the Map Window.

After playing with the buttons, click on the Surface button and we'll look
at another way to get around.
Click on the MAP button at the top of the control panel. A tiny map
appears. The rectangle in the tiny map outlines the area that shows in the
Edit Window. Click all over the tiny map. The rectangle moves to where
you click and the Edit Window shows the new area in the rectangle.

THE BIG
PICTURE

Open the Map Window, either by clicking on any exposed part of it or by
selecting Map in the Windows Menu. Near the top of the Map Window is
a Message Bar like the one in the Edit Window.

Somewhere in the map is a rectangle that outlines the area shown in the
Edit Window. Click on different parts of the map to move the rectangle.
Select Surface from the View Menu. You now see the whole Patch from
above. Notice that there are two anthills. These are the entrances to the
black and red nests. There are a few other things wandering around, but
the only one to worry about right away is the spider.

At the bottom of the window is the Map Window Control Panel. Four of
the buttons should look familiar: the Help, Surface, Red Nest and Black
Nest buttons.

Click and hold on the Help button to see an explanation of everything in
the control panel. Click on the other three to see what happens. Notice
that as you change the view in the Map Window, the Edit Window
changes to match.
On the right side of the control panel are graphs that tell the population
and health for both colonies.

THE BIGGER
PICTURE

Click on the Yard button. This is the complete house and yard. Each little
square represents one Patch (the entire game area for a Quick Game).

The active Patch is blinking.

Notice that the control panel is has changed. Click on the House button.
Inside the house are more patches for your ants to take over (but only in
Full Games).
Click on the Patch button to return to the Patch.

MOVE YOUR
ANT

Activate the Edit Window by clicking on it or selecting Edit from the
Window Menu. Click on the Yellow Ant button in the control panel. The
Edit Window centers on the Yellow Ant. It should be underground. (If it
isn't, then open the File Menu, select New, click on Quick Game, and
click on the PAUSE button.)
You should now be looking at the black ant nest. The big black ant is the
queen. The other ant is the Yellow Ant. If you have a black and white
monitor the ant will be white, not yellow, but it's still called the Yellow
Ant.
Click and hold on the queen. An info window appears telling you what
kind of ant she is and what she is doing. This window is available for all
ants and brood (eggs, larvae and pupae).

The Yellow Ant is you. Through the Yellow Ant you will lead your
colony to victory (or not, as the case may be). Click and hold on the

Yellow Ant and a menu appears. This menu helps you lead your colony.
We'll explain Recruit, Release and Exchange later. The Help item
(question mark) displays info on controlling the Yellow Ant.

To move the Yellow Ant, you don't need the menu. Just click where you
want it to go. To make it dig, double-click where you want it to go.
Try it: click to make the Yellow Ant move around in the tunnel, and
double-click in the dirt to make it dig. If you climbed out of the tunnel to
the surface, click in the center of the anthill to go back down.
Note: When a game is paused, it doesn't completely stop --- it is in a
“single-step” mode. Everything stops until you move the Yellow Ant.
While it is moving, the game is in action: the other ants, spiders, and
insects move. Pausing the game gives you time to think, but no
protection from enemies.
SURFACE, SURFACE
Scroll the Edit Window so the grass at the surface is showing at the top
of the window. Double-click on the grass. The Yellow Ant will dig its
way to the top, and the Edit Window will show the surface above the nest.
DANGER
Once you are on the surface, you risk being eaten by the spider. If you are
eaten, you will be reborn back in the nest as a new Yellow Ant, so all you
lose is time and energy. But since dying is a hassle, try to avoid it.
Other dangers that might catch you are ant lion traps, human feet and the
dreaded lawn mower. And people talk about how bad a dog's life is.
FEED ME
The most important thing for you to do now is to find food for your
colony. Food is shown in SimAnt as green balls. On a black and white
monitor, they won't be green, but they will be balls.

To find food, you can scroll around the Edit Window or look at the Map
Window. Pick a window, find some food, then return to the Yellow Ant
in the Edit Window.
Unpause the game by clicking on the Pause button or selecting Unpause
from the Speed Menu so your queen will be able to lay some eggs and the
eggs will have time to hatch into adult ants.
Start moving your Yellow Ant towards the food by clicking where you
want it to go. Watch out for the spider, and don't cross any ant lion traps.
Both are deadly.
Once you get to the food, double-click on a food ball to pick it up. You
can only hold one ball at a time, so you better call for help.
CALL OUT THE CAVALRY
Click and hold on the Yellow Ant to see the Yellow Ant Menu. Slide the
pointer to highlight Recruit 5, and release the pointer. Five black ants will
rush to the Yellow Ant, ready for action. Once they arrive, click and hold
on the Yellow Ant to see the Yellow Ant Menu, then highlight Release
All and release the pointer. The ants will grab some food and rush back to
the nest with it.
I SMELL FOOTSTEPS
AntFact: As ants bring food home to their nests, they leave a chemical
trail. Other ants of the colony can smell the trail and know it leads to
food. They also find their nests by smell.
In SimAnt, when an ant carries food back to its colony, it automatically
leaves a scent trail along the way. To check it out, click and hold on the
SCENT button, slide the pointer to highlight B-Trail, and release it. Then,
as you make your way back to the nest with your load of food, notice the
trail you leave.
When you have the display of Scents on, you can see these trail markers
as well as colony scents. When the screen gets too cluttered, you can turn
the scent display off. The ants will still smell the Scents, but you won't see
them.

DELIVERY
Once you return to your nest, double-click where you want the Yellow
Ant to put the food down. You don't have to go back for more --- your
ants will follow the trail and bring back all the food. You should now
look for more food, and show it to your ants.

DEPARTMANT
OF HEALTH
AND
WELFARE

A big part of playing SimAnt is keeping your colony and the Yellow Ant
healthy. Health is based on how much food you find. The healthier your
ants are the better their odds in battles with red ants. In SimAnt, health
directly relates to hunger. If the ants have enough food, they are healthy.
At the bottom of the Edit Window Control Panel is the Health Graph. It
shows the health levels of the Yellow Ant, the black colony and the red
colony. The higher the bars, the better the health.

FINE DINING?
The more you move the Yellow Ant, the more energy it uses and the
more it needs to eat. When the Yellow Ant is hungry and you
double-click on food, it eats it instead of picking it up. If there is no food
around, a nearby black ant will feed you. If there is no food or black ants
nearby, recruit some to feed you.
Ants share their food with each other. Even after they've eaten it. When
an ant feeds the Yellow Ant, it's not a pretty sight --- that's why we put in
an animated sequence of it.
AntFact: Ants have two stomachs, one to digest food for themselves,
and one to hold food to share with the whole colony. The extra
stomach is called the crop. (And when there are thousands of ants in
a colony, that's a lot of crop.)

GOOD
BEHAVIOR

As leader of your colony, you have to do more than point to food. You
have to make job assignments. Select Behavior from the Window Menu
to open the Behavior Control Window.

There are three basic things that your ants must do: forage (find food and
bring it back), dig (enlarge the nest), and nurse (take care of the queen and
her young). The computer will automatically assign these jobs to your ants,
but if you do it yourself, you can make better use of your resources than
the computer can.
Each of the three activities is at the corner of a triangle. The triangle is
like a joystick controller. Somewhere in the triangle is a “knob” that you
can click and drag. The closer you drag the knob to a corner, the more
ants will perform that job. The percentages of ants at each job are
displayed in the three corners. Click on the percentage boxes to toggle to
a display of the actual number of ants at each job.

MEET THE
RED MENACE

All the time we've been puttering around looking for food and reading
tutorials, the evil red queen has been cranking out eggs that have hatched
and grown to fill the ranks of the bad guys. They've been gathering food,
digging out their nest and raising soldiers. Time to rumble.
In a real game, you'll want to be sneakier, but for the sake of this tutorial,
let's try a frontal attack. Before you begin your campaign, Exchange your
Yellow Ant into a soldier; you'll have better odds in fights.
First, pause the game and find a soldier --- if you can. Soldiers have larger
heads than workers, but may still be difficult to pick out just by looking at
them. Click and hold on any ant to bring up a little information window
that tells, among other things, whether the ant is a worker, soldier, or
other type of ant.

Once you have a soldier picked out, click and hold on the Yellow Ant and
slide the pointer to Exchange and release. Now click on the soldier to
exchange bodies with the Yellow Ant.
Start your Yellow Ant towards the enemy nest. On the way, click and
hold on the Yellow Ant, then slide the pointer to Recruit 10. Do it again,
if you have enough ants. As you reach enemy territory, individual red and
black ants will pair up in life-and-death battles. As the leader, you may
want to avoid direct contact with the enemy. If you lose a fight, the

Yellow Ant will die and be reborn back at the nest. The black ants will
wander away, and you will have to start the campaign over again.
If you stay alive, and your troops outnumber the enemy, lead them down
into the red nest and attack the queen. If not, don't worry about it. You
can always try again.
OTHER WINDOWS
While we're here, let's check out a couple other windows that are helpful
in playing SimAnt.
The History Window tracks the rise and fall of ant population, health and
welfare. Click on the buttons to see the different graphs, click and hold
on the Help Button for an on-screen explanation of all the buttons, and
click and hold in the graph area to see the current number value for each
graph.

The Info Window is a tutorial on real ants. It is set up like a cardfile with
hot links between cards. See the Info Window section of the manual for
complete details.

FOR THE LONG RUN
Now we'll check out the features that are found only in Full Games. First,
select New Game from the File (or Project) menu, then click on Full
Game.

QUEEN FOR
A DAY

The Yellow Ant is a new queen, just landed from the mating flight. She
has to find some soft ground, dig a nest, and start a new colony. First,
move her to some clear ground, then click and hold on the Yellow Ant to
see a menu of things the queen can do. Slide the pointer to highlight Dig
Hole.

The Yellow Queen will dig below the surface. Double-click to have the
Yellow Queen dig a little deeper. Now open the Yellow Queen menu and
select Start Brood. Her wings will fall off, her hind quarters will extend,
and she will begin laying eggs.

The first egg to hatch will become the Yellow Ant. Now play continues
as in a Quick Game --- for a while. In a full game, once your colony has
enough food stored up, you need to produce breeders: reproductive male
and female ants, and spread new colonies around the house and yard.

LOADING AN
EXISTING
GAME

We'll jump forward in time and load a Full Game that has been going on
for a while. Select Open (or Load) from the File (or Project) Menu. Load
in the saved game called TUTORIAL.ANT. It should be in the default
directory or folder.
Activate the Map Window, and click on the Yard View button. Next,
click on the Strategic View button. This shows which of the Patches are
dominated by red ants, which are dominated by black ants, which are still
in contention, and which are antless.

Click on the Graphic button. This view shows the relative red and black
populations in each Patch.
Your goal now is to produce Breeders, send them on their mating flight,
and start new colonies.

CASTE
PARTY

Select Caste from the Window Menu to activate the Caste Control
Window. This window lets you control the types of ants that are born in
your colony. It works in the same way as the Behavior Control Window.
For the most part, you will be producing only workers and soldiers. Only
when it is time to make new colonies and you have the energy to spare
should you make reproductive ants.

Drag the “knob” to produce 100% Breeders and no workers or soldiers.
This is a higher percentage of Breeders than you would normally set,
since it will drain the colony of energy and leave it with little hope of
getting more, but it will help you understand the mating process.
Select the fastest speed in the Speed Menu, and wait until you have a few
males and new queens (about seven of each is a good number). Click and
hold on the graphs on the right side of the Map Window Control Panel to
see a complete population breakdown of ant types in both colonies.

LET YOUR
HEART TAKE
FLIGHT

Activate the Map Window and click on the Strat button go to the
Strategic View. Look at the center section of the control panel. This is
where you control mating.

Notice that the Automatic button is depressed. If you start the mating
cycle in “Automatic,” the new queens will automatically be placed in
different Patches by the computer.
Click on the Manual button so you can place your new queens wherever
you want, then click on the Mate button to begin the mating cycle.
After a short while, the number of queens available to start new colonies
will appear in the Queens box. Click on the Place button, then click on
the Patch where you want to start a new colony. Click on Place again,
then on a new Patch until all your Queens are placed. You can only place
queens up to three Patches in any direction.
Once all your queens have been placed, double-click on one of the new
Patches to take control of the local colony. You can only enter a Patch
where there is a black colony or a newly placed queen.
Take some time and move around to a few different Patches and explore
the different colonies in the house and yard.

THERE'S
PLENTY
MORE
WHERE
THAT CAME
FROM

You should now understand the basics of SimAnt. Take some time and
play. When you are ready for more, check the Reference section of this
manual. It explains all the details, strategies and background you'll need
to succeed as an insect. The manual also has a big section on real ants,
and some interesting info on ants and humans through the years.

3: Reference

He remembered the belligerent ants, who claimed their boundaries, and the
pacific geese, who did not…
- T.H. White, The Once and Future King

The Basics
Controlling SimAnt
Menus
Windows
Strategies
This section of the manual covers, in detail, every window, button,
control, and menu item in SimAnt, explains how the simulator works, and
gives strategies for playing. You will get more out of this section if you
read/play through the Tutorial section above.

THE BASICS
THE
BACKYARD
UNIVERSE

SimAnt all takes place in a “universe” that consists of one house and its
backyard. The house and yard are divided into 192 sections, or “Patches,”
each of which can be a battlefield for ants.

In a Quick Game, you will only deal with one Patch for the whole game,

and always outside the house.
In a Full Game, you will play in one Patch at a time, until you can
reproduce and spread to other patches, eventually dealing with the entire
universe. Even though you spread throughout the whole yard, only one
Patch will be active at a time.
Experimental games are played in only one Patch, and always outside.

YOUR
PLACES IN
THE
BACKYARD
UNIVERSE

There are three roles you can play in SimAnt: the Game Player, an Ant,
and a Human.
AS THE GAME PLAYER
As the Game Player, you control the computer. You start SimAnt, use
the menus to load and save games, arrange the windows on your screen,
and set program options and speeds.
AS A HUMAN
In Experimental Games you are a human using various tools to play with
and learn about ants.
AS AN ANT
In Quick and Full Games, you are the leader of the black ants. You are
responsible for the well-being and survival of the black ant colony. You
can sit back and watch, but the red ants will soon eat you out of house
and home (literally) unless you intervene and lead your black ants to
victory.
As leader of the black ants, you manage your colony in three ways: by
controlling the types of ants in your colony with the Caste Control
Window; by controlling the behavior of the ants in your colony with the
Behavior Control Window; and by setting an example for your ants and
leading them to food or into battle as the Yellow Ant.

TYPES OF
GAMES

There are three types of games to be played in SimAnt: Quick Games,
Full Games, and Experimental Games.

QUICK GAMES
The object of a Quick Game is to take over a single Patch of the yard and
kill the red queen. Quick Games always occur outside --- never in the
house.
The game starts with the founding of a red and a black colony in a Patch.
Each colony has a queen in a small nest that begins to lay eggs. The first
black egg that matures becomes the Yellow Ant.
Gather food, defend your nest and queen, breed workers and soldiers,
and kick ant. The game ends when one of the queens is killed. If you kill
the red queen, you win. If the red ants kill your queen, you lose.
FULL GAMES
The object of a Full Game is to take over the whole house and yard. To
win you must eliminate all the red ants and drive out the humans by
taking over 70% of the Patches inside the house.
The game starts as a new black queen lands just after her mating flight.
She temporarily acts as the Yellow and you control her with clicks and a
pop-up menu until she starts to lay eggs. Using the menu, you must make
her dig a small nest and start to lay eggs. The first egg that matures
becomes the Yellow Ant.
As in a quick game, you must gather food, defend the nest and queen,
breed workers and soldiers and fight the red menace --- but you also have
to produce Breeders --- males and fertile females --- and start new
colonies. When you have enough energy (food) stored up, you can start
producing Breeders and begin your campaign to dominate the backyard
universe.
Remember: this first patch of ground is just a starting point for your
conquests: you must think ahead and plan your strategies for multiple
Patches, or you might win the battle and lose the war.

The game ends when either you win by taking over the whole house and
yard by killing all the red ants and making the humans move out by taking
over 70% of the Patches inside the house. You lose when all your queens
are killed by your enemies.
You don't have to actually play every one of the 192 Patches to win a
game. Colonies that you found will be simulated in the background and
will grow until and unless you actually enter them.
EXPERIMENTAL GAMES
The object of an Experimental Game is to play with ants, using different
tools and chemicals to see how they behave in different situations.
In Experimental Games food does not automatically appear. You have
complete control over all food in the experiment.
There is no winning or losing in Experimental Games --- at least not for
you; but considering the tools you have to work with, quite a number of
electronic ants will probably consider themselves losers.

THE
YELLOW
ANT PART 1

When some ants find a large source of food or discover an enemy that is
too big or dangerous to handle alone, they “recruit” help. These ants,
called initiators, initiate action and spur other ants to action.
The Yellow Ant is the initiator ant of the black colony. It is your way of
leading and teaching your ants by example. It is the ant that you
personally “inhabit” and control.
The Yellow Ant is always a member of the black colony. It is yellow to
make it easier to see. On computers with black and white monitors it
won't actually be yellow, but it will be marked in some way to make it
easy to distinguish from the others in your colony.
You can switch from ant to ant, making any live, mature adult ant in the
black colony the Yellow Ant (this includes the queen, but not eggs,
larvae, pupae or dead ants).
You can control the Yellow Ant in either the Edit Window (the up-close
view) or the Map Window (the overall view). Besides leading the ants to
food, the Yellow Ant can recruit other ants to follow it, and release them
to follow their duties as set forth in the Behavior Control Window.
Antfact: One of the more important communication skills for ants is
“recruitment.” Ants often find food or enemies that are too large for
one ant to handle. By recruiting help, and working in groups, ants
have become very efficient competitors.
The Yellow Ant can be killed, but it's no big deal. With ants, the colony is
the most important thing: the death of individual ants means very little. If
the Yellow Ant dies, it is instantly reborn back in the black nest. All you

lose is a little time.

TYPES OF
ANTS --CASTES
AND BROOD

There are a number of different castes, or types of ants, that inhabit your
colony. Each has its strengths, weaknesses and purpose in colony life.
One of your tasks as leader of the black ants is to control how many of
each type of ant is born with the Caste Control Window. And, as the
Yellow Ant, there are times when it is better to become one type of ant
than another.
In the Edit Window, clicking and holding on any ant (except the Yellow
Ant) brings up a small information window about the ant. It tells the type
of ant (worker, soldier, queen, male, fertile female, egg, larva, or pupa),
its behavior mode, its load (if it is carrying anything), and its current
health.
A detailed real-world description of these types of ants is found in
Chapter 4 of this manual, but here is a quick explanation of these ants and
how they behave in SimAnt.
WORKERS
Workers are generally the most numerous ants in any colony. As their
name states, they do most of the work around the colony, which consists
of: finding food; taking care of the queen and the young; enlarging,
maintaining, and defending the nest; and attacking enemies. Workers are
sterile females, and cannot mate or lay eggs.
You will want to have more workers than other ants, especially when the
colony is small and young.

AntFact: It is the workers, not the queen that are the real rulers of the
ant colony. The workers have more mobility and bigger brains. Don't
let the human usage of “queen” and “worker” fool you.
SOLDIERS
Soldiers are just big workers. They do pretty much the same tasks as

workers (except generally not nursing), but they are bigger and stronger.
Since soldiers are bigger, they require more food than workers, and are
less efficient. Don't make too many soldiers when your colony is small: if
there is a shortage of food many of your soldiers will starve. Once the
colony grows, and you have a lot of food stored, you will want lots of
soldiers to attack the red ants.
It is a good idea to make the Yellow Ant a soldier. It will have better
odds in fights against red ants.

AntFact: Even though soldiers have bigger heads than workers, their
brains are no bigger. Their big heads are filled with muscles that
control their heavy, powerful mandibles.
QUEENS

Queens are your treasure. If your queen dies, your colony dies and you
lose the game. If you kill the red queen, you win.
Queens, once a colony is started, do very little but lay eggs. They are fed
and their eggs are tended by workers. In SimAnt there can only be one
queen per colony.
The main reason to make the Yellow Ant a queen is to move her deeper
into the nest to make her harder for the red ants to find.
NEW QUEENS
New Queens are fertile females. They do very little work around the
colony. Their only purpose is to found new colonies.
New queens are large, and since they don't work, they are very expensive
to feed and care for. You shouldn't make any new queens until your
colony is big enough and rich enough (in food) to support them. If you
are playing a Quick Game, you shouldn't waste any time or energy on
them at all.
MALES
Males are large and lazy and only have one purpose in life: fertilizing new

queens.
Males, like new queens, are big and expensive, and shouldn't be made in a
Full Game until your colony can afford it. Males are useless in a Quick
Game.
BROOD
Brood is a term that covers all the immature ants: eggs, larvae and pupae.
The brood are cleaned and cared for by nurse worker ants.

ANT
BEHAVIOR

Your ants have three basic behaviors: foraging, nursing and digging. You
direct your workforce into these behaviors using the Behavior Control
Window.

In addition to the basic behaviors, your ants can be recruited, and they
can be alarmed.
FORAGING
Foraging is finding food and bringing it home safely. Returning home
safely is a big part of it. Foragers generally have shorter life expectancies
than ants with other jobs. They are often killed and eaten by spiders, ant
lions, birds and other predators, as well as killed and eaten by ants from
other colonies.
Since foraging is your food and energy source, you should allocate more
workers to foraging than the other behaviors.
NURSING
Nursing consists of the care and feeding of the queen and the brood. The
brood need to be carried out of the queen's chamber and cleaned. The
larvae need to be fed.
AntFact: Eggs, larvae and pupae need to be kept within certain
temperature and humidity ranges, and nurse ants carry them from
chamber to chamber all day long to meet their needs.

In SimAnt, the nurses aren't shown on-screen carrying the brood around,
but they are in the simulation calculations. If you don't assign enough of
your work force to nursing, your eggs will not hatch and your larvae and
pupae will not mature and your population will not grow.
DIGGING
Digging is the enlarging and maintaining of the nest. Your nest must be
big enough to hold all your ants in case of an emergency (flood or lawn
mower) where you all have to move or hide. It also has to have room for
food storage and for many brood chambers. The brood chambers need to
be at various depths, which keeps them at different temperatures.
You shouldn't take too much away from foragers to dig, but don't neglect
digging, at least until you have a sizable underground nest.
RECRUITED ANTS
When ants are recruited, they rush to the Yellow Ant, and follow it
around in an agitated state. They will attack and try to kill any enemies
near them.
Ants stay recruited until the Yellow Ant dies or intentionally releases
them.
ALARMED ANTS
Ants become alarmed when they come into contact with the alarm scent
that the Yellow Ant can produce and spread on the ground. When ants
come into contact with the alarm scent, they stay near the scent in an
agitated state until the scent fades away.
The main use of the alarm scent in SimAnt is to “post guards” near food
or colony entrances.

FOOD AND
ENERGY

As living creatures, we need food. It is important, while playing SimAnt,
to know what you and your ants can eat.
Food is the source of energy --- the ultimate resource of living things.
Much of playing SimAnt is energy management: use the food (energy) as
efficiently as possible to obtain more energy (food). You invest the
energy in different types of ants that can help you get more energy, until
you can afford to reproduce and found new colonies in areas where you
can find even more food.
STUFF YOU FIND
During the game, food will “appear” in various places in the yard. This
might seem strange, but not from the ants' point of view. Since they don't
go shopping or call the local store for delivery, all food they find, from
dead insects to dropped ice cream cones, must seem to appear from

nowhere.
Food does not automatically appear in an Experimental Game --- you are
the sole source of food during experiments.
For ease of recognition and because of computer limitations, all food will
appear as green balls (in black and white versions it won't be green, but it
will be balls). In the back yard, these food balls represent a lot of different
things an ant might eat, including: dead insects or other animals, sap from
plants, and food dropped by humans or pets. In the house these food balls
primarily represent food to be stolen from humans.

As the Game Player, you can look around the Edit and Map Windows
and find food. As the Yellow Ant, you can get the food, and take it back
to the nest. Whenever you (or any other ant) come home with food, you
automatically leave a chemical trail that other ants will follow to the food.
The other ants in your colony will also find food, but since they don't
have computers to help them, they just wander around until they find it.
STUFF YOU STEAL
You can steal food from the red ants' nest. If you dare, you can sneak
into the red ants' nest and take their food, but it won't be easy.
STUFF YOU KILL
After you kill spiders and caterpillars they turn into green balls of food.
When you can kill ant lions, your ants eat them immediately; they don't
become green balls.

STUFF YOU GET FROM OTHER ANTS
Ants share food with each other. When a foraging ant brings in a load of
food, it will put it in storage or give it to any member of the colony that
needs it. Ants will even share food after they've eaten it.
Ants have two stomachs: a group stomach, called the crop, and their

personal stomach. When ants eat, the food goes into their crop. When
they need some food for themselves, it is released from the crop into their
personal stomach and digested.
When an ant with a full crop meets a hungry nestmate, it will throw up
some food for the other ant to eat. The polite and scientific reference for
ants feeding other ants by puking in their faces is trophallaxis.

AntFact: Ants don't actually eat, they drink. They chew up their food,
squeeze out and swallow the juice, and spit out whatever's left.
(This is sometimes known as the drinking ant's diet.)
When your Yellow Ant gets hungry, and isn't near food, a nearby black
ant will feed it. If there are no black ants near, and you are very hungry,
recruit an ant and it will feed you.

SCENTS
AND
CHEMICAL
COMMUNICATION

Ants communicate with chemicals. Various glands in their bodies release
very small amounts of chemicals into the air or onto the ground. Ants
“smell” these chemicals with their antennae.
The messages they send aren't very complex, like, “Remember me? We met
at the caste party last Thursday night, and I was wondering if maybe....”
They only communicate simple things like: “This way to food,” “This way
home,” “I'm a friend,” “I'm an enemy,” and “PANIC!”
AntFact: By “smelling,” ants can tell if other ants are from their own
colony, and what caste they are, but cannot recognize or distinguish
individual ants. In the ant world, the individual doesn't matter; only
the ant's job in the colony, which is determined by its caste, matters.
In SimAnt, there are three types of communication scents: nest markers,
trail markers, and alarm.
NEST MARKERS
Nest Markers are the scent of the ant colonies. Ants can recognize this
scent, and follow it home. They can also recognize the scent of another
colony, and know that danger is near.
The display of nest markers for both nests can be turned on and off in

both the Edit and Map Windows.
TRAIL MARKERS
Trail Markers are left by ants as they return home with food. Other ants
smell the trail and follow it. Trail markers are not directional --- ants can't
tell which way is home and which way is food. They just pick a direction
and go if they wind up back at home, they turn around. Trail markers fade
away from trails that are no longer used, and can be washed away by rain.
The display of trail markers for both nests can be turned on and off in
both the Edit and Map Windows.
ALARM SCENTS
Alarm Scents in SimAnt put ants into “defend mode.” When ants smell
the alarm scent, they will mill around the scented area, and defend it from
anything that comes near. Alarmed ants stay alarmed until the scent fades
away or is washed away by rain.
The Yellow Ant can produce this scent, and uses it to make ants guard
the nest or food from red ants or predators.
You can test the effect of nest and trail markers and the alarm scent on
ants in experimental mode.
RECRUITMENT
AntFact: Ants “recruit” other ants in a number of ways, but primarily
chemically. When one ant finds a lot of food or senses a danger, it
will recruit other ants to follow and help.
Recruitment in SimAnt is not very realistic. The recruitment process in
real ants is a fairly complex process. For the purposes of the game, we've
simplified it a great deal.
In SimAnt, only the Yellow Ant can recruit (through a menu or keyboard
key). The recruited ants follow the Yellow Ant wherever it goes, and
attack any enemies that come near.
A useful tactic is to recruit lots of ants, take them near some food, then
release them. They'll all pick up some food and take it back to the nest.

ENEMIES
AND
DANGER

There are a number of enemies and dangers that ants face in their daily
lives. Believe it or not, ants aren't exactly the most-loved critters in the
universe. In SimAnt, the enemies you will face are: the red ants, spiders,
ant lions, and humans.
THE RED ANTS
The red ants are your main competition. They eat the same food as you
do, and want to dominate the same territory. When they outnumber the

black ants by a safe margin, they will launch an all-out attack.
THE RED TERMINATOR
The Red Terminator is an initiator ant. The red colony's equivalent of the
Yellow Ant, it wanders around the outskirts of red territory and keeps an
eye out for food and enemies. When the Red Terminator senses food, it
recruits help to gather it. When it senses black ants approaching, it
recruits red ants and meets them in battle as far from the red nest as
possible.
There is always one Red Terminator. If it dies, another red ant is picked
at random to take its place.
SPIDERS

The spider wanders around eating ants. While it eats a lot, it is only
dangerous to colony survival in the early stages of the game when you
have very few ants. The spider can be a real nuisance when it eats the
Yellow Ant. It can be a real help if it eats a lot of red ants.
The spider never goes underground. The spider can be killed, but it's
difficult. Once it dies, it becomes food for the ant colony.
ANT LIONS

Ant lions are real. (I didn't believe it at first, either.) They aren't ants and
they aren't lions: they're larvae of an insect similar to a dragon fly, and are
called doodle-bugs in some parts of the United States.
AntFact: Ant Lions are about a half-inch long, and live at the bottom
of cone-shaped pits with only their mouths showing above ground.
The pits are made of loose dirt, and ants or other insects passing by
slip down the sides into the waiting jaws of the ant lion. Sometimes, if
it looks like the prey might get away, the ant lion will flick pieces of
dirt at it to knock it down.
In SimAnt, ant lions never move around or come out of their holes. They
can be killed and eaten, but they don't turn into green balls of food.
HUMANS

Face it, humans are as much of an annoyance to ants as ants are to
humans. In the yard, humans cause problems for ants with their feet and
with the lawn mower.
When a foot appears, it means death to any ants caught under it, in two
seconds flat (very flat). There is no defense against the dreaded foot, and
very little warning. Depending on the sound capabilities of your
computer, you might be able to hear the footsteps coming from an
adjacent Patch. If you do hear them, you might want to get quickly
underground. Or, if you have a lot of recruited ants, release them to
disperse so the foot won't get as many.
When the lawn mower passes over, it sucks up any ants on the surface
and blows them away across the yard, never to be heard from again.
There is no defense against the lawn mower, only retreat. When you hear
it, get underground. Setting the behavior control so all the ants are
digging or nursing will send them scurrying underground.
In the house, humans cause even more problems. In addition to feet, they
have insecticide.
INSECTICIDE
You will only have to worry about insecticide spray in the house. When
humans spray, most of the ants in that Patch that are above ground will
die. Depending on your computer, you may be able to hear the spray and
rush as many of your ants underground as possible.
RAIN
When it rains, the lower portions of your nest will flood. You must bring
your ants and brood up to dry land or they will drown.
Rain washes away alarm and trail scents.

BATTLES

When real ants from different colonies meet, they may or may not fight,
depending on the species, territory size, and food supply. In SimAnt, the
red and black ants are in direct competition for the same food on the
same small patch of ground. When red and black ants meet, they fight.
Battles between ants are pretty much one-on-one. The winner of the
battle is determined by the two ants' size (caste), health, and a random
factor. The chart below shows the odds in battles between ants.
Worker

Soldier

Queen

Breeder

Worker

50/50

20/80

30/70

70/30

Soldier

80/20

50/50

60/40

90/10

Queen

70/30

40/60

50/50

80/20

Breeder

30/70

10/90

20/80

50/50

The above odds are modified by the health of the two combatants. If one
ant has a higher health rating than the other (see the Health Graphs in the
Edit Window Control Panel) its odds are increased by 10% and the other
ant's odds are lowered by 10%.

MATING
FLIGHTS

Full Games involve spreading your ants all over the house and yard by
founding new colonies. New colonies are founded by producing breeders,
having mating flights, and placing the new queen into new Patches in the
house and yard. In Quick Games there is no point in producing breeders
or having mating flights.
A mating flight is demonstrated in the Tutorial section, and a complete
explanation of the process is found in the section on the Map Window.

CONTROLLING SIMANT
IN GENERAL

SimAnt is fairly easy to play. Everything can be controlled with buttons,
menus, and mouse-clicks, with a number of keyboard shortcuts.
MOUSE AND KEYBOARD
A mouse is highly recommended even for those computers that don't
come with one. If your computer doesn't have one, you can play the game
using only keyboard commands, but using a mouse is much easier. Much
easier. Very much easier.
This manual assumes that you know how to use the mouse to point at
different places on the screen, and that you know how to click,
double-click, and click and drag. If you don't know how to do these
things, please take a look at the manual that came with your mouse or
computer.
MENUS AND CONTROL PANELS
All versions of SimAnt have a Menu Bar at or near the top of the screen.
The use of menus follows the standard conventions for your type of
computer.
The control panels are groups of buttons that are activated by clicking the
mouse on them.
SPECIAL CONTROL WINDOWS
There are two special windows you will use for controlling your ants: the
Behavior Control Window sets your ants' basic behavior patterns; and the

Caste Control Window sets the different types of ants that will be born in
your colony. A complete explanation of these windows is found below in
the Windows section.

THE
YELLOW
ANT PART 2

The Yellow Ant is your “insect alter ego” --- your main method of
controlling, teaching and interacting with your ants is through the Yellow
Ant.
The Yellow Ant is the initiator ant for the black colony, and is only
controlled by you.
The Yellow Ant can be any live, mature black ant in your colony: no dead
ants, eggs, larvae or pupae. You cannot make a red ant into the Yellow
Ant.
THINGS TO DO WITH THE YELLOW ANT
Lead your ants to food.
Lead your ants to battle.
Lead your ants to safety underground when feet or lawn mowers
approach.
Dig nest chambers.
Eat.
Transfer to the queen and move her deep into the nest for safety.
Pick up and move rocks to build barriers or block nest entrances.
Drop the alarm scent near food or nests that need guarding.
Fight red ants with your bare mandibles.
DOING THINGS WITH THE YELLOW ANT
You can control the Yellow Ant from either the Edit or the Map
Window. In the Edit Window, just click. In the Map Window, you must
hold down the Shift key when you click.
BECOMING THE CENTER OF ATTENTION

To center the Yellow Ant in the Edit Window, just click on it briefly.
MOVING

To move the Yellow Ant while in the Edit Window, click where you want
it to go. It will try to take the straightest path to its goal. To move it

while in the Map Window: hold down the Shift key and click where you
want it to go.
Be careful when moving the Yellow Ant long distances: it could be
caught by the spider or an ant lion, or may be killed by red ants.
Sometimes, when you try to move the Yellow Ant while underground, it
cannot find its way. At these times you will have to make it dig.
DIGGING

While underground, the yellow ant can dig. In the Edit Window, just
double-click where you want it to dig to. To dig in the Map Window,
hold down the Shift key and double-click.
PICKING UP AND PUTTING DOWN

The Yellow Ant can pick up and put down food, eggs, larvae, pupae and
small rocks.
To make it pick up while in the Edit Window, double-click on the object.
To make it put down, double-click where you want it to drop its load.
When in the Map Window, hold down the Shift key while double-clicking.
RECRUITING/RELEASING

The Yellow Ant is an initiator. It can recruit other ants to follow it to
food or danger.
To recruit in the Edit Window, click and hold on the Yellow Ant to open
the Yellow Ant Control Menu. Slide the pointer to highlight either
“Recruit 5” or “Recruit 10” and release the pointer. Five or ten ants will
immediately rush to the Yellow Ant and mill about, ready for action.

To release the ants, click and hold on the Yellow Ant to open the Yellow
Ant Control Menu, and slide the pointer to highlight either “Release 1/2”
or “Release all” and release the pointer. The ants will go on their merry
way.
To recruit or release in the Map Window, hold down the Shift key and
follow the instructions for releasing in the Edit Window.
EXCHANGING

The Yellow Ant can exchange places with any live, adult black ant.

In the Edit Window, click and hold on the Yellow Ant to open the
Yellow Ant Control Menu, and slide the pointer to highlight “Exchange”
and release the pointer. Then click on the ant that you want to exchange
with. The Yellow Ant becomes the caste of the exchanged ant (worker,
soldier, queen, etc.).
To Exchange in the Map Window, hold down the Shift key and follow
the instructions for the Edit Window.
SETTING THE ALARM

The Yellow Ant can leave a trail of alarm scent that, when sensed by
black ants, causes them to stay near the scent and mill around, ready for
battle. Use this to post guards near food or colony entrances.
Pressing the Zero key [0] on the keyboard toggles you into Alarm Mode.
This does two things: turns on the display of the alarm scent, and drops
the alarm scent behind the Yellow Ant as you move it.
Press the Zero key again to toggle out of Alarm Mode.
Repeatedly dropping scent in any one place increases the intensity of the
scent and increases the black ants' reaction to it. The more scent you drop
in one place, the slower it fades.
The alarm scent is washed away by rain.
GETTING HELP

At any time you need help with the Yellow Ant, click and hold on it to
open the Yellow Ant Control Menu, slide the pointer to highlight the
question mark, and release the pointer. A dialog box appears, and
explains how to control Ol' Yeller.
FIGHTING

If you come in close contact with a red ant, it will usually attack. See the
chart above for battle odds with different types of ants. If you want to
pick a fight with a particular red ant, double-click on it.
FOOD, HEALTH, ENERGY
The Yellow Ant needs food to survive, and the more it moves, digs, or
carries things, the more energy it burns. The hungrier it is, the lower its
health rating. The lower its health rating, the easier it is for a red ant to
beat it in a fight.
When the Yellow Ant is hungry and picks up food, it will eat it right then
and there, increasing its health level. When it is hungry and not near food,
nearby black ants will feed it. If it is starving, and there are no black ants
near, recruit some and they will feed it.
You can also double-click on any black ant to force it to feed you. Unless
it is starving, it will share whatever it has in its stomach with you.

The Yellow Ant's health is shown in the Edit Window, at the bottom of
the control panel. The higher the yellow bar, the healthier the Yellow Ant.

Somewhere in that bar is a horizontal line. This line is the warning level
that acts like the warning light on your gas tank. You can set this warning
level by dragging it up or down.
When the Yellow Ant's health gets below the line, another ant will come
and feed it. The higher you set the line, the more often you will be fed,
and the more often you will have to stop and eat.
The disadvantage of a high warning level is that you will have to stop
constantly for meals. The advantage is you maintain a high health level, so
you will have better odds in fights with red ants.
Next to the yellow bar is a black bar that shows the overall health of the
black colony. It also has a warning level you can set. When the level gets
below the warning line, you will receive messages telling you to find food.
DEATH AND REBIRTH
As long as there is a black colony, there will be a Yellow Ant. If it dies
(and it will, often), it will hatch from the next egg laid by the black queen
and be reborn.

When the Yellow Ant dies, all recruited ants are released.
There is no big penalty for the Yellow Ant dying in SimAnt. With ants, it
is the colony that is important, the colony that must survive; the
individual ant is expendable. The only penalty for the Yellow Ant dying is
lost time and energy.

MENUS
Here is a listing and explanation of all menu items in SimAnt.

FILE MENU

This menu has the commands for file management and quitting SimAnt.

This menu has the commands for file management and quitting SimAnt.
OR
PROJECT
MENU

ABOUT SIMANT...
About SimAnt... brings up vital and fascinating facts about this game. If
your computer has a special menu, like the Macintosh “Apple” menu, this
item will be there, and not in the File Menu.
NEW
New opens the New Game Window allowing you to start a new Quick
Game, Full Game or Experimental Game.
OPEN OR LOAD
Open lets you load and play a pre-saved game.
SAVE
Save is for saving the current game to disk. If the game has not been
saved before, you will be prompted for a file name.
SAVE AS...
Save As... is for saving the current game to disk. You will always be
prompted for a file name.
QUIT
Quit ends SimAnt.

WINDOW
MENU

This menu is for opening and activating the various windows in SimAnt.
EDIT
Edit opens or activates the Edit Window.
MAP
Map opens or activates the MapWindow.
BEHAVIOR
Behavior opens or activates the Behavior Control Window.
CASTE
Caste opens or activates the Caste Control Window.
HISTORY
History opens or activates the History Graph Window.
INFO
Info opens or activates the Information Window, which gives a tutorial
on real ants.
STATUS

Status opens or activates the Status Window, which gives you a
feedback on your performance as an ant, and an overall score in Quick
and Full Games.

VIEW MENU

The View Menu lets you select different views for the Edit and Map
Windows.
YARD
Yard displays the Surface View in the Edit Window and the Yard View
in the Map Window.
HOUSE
House displays the Surface View in the Edit Window, and the Yard View
with the interior of the house visible in the Map Window.
STRATEGIC
Strategic displays the Surface View in the Edit Window, and the
Strategic View in the Map Window.
GRAPHIC
Graphic displays the Surface View in the Edit Window, and the Graphic
View in the Map Window.
SURFACE
Surface displays the Surface View in the Edit Window and the Patch
View in the Map Window.
BLACK NEST
Black Nest displays the underground view of the black colony's nest in
both the Edit and Map Windows.
RED NEST
Red Nest displays the underground view of the red colony's nest in both
the Edit and Map Windows.

OPTIONS
MENU

The Options Menu lets you set a number of game-play options to suit
your taste. Options are active if they have a checkmark to their left.
AUTO TRACK
Auto Track scrolls the area in Edit Window to keep the Yellow Ant at
the center of the window.
MUSIC
Music toggles the playing of music on and off. The amount and quality of

music available to you depends on your computer.
SOUND EFFECTS
Sound Effects toggles the sound effects on and off. The amount and
quality of sound effects available to you depends on your computer.
Some of these sounds are really disgusting, so you may want to turn them
off sometimes. Then again, some of them are warnings of approaching
danger. It's your choice.
EVENTS
Events toggles on and off the display of various event descriptions during
the game that appear in small pop-up boxes.
MESSAGES
Messages toggles on and off the display of helpful hints and messages
during the game. These will appear in the Message Bars in both the Edit
and Map Windows
SILLY
Silly toggles on and off the display of wise remarks made by the ants and
their friends.

SPEED
MENU

The Speed Menu lets you set the rate at which time passes in SimAnt.
PAUSE
Pause stops the simulation, and puts it into “single-step” mode. You can
move the Yellow Ant while the game is paused, but the simulation will
run while the Yellow Ant moves.
You must select Pause again (or UnPause) to return to normal time.
Selecting one of the other speeds will not turn off the pause.
SLOW
Slow sets the simulation to its slowest continuous speed.
NORMAL
Normal sets the simulation speed to move the ants at a realistic-looking
speed.
FAST
Fast sets the simulation speed to the fastest speed possible on your
computer while maintaining smooth animation.
ULTRA

Ultra lets the simulation run even faster by updating the graphics less
often. The animation will look choppy, but time will pass very quickly.

WINDOWS
One of the main differences between SimAnt on different computers is
the way the Title Bars and Scroll Bars look (and sometimes act) on
windows.

SELECT A
GAME
WINDOW

This window appears whenever you first start SimAnt and when you
select New from the File (or Project) menu. It allows you to choose the
type of game you want to play, Quick, Full, or Experimental, by clicking
on the button of your choice. You can also start the on-screen Tutorial or
load a previously saved game.

Quick Game
A Quick Game is played in only one Patch of the backyard. The object of
a Quick Game is to destroy the red ant colony and take over the section
of the backyard.
Full Game
A Full Game is played all over the whole yard and in the house. The
object of a Full Game is to dominate the entire yard and house, destroy
the red ants, and drive out the pesky humans.
Experimental
An Experimental Game gives you various tools and toys, and sets you
free on the ants. Run them through mazes, test their reaction to various
chemicals, even spray them with insecticide.
Open or Load
Load an existing game from a disk.

Tutorial
Tutorial begins the on-screen Tutorial.
Cancel
If you change your mind and decide not to start a new game, you can
cancel and go back to the old game.

EDIT
WINDOW

IN GENERAL
The Edit Window is your close-up view of the ants' world. It is where
you can see the details of ant life and their interaction with other ants,
insects and spiders. It is where you will use the Yellow Ant the most.

The Edit Window only shows part of the Patch at a time, whether it is in
the house or in the yard. Use the scroll bars, arrows and boxes to see
different parts of the Patch.
In this window you can see your ants both above and below ground,
inside the house or out.

The Edit and Map Window are linked together --- when you change the
view from above to below ground in one window, the view will also

change in the other.
THINGS IN THE EDIT WINDOW
Most of the things you'll see in the Edit Window are easily recognizable.
There are bits of plants, dirt, rocks, kitchen sinks, stoves, carpets, and
other common items. There are red ants, black ants, and dead ants. There
are spiders, caterpillars and sow bugs (also known as roly-poly bugs).
Below is a list of the less common things seen in this window, and an
explanation of how some of the more common ones behave in SimAnt.
The Yellow Ant is your insect alter ego. You will use this ant to lead the
other ants in your colony to food or battle.
Ants can be black or red. The black ants are the good guys (your
colony), and the red ants are the bad guys. We made the red ants the bad
guys because a number of us were bit by red ants and it hurt.
Ants can be workers, soldiers, queens, males and new queens. Ants
usually stay busy, and can be recruited and led by the Yellow Ant. Ants
can also be dead. Dead ants aren't any fun. They just lie there. At least
they don't bite.
To get information about individual ants, click and hold on them to open
a little info window. This window tells the type of ant, what it is doing at
the time, and what, if anything it is carrying.
Brood are the immature ants, eggs, larvae and pupae. To get information
about individual eggs, larvae or pupae, click and hold on them to open a
little info window. This window tells the type of ant; what it is doing at
the time; what, if anything it is carrying; and its health.

Anthills are entrances to the nests. There can be one or many anthills for
each nest.

Food is shown as green balls. These balls represent anything ants might,
eat from dropped candy to dead insects.

Sow Bugs wander around and do nothing but get in the way. They don't
eat ants, and ants don't eat them. These bugs are also called roly-polys
because they roll up into a ball when you touch them.

Caterpillars wander around the yard just asking to be eaten. They are a
delicious and nutritious source of food for ants. When enough ants
surround a caterpillar, they kill it and it turns into green balls of food.
There is only one caterpillar at a time in SimAnt.

Spiders roam the exterior of the house and eat ants. These spiders are
hungry, and eat red and black ants indiscriminately. Spiders can also eat
the Yellow Ant (you). There is only one spider at a time in SimAnt.
Spiders can be killed and eaten, but not easily.

Ant Lions aren't lions (or ants). They are the larvae of an insect like a
dragon fly. They bury themselves in the ground at the bottom of a small
pit with just their mouths exposed. When an unsuspecting ant slips down
the pit, it is chomped up and swallowed. Ant lions can eat the Yellow
Ant, so be careful. Ant lions can be killed and eaten.
Human Feet are a constant source of annoyance to ants. They appear
out of nowhere and squash ants, left and right. Depending on your
computer's sound capabilities, you may be able to hear footsteps
approaching and hide underground until they go away.
Lawn Mowers are deadly menaces. When one passes over ants, it sucks
them up and blows them to oblivion. Depending on your computer's
sound capabilities, you may be able to hear the lawn mower approaching
and hide underground until it goes away.
Rocks are barriers to ants. They have to go around them. Ants can also
pick up and carry small rocks.
THE EDIT WINDOW CONTROL PANEL

The Edit Window Control Panel provides tools to navigate around the
Patch, change views above and below ground, see the ant trail and nest
markers, check on the health of the red, black and yellow ants, and access
the experimental tools.
The Map Button is a very useful item. Click on it to see a miniature view
of the whole map. In this little map is the Edit Rectangle, which shows
the area presently visible in the Edit Window. Click anywhere in the map
to move the rectangle and redraw the Edit Window in that location. This
is a quick way to navigate around the Patch.
The small map will be above or below ground, depending on the current
view in the Edit Window.
The Map Button will also open or activate the Map Window if you click
and hold on it, then slide the pointer into the little map and release the
pointer.
Help displays on-screen explanations of all buttons in the Edit Window
Control Panel.
Experiment, while in a Quick Game, lets you switch to an Experimental
Game. You cannot switch to an Experimental Game from a Full Game.
Experiment, while in an Experimental Game, displays the active
experimental tool. Click and hold on this button to see a submenu that
lets you choose the different experimental tools or switch to a Quick
Game. A complete description of the experimental tools is in the next
section below.

Surface changes the view in the Edit Window to the surface of the Patch.

Black Nest changes the view in the Edit Window to the underground
nest of the black ants.

Red Nest changes the view in the Edit Window to the underground nest
of the red ants.

Yellow Ant centers the Edit Window around the Yellow Ant, wherever it
is.

Spider centers the Edit Window around the spider.

Pause puts the game into a single-step mode. You can move the Yellow
Ant while the game is paused, but while it actually moves, so will
everything else.

Scent brings up a submenu that allows you to view the location of red
and black colony, trail-marking and alarm scents.
Health Graph shows the relative health of the Yellow Ant and the red
and black colonies. The higher the bars, the better the health.

In the bars for the Yellow Ant and the black colony are horizontal lines.
You can drag these lines up and down to set warning levels.
When the Yellow Ant's health gets below the line, another ant will come
and feed it. The higher you set the line, the more often you will be fed,
the more often you will have to stop and eat, and the healthier you will be.
When the black colony health level goes below the warning line, you will
receive messages and advice telling you to find food.
THE EXPERIMENTAL TOOLS

The experimental tools are only available during an Experimental Game.

Info lets you find out about individual ants. Click and hold on them to
open an info window that tells the type of ant, what it is doing at the time,
and what, if anything it is carrying.
Barriers brings up a submenu that lets you choose between walls and
rocks to use as barriers. Barriers are for making mazes and obstacles to
test ant intelligence and foraging efficiency. To remove barriers, hold
down the Option or Alt key on the keyboard and click on the barrier.
Dig/Fill brings up a submenu that lets you choose between digging and
filling. Above ground, digging will create a shallow anthill. Below ground
you can dig tunnels and chambers. Fill lets you fill in tunnels and
chambers underground.
Use these tools to make underground mazes, block ants from the surface,
isolate the queen, and other torturous activities.
Add Ants brings up a submenu that lets you add black or red ants. Mix
and match these enemies in different situations to see what happens.
Add Food brings up a submenu that lets you add one or 20 pieces of
food at a time. Use the food as bait in mazes.
Food will not automatically appear in Experimental Games. If you don't
add any yourself, all the ants will die.
Drop Trails lets you experiment with the chemicals that ants use to mark
their homes and trails to food. You can also put down the scent that puts
ants into alarm mode.
Insecticide lets you apply poison on or near ants and other insects to see
what happens...as if you didn't already know.

MAP
WINDOW

The Map Window gives you a number of overall views of the ant
“world.” The Map Window is closely tied to the Edit Window: when you

change the Map view, the Edit view will change to show the same area or
level.

VIEWING LEVELS
There are two different viewing levels in this window: Patch Level shows
the patch of ground (or section of the house) that is active; Yard Level
shows the whole yard and house.
Patch level is for playing Quick Games and for individual battles within
Full Games. Yard Level is for making strategic moves to different
Patches, mating and spreading colonies.
The Map Window Control Panel changes for each of these levels, giving
you access to the tools and information needed at the time.
PATCH LEVEL

At Patch Level you see the active Patch, whether it is inside or outside
the house. You can view either the surface of the Patch or the
underground nests for each colony that exists in that Patch.

YARD LEVEL

At Yard Level you see the entire game universe: the whole yard and the
house. You can toggle on and off the display of the interior of the house.

There are also two other views at this level that are useful in Full Games.
The Strategic View shows which of the patches are ruled by each (red or
black) colony. The Graphic View shows the relative populations of red
and black ants in each patch with bar charts.
THE MAP WINDOW AT PATCH LEVEL
The Map Window at Patch Level displays the Patch of the yard, inside
the house or out, that is presently active.
THINGS IN THE MAP

Edit Rectangle --- Somewhere in the map area of the Map Window is
the Edit Rectangle. This shows the area of the map that is visible in the
Edit Window. Click and drag it to change the Edit Window display.
Double-click in this rectangle to open or activate the Edit Window.
Other Things --- At this range, most things, including ants, are little
more than dots. Discerning different types of ants in this window is much
easier if you have a color monitor. Below is a chart of the objects that
appear in the Map, for both color and black and white monitors. The
colors used on different computers may vary.
Item

Color

Dirt

Light Brown

Rocks

Light Grey

Yellow Ant

Yellow square

Black Ant, no load

Black square

Black Ant, carrying food

Light Green square

Red, no load

Red square

Red, carrying food

Orange square

Dead Ant

Dark Brown square

Food

Dark Green square

Sow Bug

Light Blue square

Caterpillar

Green line w/brown head

Ant Lion

White square

THE MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL AT PATCH LEVEL

The Map Window Control Panel is a series of buttons and graphs that
change the views in the window, access other windows, access
experimental tools, and give information on red and black ant health and
population.

Yard changes the Map Window to Yard View. The next section of the
manual covers the Map Window at Yard View.

Surface displays the surface of the Patch.

Black Nest displays the black colony's underground nest.

Red Nest displays the red colony's underground nest.

Nest Markers display the pheromones that mark the red and black nests.
Trail Markers display the pheromones that mark the trails to and from
food left by the red and black ants.
Alarm Signal displays (if there are any present) the pheromones that put
ants into alarm mode, which causes them to emit more pheromone that
puts them into alarm mode, which....

Trails causes ants to leave trails behind them so you can see the patterns
ants follow as they forage for food. this in no way affects the game: these
are not pheromone trails.

Yellow Ant centers the Edit Rectangle on the Yellow Ant.

Status displays the Status Window, which gives you feedback on your
performance as an ant.

Experiment, while in a Quick Game, lets you switch to an Experimental
Game. You cannot switch to an Experimental Game from a Full Game.

Experiment, while in an Experimental Game, displays the active
experimental tool. Click and hold on this button to see a submenu that
lets you choose the different experimental tools or switch to a Quick
Game.
All of these tools can be used while in the Map or Edit Window. While in
the Map Window, hold down the Shift key to activate them. A complete
explanation of each experimental tool is found in the section describing

the Edit Window.

Behavior Control opens or activates the Behavior Control Window.

Caste Control opens or activates the Caste Control Window.

Info opens or activates the Info Window.
Help displays on-screen help for the Map Window Control Panel.

Data Section displays the black and red ant populations and bar graphs
that show the relative populations and health of the two colonies.

Click and hold in this section to see a population report of the different
castes of ants in both colonies.
THE YELLOW ANT AT PATCH LEVEL

You can control the Yellow Ant in the Map Window in Patch Level the
same way as you do in the Edit Window, except you must hold down the
Shift key and click. Be careful when moving the Yellow Ant long
distances in this window. It is easy to step in an ant lion trap by accident.
THE MAP WINDOW AT YARD LEVEL
The Map Window at Yard Level displays the whole yard and house --the entire SimAnt universe. There are three different views at this level:
the House View, the Strategic View and the Graphic View. In all views
the yard is divided up into 192 squares, each of which is a Patch where a
battle can take place.

The active Patch flashes so you know where you came from. During a
Full Game, you can transfer from Patch to Patch in any of the Yard Level
views by double-clicking in the Patch you want to go to. You can only go
to Patches where there is a black colony or a newly placed new queen.
You can also initiate mating flights from each of these views, and place
your new queens in different Patches.
The House View shows the house (interior and exterior) and yard, with a
dog and human doing their dog and human act. The cat generally does its
best to annoy the dog, as any respectable cat should. When the human
steps on a part of a patch where there are ants, the ants are flattened.
When the human mows the lawn and the mower passes over ants, they
are blown away into oblivion. The dog doesn't affect the ants at all, but it
can throw the cat for a loop now and then. The bird eats ants during the
mating flights.

The Strategic View shows which of the Patches are dominated by which
ant colony. Black-dominated squares are shown black. Red-dominated
squares are red (or grey on black and white monitors). Neutral squares
are shown green (or white on black and white monitors).
The Graphic View shows the relative black and red populations for each
Patch.
THE MAP WINDOW CONTROL PANEL AT YARD LEVEL

Patch zooms the Map Window in to Patch Level. The previous section of
the manual covers the Map Window at Patch Level.

House sets the view to House View. If it is already in House View, it
toggles the view between the interior and exterior of the house.

Strategic sets the view to the Strategic View.

Graphic sets the view to the Graphic View.

Mating Controls are for starting the mating cycle and founding new
colonies in the yard. A complete description of mating and founding is in
the next section below.

Help displays an on-screen explanation of all the buttons and features of
the Map Window Control Panel.

Colony Tally gives the total number of red and black colonies in the yard.
MATING AND FOUNDING NEW COLONIES

A major part of playing Full Games is garnering your energies, mating,
and carefully placing new colonies.
Before you can mate, you must set the Caste Control Window to produce

breeders (males and new queens) in at least one Patch.
When you have a supply of breeders and are ready to mate, open the Map
Window in one of the Yard Views (House or Strategic).

Click on the Mate button to begin the mating cycle. After a short while,
the number of fertilized queens that can found new colonies appears to
the right of the Mate button.

If you want the queens to fly off and pick their own new homes, click on
the Automatic button.

If you want to place the new queens yourself, click on the manual button
before you start the mating cycle.

When you have available queens, and want to place them, click on the
Place button, then click on one of the Patches in the yard. A new colony
will be founded there.
You can click the Place button, then click on one Patch, then click the
Place button, then click on a Patch, and on and on until all your queens
are placed, or you can click the Place button then hold down the Shift key
while clicking on multiple Patches.
You can only place queens a distance of three Patches from the Patch
where they were born. You can't place a queen on a patch where there is
already a black colony. If you have more queens than you can place, they
will slowly be eaten by birds. Sometimes they come in handy: if a colony
dies and you have a spare queen you can place it and try again.
If you transfer to another Patch without placing all the queens, they will
die, and won't be there if you come back.

BEHAVIOR
CONTROL
WINDOW

The Behavior Control Window is where you control the basic behavior of
your ants.
There are three main behaviors that ants can have in SimAnt: Forage,

Dig, and Nurse. These behaviors are explained in detail above in the
section Ant Modes of Behavior.
The ants are controlled by using a triangular “joystick.” Each of the three
behaviors is found at a corner of the triangle. In the middle of the triangle
is the joystick that you can click and drag. If you drag it all the way into
any one corner, all the ants will follow that behavior. If it is in the exact
middle, your ants will be equally divided between the behaviors. If you
are careful, you can set your ants' behavior in any ratio of the three
behaviors.

At each corner of the triangle is a box displaying Forage, Dig or Nurse,
and showing the percentage of ants active in each behavior. Click in any
of these three boxes to toggle between displaying percentages and actual
numbers of ants.
To the right of the triangle is a set of bar graphs that give you another
view of how your labor is divided up between behavior modes.
These three basic behaviors are overridden if ants are recruited by the
Yellow Ant, if they happen across some alarm scent, or if they meet an
enemy and automatically enter attack mode. If ants are recruited, the
remaining ants will redistribute themselves into the behavior ratios you set.
AUTO, MANUAL AND PRESETS
When the Auto button is depressed, the simulation automatically controls
the behaviors of the ants. It will do a fairly good job, but will not respond
well to emergencies. You may also need to take control for certain
strategic moves. When in Manual mode, the behavior ratios stay as they
are until you change them.
There are three Presets you can use to save favorite settings for strategic
moves or emergencies. To set the Presets, drag the joystick to the setting
you want, then click on any of the Set buttons. To recall the setting at a
later time, just click on the same Set button.
HELP

Click and hold on the Help button to see an on-screen explanation of all
controls in this window.

CASTE
CONTROL
WINDOW

The Caste Control Window lets you control what types of ants are born
in your colony. There are three main types, or castes, of ants in SimAnt:
Workers, Soldiers, and Breeders. A complete explanation of the castes is
found above in the section Types of Ants --- Castes and Brood.
The castes are controlled by using a triangular “joystick.” Each of the
three types of ants is found at a corner of the triangle. In the middle of the
triangle is the joystick that you can click and drag. If you drag it all the
way into any one corner, all the new eggs will hatch into that type of ant .
If it is in the exact middle, your ants will be equally divided between the
castes. If you are careful, you can set your ants in any ratio of the three
types.

At each corner of the triangle is a box displaying Breeders, Workers or
Soldiers, and showing the percentage of ants of each type. Click in any of
these three boxes to toggle between displaying percentages and actual
numbers of ants. To the right of the triangle is a set of bar graphs that
give you another view of how your ants are divided up between the
different castes.
AUTO, MANUAL AND PRESETS
When the Auto button is depressed, the simulation automatically controls
the type of ants that will hatch. It will do a fairly good job, but will not
respond well to emergencies. You may also need to take control for
certain strategic moves. When in Manual mode, the caste ratios stay as
they are until you change them.
There are three Presets you can use to save favorite settings for strategic
moves or emergencies. To set the Presets, drag the joystick to the setting
you want, then click on any of the Set buttons. To recall the setting at a
later time, just click on the same Set button.
HELP

Click and hold on the Help button to see an on-screen explanation of all
controls in this window.

HISTORY
WINDOW

The History Window shows various graphs of matters of life and death
(to ants, anyway). There is no real time scale on these graphs, but they
are useful for spotting trends in your ant colony.

Click and hold in the graph area to see actual numbers for the current
value of displayed graphs.

Black Population shows the rise and fall of the number of black ants.
Click and hold in the graph area to see the current number of living black
ants.

Red Population shows the rise and fall of the number of red ants. Click
and hold in the graph area to see the current number of living red ants.

Black Food shows how much food the black ants have stored in their
nest. Click and hold in the graph area to see the number of green balls
currently in storage.

Red Food shows how much food the red ants have stored in their nest.
Click and hold in the graph area to see the number of green balls currently
in storage.

Black Health shows the rise and fall of the general health of the black ant
colony. Click and hold in the graph area to see the current health of the
colony: 0 is dead, 100 is very healthy.

Red Health shows the rise and fall of the general health of the red ant
colony. Click and hold in the graph area to see the current health of the
colony: 0 is dead, 100 is very healthy.

Surface Food Supply is the amount of food available in the environment
(not including food in nests). Click and hold in the graph area to see the
current amount of available food.

Ants Eaten is the number of black ants that were killed and eaten by
spiders and ant lions. Click and hold in the graph area to see the total
number of black ants eaten so far.

Ants Expired is the number of black ants that died from natural causes.
In SimAnt, the main natural cause is low health from lack of food. If your
health level is 100%, no ants will expire. The lower the health, the more
expirations. Click and hold in the graph area to see the total number of
black ants that have expired so far in the game.

Ants Killed is the number of black ants that died at the hands (or
mandibles) of red ants, or by the feet, poison and lawnmowers of humans.
Click and hold in the graph area to see the total number of black ants that
have been ruthlessly murdered by the bad guys so far in the game.

Help provides on-screen explanations of all the graphs in this window.

INFORMATION
WINDOW

The Information Window is a mini-tutorial on real ants. It will explain
enough about ants, their societies and their behavior to help you
understand what happens in SimAnt, and why it happens. It will also
improve your game play. A more complete source of information on real
ants is found later in this manual.
Depending on your type of computer, there may be slight differences in
the appearance and operation of this window.

The information is presented in a series of electronic index cards. There
are four main parts to the cards in this window: the Title Bar, the Text
Box, the Picture, and the Button Bar.
TITLE BAR
The Title Bar displays the name of the individual card.
TEXT BOX

The Text Box displays text. There may be one or many pages of text for
each card. Click on the arrows on the right of the Text Box to flip the
pages. If an arrow is greyed out there are no more pages in that direction.
Words that appear in bold text have pop-up definitions. Click and hold on
a word with bold text to see the definition.

PICTURE

There is one Picture per card. There can also be buttons in the picture
that link to other cards. Click on the buttons to jump to the other cards.

BUTTON BAR

The Button Bar has four buttons for navigating through the cards.
Last goes back to the previous card.
Next moves you forward to the next card.
Index displays the Index card that lists all the topics.
Top displays the introductory card.

STATUS
WINDOW

The Status Window gives you feedback on your performance as an ant. It
is opened by selecting Status from the Windows Menu and by clicking on
the “percent” button in the Map Window.

This window gives individual efficiency ratings in eight different
categories; the four Colony ratings relate to all games, the Universe
ratings relate only to Full Games. In an Experimental Game, these
percentages rate the ants' performance in the face of your interference.
COLONY RATINGS
Colony Health is the average colony health over the period of the game.
Foraging is the ratio of food gathered by the black colony to the total
food gathered by both the red and black colonies. This is a direct
reflection on the quality and quantity of your foragers.
Eggs Hatched is the ratio of black eggs that successfully hatch to the

total black eggs laid. This is a direct reflection of the quantity and quality
of nursing.
Fights Won is the percentage of fights between red and black ants that
are won by the black ants.
UNIVERSE RATINGS
Colonies Started is the ratio of the black colonies started during a game
to the total colonies started by red and black ants.
Colonies Held is the ratio of black colonies that survive.
Yard Filled is the percentage of the Yard Patches that are filled by black
colonies.
House Filled is the percentage of the House Patches that are filled by
black colonies.
OVERALL SCORE
An overall score is given for Quick and Full Games. No score is given in
Experimental Games.
The overall score is calculated by weighting each of the above
percentages as well as the Yellow Ant's health.
In general, you can rate yourself by the following scores for Quick and
Full Games:
OK

GOOD

GREAT

QUICK GAME

200,000

280,000

350,000

FULL GAME

2,500,000

3,500,000

4,500,000

STRATEGIES
QUICK AND
FULL GAME
STRATEGIES

THE OBJECT OF THE QUICK GAME
The object of a Quick Game is to destroy the red ant colony and take
over the section of the backyard. You win when you kill the red queen.
THE OBJECT OF THE FULL GAME
The object of a Full Game is to take over the whole house and yard and
drive out the humans. You win when you destroy all the red ants and take
over 70% of the Patches inside the house.
BASIC STRATEGIES
In general, you want to gather as much food as you can while allowing

the red ants to get as little food as possible. This lets you breed more,
bigger, healthier ants than the red ants.
All you care about in a Quick Game is the one section of the backyard.
Reproducing and starting new colonies only counts in a Full Game, so
don't waste any energy producing males or new queens.
Use the Yellow Ant to take recruits to food and release them, then look
for more food.
If there is a lot of food, set some ants in alarm mode to guard it.
If the food is near the reds, and you can't get it all, try to make it hard for
them, especially once their health gets low. They will be easier to defeat
one-on-one that way. Use rocks to make a barrier around food to keep
the red ants from finding it or accessing it easily.
Lead the spider over to the red nest.
Pick up rocks and close the opening(s) to the red nest to starve them out,
or at least slow them down.
Wait until you have the red ants outnumbered and preferably out-healthed
before attacking en masse.
Make your Yellow Ant a soldier whenever possible. It will win more
fights.
Set the Yellow Ant's health warning high. It will need to stop more often
for food, but will win more fights.
When marching off to battle, protect the Yellow Ant. It is the leader, and
very vulnerable to attack. The Yellow Ant dying costs you time, since
you have to be reborn and return to the fight. Plus, all the recruited ants
are released when the Yellow Ant dies, and the attack stops.
As your army of ants approaches the enemy, repeatedly transfer the
Yellow Ant to an ant near the rear of the army, and bring it forward.
Watch the enemy carefully and try to pick out the Red Terminator. If they
are attacking, or on their way to meet you for battle, destroying the Red
Terminator will disperse all its recruited ants.
Sneak into the red nest and dig lots of deep holes. The red queen might
go too deep and drown in the next rain.
Placement of new colonies can be important in a Full Game. You have to
make your way to the house so you can take it over, but you also have to
keep the red ants under control. While the colonies in Patches that aren't
active are being simulated in the background, red colonies that are
surrounded on four sides by black colonies are easier to invade with a
newly founded colony.
Occasionally, you may need to sacrifice a colony by gathering a lot of

food, and setting all energy to making breeders. You will get lots of new
queens to place, but your colony will be greatly weakened and may die.

EXPERIMENTAL
STRATEGIES

THE OBJECT OF THE GAME
The object of an Experimental Game is to play with a bunch of electronic
ants with a number of tools and chemicals.
ADVANTAGES OF ELECTRONIC ANTS
Electronic Ants are easier to get rid of than real ones, and they don't
make stains when you squish them.
THINGS TO DO IN EXPERIMENTAL GAMES
You've got a free hand here. You decide if and when you win. Just have
fun and see if you can find some insight into the mind and soul of the ant.
CHEMICAL TESTING

Test the ants' reactions to and use of the various trail and colony marker
scents.
For example, you can test the directionality (or lack thereof) of trail
markers. Make a long trail marker scent path that leads from a colony
entrance to some food. Drop ants one at a time in the middle of the trail.
See how many go towards the food and how many go home.
RUNNING MAZES

Run ants through mazes. See if they find their way out quicker than they
found their way in. Repeat the maze and see if they learn.
GLADIATOR BATTLES

Build an arena filled with ant lions. Build a little wall around some food in
the middle of the arena with only one small opening. Set loose one or two
each of red and black ants. Pretend you are a Roman. Enjoy the carnage.
Throw in a spider to add to the thrills.
GENERAL YUCKINESS

Show what happens to us when we die and gross out your friends and
family. While Paused, dig out the shape of a human underground, fill it
with ants, get someone to look then Unpause it. (The ants crawl in, the
ants crawl out...)
SEE YOUR NAME IN ANTS

Spell your name in trail scent and watch it come to life.

4: Real Ants – Backyard Background

They taste salty.
- Cassidy Wright

Introduction
Ants - General Information
Ants Are Social Insects
Individual Ants
Ant Colonies
Food
Foraging
Communication
Behavior
Friends, Enemies and Camp Followers
The History and Origin of Ants
Types of Ants

INTRODUCTION
Ants live everywhere on earth except the coldest and highest spots on the
planet. They live in deserts, jungles, swamps, cities, mountains, boats,
airplanes, and houses-there is even a recently discovered species of ant
that only lives in government buildings in Washington, D.C.
Ants are amazing little creatures that do things you may have thought
only humans do, like: dairy farming – keeping herds of aphids as “cows”
and “milking” them for food; vegetable farming – growing underground
gardens for nourishment; career specialization – often changing careers a
few times in their lifetime; childcare – taking care of their young by

protecting and feeding them; and education – older, more experienced
ants work with the younger ants, teaching them the tricks of the trade.
Ants also do things you wish humans wouldn't, like: living in a constant
state of war with other ants; and enslaving other ants, making them work
and even fight for their masters.
They also do things you hope no human would do, including: eating dead
enemies after a battle – even the enemies' eggs and babies; and eating
their own old and weak, and even their own eggs during times of food
shortages.

THE ANTS'
PLACE IN
THE WORLD
AND
ECOLOGY

Ants are small, but they are among the most important creatures on earth.
They are important to the cycles of life. They move at least as much soil
as earthworms. They bring plant material deep into the earth and enrich
the soil. Ants that make their nests in dead logs speed the process of
decay and hurry the returning of the nutrients in the wood to the soil.
They collect seeds, and the ones they don't eat grow into new plants.
They pollinate some plants. Ants are among the leading predators of
other insects and small invertebrates, including other ants.
Ants also cause damage. Carpenter ants can damage wood homes and
buildings. Leaf-cutter ants can wipe out farms. Fire ants can also cause
problems for farmers, as well as cause pain to humans they bite. By
tending aphids, ants encourage them to do crop damage.

WHAT WE
CAN LEARN
FROM
STUDYING
ANTS

Besides learning about ants themselves, and increasing our general
knowledge of entomology (the study of insects) and myrmecology (the
study of ants), learning about ants can give us insight into biology,
sociology, sociobiology, evolution, behavioral studies, and more.
Biology – Ants' bodies are relatively simple, and are easier to study and
understand than more advanced life-forms, yet they are still complex,
with complicated chemical control and communication systems.
Sociology and Sociobiology – Ants are social insects. Their primitive
societies can give us insights into the origins of human societies.
Evolution – Since there are so many species of ants with so many
physical and behavioral differences in various stages of development, they
are a living laboratory for studying evolution.
Behavioral Studies – Ants have developed complex group behaviors
that are a combination of instinct and learning.
More – Ants can teach us many things far removed from the ants
themselves, or even insects in general. Ant colonies are now being studied

as models for human cities and societies, as models for computers, and
even as models for the human brain.

ABOUT THIS
REAL ANT
SECTION OF
THE MANUAL

This section of the manual, combined with the on-line Help in the SimAnt
program, will give you a basic understanding of ants. Much of the
information presented here will help in your game play. This manual goes
into far more detail than the on-line help. There is also an extensive
bibliography and reading list at the end of the manual for those who want
to learn more.
There are thousands of ant species, and each one has a different physical
appearance and different behaviors. This manual and the on-line help will
only deal with the most common behaviors and species, plus a few of the
less common but most interesting species. Keep in mind that there are a
lot of different known types of ants in the world that aren't mentioned
here – and many that haven't been discovered yet.
Throughout this science section, there will be some big, difficult, and
scientific words.
Ants, Humans, Science, and Humor
Ants are very different from humans. They have no sense of humor. They
have no hopes or fears. They have no mercy. They have no morals. Their
only reason to live is to ensure the survival of the colony, even at the cost
of many individuals' lives. The life of an individual ant means very little to
the colony, and very little to the individual.
Yet, in some ways, ants and humans are alike. We want to survive. We
take care of our young. We teach our young by example. We both
practice prenatal care. We both clean, maintain and take care of ourselves
and our homes. These differences and similarities make a good
framework for understanding ants and our relationship to them. But when
you closely compare and contrast creatures as different as humans and
ants, a number of funny situations are bound to arise.
In general, science has been a very serious matter, with little room for
humor. Not any more. This book is spattered with cartoons and bits of
silliness to make points on just how different – or similar – humans and
ants really are. Many of the cartoons won't be funny unless you
understand the background facts about ants. (Don't blame me if it's not
funny. You just didn't read the whole chapter.)

ANTS - GENERAL INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION

The combined weight of all the ants on earth is greater than the combined
weight of all the humans on earth. It's not really a surprising statement
when you consider that, other than the polar regions and the highest
mountaintops, ants live everywhere on the planet. It's even less surprising
when you consider that ants are the most numerous insects – and the
most numerous animal – on earth. While not surprising, it is a little
overwhelming, even a little scary, when you consider that it takes
approximately 500,000 ants to add up to a single pound.
Ants are one of the oldest living creatures in the world. Ants are like
sharks: they haven't physically changed much in millions of years. Nature
came up with a near-perfect design, and left well-enough alone. That ants
are still successful after at least 60 million years is proof of the old axiom,
“If it ain't broke, don't fix it.”
Ants are the strongest creature in relation to their size. Ants can carry
10 to 20 times their body weight, and they will work together in small or
large groups to move extremely heavy things.
Ants are the longest living insect. Workers, on the average, live about
one year. In some species they can live for four to five years. Some
queens live longer than 20 years.
Ants are everywhere. At any given moment there are at least 10
living ants on the earth, .1 percent of a total of 10 total insects. The
biggest ant colony found so far is on the Ishikari Coast of Hokkaido:
306,000,000 ants, with 1,080,000 queens in 45,000 interconnected nests
over an area of 2.7 square kilometers. Ants are so numerous in the South
American jungles they have been called “The King of Brazil,” and “The
actual owners of Brazil.” Brazil has also been called “One great ants'
nest.”
Ants are highly adaptive to their environment. When moved to a
different climate or location, they quickly adapt. There are specially
adapted ant species that only live in and around human dwellings. Some
ant species can survive under water for up to 14 days or longer by going
into something like suspended animation. Ants are resistant to hard
radiation, and some ant species are highly resistant to industrial pollution.
If a nuclear holocaust ever destroys our civilization, the ants will be
giving the cockroaches a run for their money.
Ants modify their environment. They regulate the temperature and
humidity within their nests. They control airflow through their nests. They
build mounds. They clear pathways.
Ants modify themselves. Through a complex system of chemical
communication and constant feedback, an ant colony regulates the
amount of workers and soldiers, and controls the timing of production of
males and fertile females. In some species, when food is plentiful, young

adults are fed and fed – stuffed until they get big and fat and become
living food-storage containers.
Ants are vicious, merciless survival machines. They breed special
castes of large, powerful soldiers. Along with the soldiers, workers will
fight for the survival of the colony, not giving a thought for personal
safety or survival. Some ants even use chemical propaganda in warfare.
When ants fight, there is no surrender, no mercy, no peace. They kill all
the enemies and eat their babies. If it is necessary to the survival of the
colony, ants will eat their own babies. Some ants steal the eggs and larvae
of other species and raise them as slaves.
Ants are arguably the most successful creatures in the world. They
are so numerous, and survive so well in so many places-why haven't
they taken over the world? Because they eat each other.
We should study ants. You can't knock success. If you want to learn
how to do something, study someone who does it well. When it comes to
survival, ants are the proven experts. And, as mentioned before, studying
ants may give us insights into the workings of evolution, the origins of
society, group cooperation methods, computers, human brains, cities and
societies. Scientists who specialize in the study of ants are called
myrmecologists, from the Greek word for ant: myrmekos.

WHERE
ANTS (AND
HUMANS) FIT
IN THE
CLASSIFICATION OF
ANIMALS

Within the taxonomy of animals, ants are classified as a single family, the
Formicidae, within the order Hymenoptera, which includes bees, wasps,
sawflies, ichneumons, and others. There are 11 subfamilies, 297 genera,
and over 8800 known species of ants so far – there are undoubtedly many
more.

ANTS ARE SOCIAL INSECTS
SOCIAL
BEHAVIOR

Social behavior – cooperation between more than one member of a
species – has proven to be an excellent survival trait. It can be considered
one of the greatest achievements of organic evolution. Practiced by many
diverse species, social behavior has evolved in a number of different
directions. There are four groups of animals that have attained levels of
social evolution far above all others:
Colonial Invertebrates, including corals;
Social Insects, including some bees, some wasps, all termites, and all
ants;

Nonhuman Mammals, including apes and wolves; and
Humans.
Each of these social groups can be the subject of many books, but this
particular book will focus on only one member of the social insects – the
ants.
Ants can be considered the premier social insects. They are the most
widely distributed, living from the Arctic tree line to the southern tip of
Africa. They are the most numerous of the social insects. They have more
genera and species than all other social groups combined. They have
adapted to more different habitats than any other animal. Ants have
developed socially in many ways – including the practice of slavery.

LIFE, SOCIAL
INSECTS,
AND US

All living things, including humans, are made of the same material as
rocks, rivers and dirt. The difference between us and 100 pounds of mud
is the way the stuff we are made of is organized. This organization is very
complex and occurs at many different levels. The study of a social insect
colony sheds light on all the levels of organization, from the molecular
level to the society level. In many ways it tells us about ourselves.
The social insects' society is organized at a lower level than human
societies because they have tiny brains and no culture, but at a higher
level than human societies in cohesiveness of society, caste specialization
and individual altruism.
The social interactions of ants are much simpler and easier to study than
that of humans, but have parallels that may give us information on the
origins of human society (the study of ant societies led to the study of
sociobiology).

SOCIAL
INSECTS AS
SUPERORGANISMS

Social insects are sometimes referred to or thought of as Superorganisms
because so much of their social behavior seems to simulate, or serve the
same purpose as, an animal's organs and tissues.
In the case of ants, the reproductive castes are like the superorganism's
reproductive organs, the worker caste is like the superorganism's muscles,
the process of sharing food by trophallaxis simulates a circulatory system,
etc. You can think of a social insect colony as one spread-out organism
that forages the territory like a huge ameba.
The concept of superorganisms will be covered in detail later in this book.

SOCIAL
INSECT

Social insects have three distinctive traits:

INSECT
TRAITS AND
LEVELS OF
SOCIAL
BEHAVIOR

1. Individuals of the same species cooperate in caring for the young.
2. There is a reproductive division of labor, with sterile individuals
working on behalf of fertile individuals.
3. There is an overlap of at least two generations in life stages capable
of contributing to colony labor (i.e., not egg, larva, or pupa, which
do not do any work).
There are also presocial insects at various levels of social behavior.
Following is a definition of the range of social activity among insects.
Solitary – showing none of the three traits above.
Subsocial – the adults care for their own nymphs or larvae for some period
of time.
Communal – members of the same generation use the same composite nest
without cooperating in brood care.
Quasisocial – members of the same generation use the same composite nest
and also cooperate in brood care.
Semisocial – like quasisocial, but there is also reproductive division of labor
(a worker caste cares for the young of the reproductive caste).
Eusocial – like semisocial, but there is also an overlap in generations:
offspring assist parents. This is the most advanced stage of social
behavior in insects.

NONSOCIAL
AND
PRESOCIAL
INSECTS/
ARACHNIDS

Butterflies, like most insects, are nonsocial, or solitary. Males and females
meet to mate, but there is no other cooperation between individuals. Eggs
are laid and abandoned. They are not tended or cared for. Eggs hatch into
caterpillars, the larval stage, which wander about on their own and eat
whatever they can find. The caterpillar eventually spins a cocoon and
pupates into the adult butterfly, which will have no social cooperation
with other butterflies, and little contact other than mating to begin the
cycle again.
Insects aren't the only arthropods that have social behavior. Some
arachnids (spiders) have reached the quasisocial level. A West African
spider, Agelena consociata, lives in large groups in communal web-nests.
Small prey that get caught in the web are captured and eaten by individual
spiders, but larger prey are attacked and killed by cooperative groups.
The adult spiders will surround the intended meal and attack, while the
smaller, younger spiders wait nearby and watch. As the older spiders die
off, their place in the front row of battle is taken by younger spiders that
have watched and learned from their elders. The young are cared for by
the community, and individual parents show no preferential treatment to
their own offspring.

INDIVIDUAL ANTS
Ants and their place in the world are best understood if they are studied
at the colony or superorganism level. But before looking at them in
groups, let's get to know them individually, up close and person-to-insect.
There are so many different species of ants, with so many physical and
behavioral differences, that all the possibilities can't be covered here. We'll
try to cover the most common ranges of ants, and point out some of the
most interesting exceptions.

THE
INDIVIDUAL
ANT LIFE
CYCLE

Ants, like most insects, live parts of their lives in two completely different
forms: larva and adult. Ants start out as eggs that hatch into larvae –
grublike wormy things that don't resemble adult ants in shape or color.
Then they pupate, and change into the adult ants we know and love.
Queens can lay from 10 to hundreds of eggs per day. Depending on the
species, queens produce from as few as 400 to 50,000,000 eggs per year.
The queen has a special chamber in her body that feeds and preserves for
many years the sperm she received during mating. As eggs are laid, they
are usually fertilized on the way out. Fertilized eggs become female ants.
At special times in the colony lifetime, and in limited numbers, the queen
will lay unfertilized eggs, which become males.
As the egg is laid, a worker picks it up and takes it to a special chamber
in the nest called a nursery. The eggs need to be kept at a specific
temperature and humidity to survive. Nurses – worker ants that take care
of the brood – move the eggs from one chamber to another all day long
to keep the eggs as close to 77 F as possible. They also clean the eggs by
licking them. Their saliva contains an anti-bacterial or anti-fungal agent
that protects the eggs.
After about 14 days, the eggs hatch and become larvae (pronounced lar
-vee). Larvae have no legs or eyes. They look like tiny white worms with
mouths. Nurse worker ants feed the larvae. Depending on the species,
larvae are fed either dead insect parts or regurgitated food that has
already been eaten by the nurses.
The larvae also feed the nurses. They spit up some sweet juice that the
nurses like. This reinforces the behavior for the nurses to take care of the
larvae, and also allows the larvae to send chemical messages back to the
queen. (More on this in the communication section.)
For the next 8 to 20 days, the larvae grow very quickly. When their skin
gets too tight for them, they burst open and crawl out of their skin. They
do this four or five times. Each time they do this, they get larger and

develop more. Each of these larval growth stages is called an instar. A
larvae that has shed its skin twice is considered in its third instar.
After the fourth or fifth instar, the young ants-to-be pupate and become
pupae (pronounced pew-pee). They do this by spinning a cocoon around
themselves (although some species don't spin cocoons). The pupae in
cocoons look like larger eggs, and are often thought to be eggs by people
who didn't read this book. The actual ant eggs are almost too tiny to see
and are kept very deep in the nests.
The cocoons are cared for by the nurses. They don't need feeding, but
they do need temperature regulation and are carried from chamber to
chamber all day long. After two to three weeks in the cocoon, the pupa
has transformed into an ant. It will gnaw a hole in the cocoon, then the
nurses will help them to widen the opening and to eclose – emerge from
the cocoon.
The young adult ants, known as callows, will be soft and vulnerable for a
few days, and their color will be very light. But soon, they harden,
toughen, and darken. Ants emerge from the cocoon full-sized adults, and
never grow any bigger.
The total “childhood” of the ant, from birth of the egg to the eclosion of
the adult ant, is (for most ants) between 20 and 75 days.

CASTES

Within ant societies there are different sizes and shapes of ants, called
castes. There are three main castes of ants: Queens, Males, and Workers.
These castes are specialized both in their physical shape and their
behavior for certain tasks that ensure the survival of the colony. Many
species also have a Soldier caste, and/or multiple Worker castes. Ants are
polymorphic, meaning that there is more than one caste within one sex:
the queens, workers, and soldiers are all females.
Queen ants only lay two types of eggs, female and male. All female eggs
are identical when laid. The care and feeding the immature ant receives
from the nurses determines whether the female will be a worker, a soldier,
or a new queen.
Queens
Queens are fertile females that, once a colony is founded, do very little
but lay eggs. There can be one or many (even thousands) active queens in
a colony. Queens are the longest-lived caste, some living more than 20
years. Queens of most species have wings when they first mature to
adults, flying to mate and start a new colony.
Males
Male ants are the shortest-lived caste, some living only a few weeks.

Males don't do any work around the nest. They only live to perform one
task - mate with the fertile females and propagate the species. Most
species of male ants have wings used in mating flights.
Workers
Most ants are workers, which are sterile females. The workers do most of
the work around the colony. They dig tunnels, take care of the brood (the
young ants-eggs, larvae and pupae), find food, feed the queen and other
ants, and fight. Workers, on the average, live for about one year (workers
of some species can live up to three or four years). Some workers
perform the same task for their entire lives, other change tasks.
It is really the workers–not the queen–that rule the colony. They have
slightly bigger brains, more mobility, and far more numbers.
Soldiers
Soldiers are also sterile females. Not all species have a soldier caste. They
are larger than the workers, and have big heads and strong jaws. Some
soldiers, who have large, flat heads, act as doorway guards–or, more
accurately, as doors. They plug openings to the nest with their heads, and
only move when they receive the right signal from a foraging worker.
Since soldiers do work other than fighting, they are sometimes called
Major Workers, and the other, smaller workers, are called Minor
Workers.
Other Castes
In some species, there are more than the two usual castes of sterile
females (workers and soldiers). The Pheidole tepicana, for example, has
six different worker castes.

BASIC
ANATOMY

GENERAL INFORMATION

Ants, like all insects, have a hard covering around their bodies made of
chitin, called an exoskeleton. Also, like all insects, they have three body
parts, the head, the thorax, and the abdomen.
Ants don't have lungs. They have air tubes through their bodies, called
tracheae, through which they absorb the oxygen they need. Ants don't
have ears, but they do have organs on the legs, head and thorax that can
sense vibrations. Most ants don't make noises, and you can't hear them
walk unless you have a very bad hangover. Some very primitive ants can
and do make sounds by rubbing parts of their bodies together. We don't
know why they do this.
THE HEAD

The head has the ant's antennae, brain, eyes, and mouth.

THE ANTENNAE

The antennae are the ant's primary sense organs, and are used for
touching, smelling, and feeling vibrations. The antennae are jointed, or
elbowed, and are made of two parts.
The lower part is the scape. The upper, segmented part is the funiculus
which contains the sense organs that smell and feel. The antenna are in
constant motion, and are stereoscopic: the ant can tell the direction of an
odor by the relative strengths of the odor hitting each antenna. If you cut
off one antenna, it loses this ability.
THE BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM

Ants have very small brains, but they're smarter than the average insect. It
has been estimated that an ant's brain has about the same processing
power as a Macintosh II computer. They are capable of learning, of
remembering things for a long time (like trails to food through a winter
hibernation), and actually have limited free will.
Ants have nerve chords that reach from the brain to the rear of the ant.
The nerve chord has enough processing power that each of the three main
segments of the ant are somewhat autonomous. That is why you can cut
off an ant's head and it will still walk around until it starves.
Ant brains have mushroom-shaped parts composed of nerve cells. These
correspond to what we call “grey matter” in human brains. This is the
part of the brain where memory, learning and instinct patterns are stored
and implemented. If you cut out this part of the ant's brain, it's like giving
a human a lobotomy.
The brain is very poorly developed in male ants, is more developed in
queens, but is largest and best developed in the workers, who need it for
their colony building and foraging activities. Soldiers, even though they
have bigger heads than the workers, don't have bigger brains. Their
heads are filled with extra muscle that is needed to control the extra-large
mandibles.
Most insects live very short lives, and don't have the time (or brainpower)
to learn. They are born with all the knowledge they need. This knowledge
is known as instinct, and has to do with the basic necessities of life, such
as eating, mating, defense and nest-building. Acting on instinct is
reflexive. When faced with a certain stimulus, the insect acts a certain
way. No thought is involved. Ants live longer than most insects, and have
time to learn. They also have bigger brains than most insects. Part of the
ant's overall success and adaptability must be due to the fact that they can
learn new behavior to augment their instinctive behavior.
Ants can learn, but they can't really think. They can remember, but they
can't reason or solve problems. They can run mazes, find their way
through by trial and error, and remember the way so that the next time

through they go faster. They can become accustomed, or habituated, to
unusual circumstances such as being handled or constant nest
disturbances. They can remember landmarks in their foraging area. But
they can't solve a simple problem that can be solved by a combination of
skills they already possess and a little logic.
If you place food just out of reach of ants, but close enough that they can
smell it, and provide them with dirt that they could use to build a mound
or bridge to reach it, they won't ever get to the food. Even though they
know how to build mounds out of dirt, they can't solve the problem and
apply a behavior for one situation to another situation.
THE EYES

Even though many ants spend their entire lives underground in the dark,
all ants have compound eyes. These eyes are like flies' eyes, and have
many facets. Because of these compound eyes, ants can see moving
things better than stationary things, and can see movement better when
they are standing still. That is why, when foraging, they walk for a while,
stop and look around, then walk again.
Males have more facets in their eyes than females. They need the extra
sight for the mating flight.
Males and queens also have three simple eyes on the top of their heads
called ocelli. These eyes distinguish between light and dark.
All ant eyes are fixed; they don't swivel or turn. Ants must turn their head
to look in another direction.
THE MOUTH

The mouth consists of mandibles and maxillae. Mandibles are the big jaws
that move from side to side. They are used for fighting, digging, and
carrying things. The maxillae are behind the mandibles and are smaller.
They are used for chewing food, and for cleaning legs and antennae.
Ants have a well-developed sense of taste. With their sense of taste and
smell in different places (mouth and antennae, respectively), it can truly
(and uninsultingly) be said that their only taste is in their mouths.
Ants eat by chewing food with their maxillae, and putting it in a pouch
below the mouth opening. This pouch is called the infrabuccal pocket.
Muscles that surround the pouch squeeze the liquid out of the food. Ants
swallow the liquid and spit out the solid parts. The swallowed liquid goes
to the crop for storage.
GLANDS

The ant's head also contains various glands that produce chemicals
necessary for the ant's survival, as well as for communicating with other
ants.

THE THORAX

The thorax is the middle section of the ant. The ant's legs are all attached
to the thorax. Ants have six legs. At the bottom of each leg is a foot.
Each foot has two hooked claws that let ants walk on walls, climb trees,
and even walk upside down. Near the foot of the ant is a “hook” with
hairs inside it. The ant uses this like a comb to clean its antennae and legs.
In many species, the thorax also contains the ant's heart, a tubular muscle
that contracts and forces the blood through the body cavities. Other ants'
hearts are in their abdomens. Ants don't have blood vessels; the blood just
washes through the body bathing the tissues directly. Ant blood is
colorless.
THE ABDOMEN

The abdomen is the ant's rear end. It is made up of the petiole (waist) and
the gaster (everything else).
The gaster contains the crop and the intestine. The crop is the group
stomach, a storage place where ants keep the food that they bring back to
the nest for sharing with others. The intestine is the personal stomach and
digestive system for food that is absorbed and digested by the ant.
The gaster also contains glands that produce various chemicals, including
formic acid, pheromones to leave trails to food for other ants to follow,
and other chemicals that send messages to other ants.
Some ants have stingers at the ends of their gasters. They can sting
enemies and inject them with poison. Some ants that don't have stingers
can still squirt formic acid or some other venom out of the end of their
gasters when they are attacking or defending. (Humans use formic acid as
an insecticide, an antibiotic, a food preservative and a disinfectant. At one
time red ants were harvested for formic acid, but now it is artificially
made.)
When attacking a larger prey, ants will work together, some holding the
enemy's leg still and others squirting formic acid into the joint where the
leg meets the body. This paralyzes the leg and cripples the prey.
Ants will often point their gasters at each other in displays of aggression,
of threat, and during battle.

ANT COLONIES
Now we'll look at the colony as a whole. The most fascinating thing
about ants is how intelligent group behavior emerges from the very
simple, non-intelligent behavior of the individual members. As pointed
out before, it is helpful in the understanding of ants and their place in the
world to think of an ant colony as one large, spread-out animal.

With over 8800 species of ants, which have been developing for at least
60 million years, the variety of ants, ant colonies, and their nests is
immense. In this book we'll deal with the most common types, and
mention a few of the less common but interesting ones. Keep in mind that
there are many variations not mentioned here, and many not yet
discovered by scientists.

GENERAL
INFORMATION

A group of ants living together is called a colony. The place they live is
called a nest. The number of ants in a colony depends on the species of
ant and the age of the colony. Colony populations range from a few
dozen members to millions of ants. A nest colony with only one queen is
called Monogynous. A colony with multiple queens is Polygynous.
Ant societies are almost entirely female, and most of the females are
sterile. Males and fertile females are produced only at certain times, and
only for the purpose of reproduction.

NESTS

Since ants live in so many different places, climates and habitats, their
homes vary in style and architecture to match their location and situation.
Ants live in holes in the ground, sometimes as deep as six meters or more;
in mounds they build above ground; under rocks; in trees or plants; and in
walls and even in foundations of human dwellings. Some ants make
homes out of their own live bodies.
Ant nests are generally simple and irregular, taking little time, and using
little or no valuable materials. If necessary, ant nests can be deserted and
rebuilt without too much difficulty. In spite of the simplicity of an ant nest
– as compared to a beehive – they have been built and refined through
millions of years of ant evolution, and are very functional.
Nests in the ground are constructed so even the lowest chambers get
fresh air. The anthill-the mound of dirt above the ground above an ant
colony in the ground-helps regulate the temperature in the nest. The more
surface area the anthill has, the more heat it absorbs from the sun. These
mounds will vary in size and shape depending on the climate and presence
of shade trees nearby.
Besides constructing the anthill to absorb heat from the sun, ants
themselves supply some of the heat for the colony. In the spring, when
the workers start foraging outside the nest, they will warm themselves in
the sun, then return to the nest bringing in warmth. When others notice
the warmth, they go out and do the same. Ants also protect the nest from
cold by blocking entrances to the outside with dirt, or even their bodies.
If an ant nest gets too warm and dry, the ants will dry up and die. Ants
will search for water and bring back drops in their mandibles to keep the

humidity at a safe level.

COLONY
LIFE CYCLE

The ant colony life cycle, like the life cycle of any other organism, follows
the sequence of birth, growth, maturation, and reproduction.
This process can be viewed as a series of energy investments. The colony
grows and matures as workers are multiplied and energy (food) is stored.
The colony reaches full maturity when it becomes profitable to divert
some of the energy into reproduction by making new queens and males.
Depending on the species of ant, this point can come when the total
population is anywhere between a few dozen and hundreds of thousands.
It takes a lot of energy to grow and feed the males and new queens, who
are generally larger than the workers, require more food, and do little or
no work or food-gathering for the colony. If males and queens are
produced too soon, the colony will die from lack of food and the new
fertile ants might not live long enough to make their mating flight.
It is to the advantage of the species to reproduce as often as possible to
spread the species' genes, but not before the colony can afford the
massive energy output necessary to reproduce. The life cycle of an ant
species is the story of how the maturation point is reached with maximum
speed vs. freedom from risk.
THREE STAGES OF COLONY GROWTH

There are three stages in the growth of a colony: founding, ergonomic,
and reproductive.
The founding stage begins with the nuptial flight, when the virgin queens
and males leave the nest and mate. The inseminated queen finds a suitable
nest site and constructs a first nest cell. Then she lays eggs and rears the
first brood of eggs to larvae and then to full workers.
The ergonomic stage is the growth stage. Once the workers from the
queen's first brood reach the adult stage, they begin to forage and enlarge
the nest, and take over the job of brood care so the queen can spend all
her time and energy laying more eggs. This stage can last from one warm
season to five or more years, depending on the species.
The reproductive stage is when the colony begins to produce new queens
and males that go out and found new colonies, and it all starts over again.
THE FOUNDING STAGE
THE NUPTIAL FLIGHT

In a nuptial flight, the males and virgin fertile females usually emerge
from the nests and fly together. Hundreds or even thousands of females
are sometimes released from a single nest in only an hour. There are also
many males released, but not nearly as many as females.

The workers of the colony control the onset of the nuptial flight. They
will physically keep the males and fertile females in the nest until the time
is right. We still don't understand what controls the timing of when and
why the workers release the young lovers. Also not understood is the fact
that in many (but not all) species, mating flights seem to be synchronized
between multiple colonies, and males and fertile females are released
simultaneously from many nests in an area. The advantage of this
synchronization is understood: a better spreading of genetic material. It is
the mechanism or signal that causes the release that we don't know.
Most of the flying ants, both male and female, die within hours of leaving
the nest, even before they have a chance to mate. Many are eaten by
predators, including birds and spiders. An ant nuptial flight is a gourmet
banquet for birds.
Mating, depending on the species of ant, can occur in the air or on the
ground, or begin in the air and end up on the ground. In some species the
females will mate with only one male, and in others with a number of
males, increasing the genetic diversity of her new colony.
There are two basic methods, or syndromes, that ants follow when they
mate. The first is the female-calling syndrome. This is usually practiced
by species whose colonies are relatively small at maturity (20 to 10,000
workers), and that produce relatively few reproductives (males and fertile
females). In these species, the males have wings, but the females are often
wingless. The females do not travel far from the nest. They stand on a
high spot of ground or on a plant, and release sex pheromones into the air
to call the winged males to fly to them. These flights do not seem to be
synchronized either within the colony in question or with any other
colonies.
The other main syndrome is the male-aggregation syndrome. Males from
many colonies gather at specific mating sites, and either hang out on the
ground or on plants, or fly around in a group and cruise for females in the
air. The females fly into the swarms and mate, often with more than one
male. After mating, the inseminated queens disperse over a large area to
found new nests–if they aren't eaten. This method is used by species with
large colonies, containing from several thousand to over a million
workers, and that produce hundreds to thousands of reproductives yearly.
These flights are well-timed, at the colony level and with other colonies
of the same species.
After mating, males serve no useful purpose for the colony, and they
never return. Sometimes the female will kill the male right after mating,
but if he's lucky, he can crawl off and live for up to three days.
Don't think that just because thousands of virgin queens are released from
nests to mate that there will be thousands of new colonies after every
nuptial flight. Very few queens successfully found new colonies. To

survive, the queen must avoid enemies, mate (many males are eaten),
make sure to mate with a male of the same species, get safely to an
existing nest that will accept them or make a new nest and have energy to
lay eggs and raise a brood.
COLONY FOUNDING

After successfully mating and avoiding the many dangers, a queen can
either rejoin her old nest, join another existing nest, or start a new colony.
Queens can sometimes find their way back to their old nests. Depending
on the species and the local food supply, the returning queen may be
accepted or turned away. They are sometimes accepted into another nest
of the same species of ant.
Another way queens can move into existing nests is through the practice
of slavery. Queens of some species can sneak, trick or fight their way into
a nest of another species, kill the original queen and take over. This will
be explained in more detail in the section Types of Ants.
Often, the queen must found a new colony, which isn't easy. The
inseminated queen must avoid being eaten and must find a safe place. She
will then scrape against a rock or other handy surface to remove her
wings, dig a very small nest, and seal herself inside. Once inside, most
queens never emerge, even to find food. She has to live by burning off the
food stored in her body, including the muscles that once powered her
now-missing wings, until the first brood matures and can go out into the
world and bring her back some food. Not only does she have to keep
herself alive without any extra food, she has to feed her larvae from her
own bodily energy supply. Once inside the nest, the queen will lay a few
eggs, and care for them as they mature from eggs to larvae to pupae to
adults.
This type of colony founding, where the queen seals herself off in a
chamber and rears the first brood in total isolation, is called claustral, and
is the most common. In some species, queens will occasionally forage
outside their cells for food. This is called partially claustral colony
founding.
New colonies can also be founded by older, larger colonies splitting up.
Called swarming, two or more forces of workers will separate, each with
at least one queen. There are two main types of swarming: budding,
when the workers depart from the main nest with one or more queens and
start a new nest; and fission (used by army ants), where portions of the
colony containing fertile queens separate and both go their own ways.
THE ERGONOMIC STAGE

The Ergonomic Stage, also called the Exponential Stage, begins in a new
colony when the first workers mature. These first workers are often small
because of the limited food supply that the queen has to produce the eggs

and raise the larvae to maturity. These small workers are called nanitics
or minims. The next few generations will get progressively larger until
full-size workers are produced. These minims, although smaller, perform
all the tasks of worker ants.
Once they mature, minims immediately begin working – foraging for
food, enlarging the nest, feeding the queen, and taking over the job of
brood care – so the queen can spend all her energies laying more eggs.
They are generally timid in behavior, which is a good survival trait: they
are so small and few in number that an encounter with a small but
full-sized foraging party could destroy them.
In the ergonomic stage, competition within the colony is at a minimum.
The “purpose” or main goal of this stage is to grow as a colony as quickly
and safely as possible. The queen does nothing but eat and lay eggs,
increasing the number of ants in the colony. The growth is aided by
division of labor – the right amount of foragers to harvest the surrounding
area, the right number of nurses to take care of eggs and larvae, and a
sufficient number of defenders protecting the colony.
The queen only lays two different types of eggs, female and male, which
are fertilized and unfertilized, respectively. During the ergonomic stage,
she only lays fertilized eggs, which become female. All female eggs are
identical when laid. Whether they mature into workers, soldiers, or new
queens depends on the care and feeding the workers provide them as they
mature from egg to larvae to pupae to adults. The workers control the
ratios of the various types and castes of ants within the colony, and the
workers themselves are controlled by the chemical signals that rule ant
life. This is covered in detail in the section Social Homeostasis.
THE REPRODUCTIVE STAGE

At some point, depending on the species, the colony will begin to
produce males and fertile females and enter the reproductive stage.
Within any given species, the frequency and amount of reproductives
increases with colony size.
Simultaneously, the queen will begin to lay some unfertilized eggs that
will mature into males, and the workers that care for the brood begin to
groom some female eggs to mature into new queens. Once the males and
fertile females mature, it is time for the nuptial flight, and the colony life
cycle begins again.

COLONY
MOVEMENTS

Ant colonies are not necessarily permanent. Some colonies will move
from place to place.
Ants that build huge, deep, secure, complex nests may stay there for
many years. Some ants shift their site yearly. Some ants have multiple

nests, only one of which is occupied at a time, and will move the brood to
another nest if enemies are detected nearby.
There are a number of reasons why an ant colony might move, including
physical disturbance, flooding, microclimate changes, predation,
competition, or lack of food. When a nest is attacked by enemies,
including other ants, a panic alarm is set off, and workers will incite
nestmates to flee. A mechanical disturbance of the nest admitting light
and air currents to the brood chambers causes an immediate retreat by the
queen and nurse workers. Small changes in the environment, including
temperature changes caused by vegetation growing to shade the colony,
can cause a migration. If a nest is flooded, ants may need to move to drier
ground. Some ants will move to distance themselves from competing
species of ants or other nests of the same species. If local food sources
are low, an ant colony might relocate to a new location.

SUBCOLONIES AND
BUDDING

Many ant species expand their foraging domain by dividing into
subcolonies that disperse to new nest sites, and maintain contact through
an exchange of foraging workers, eggs and larvae. This is a method of
resource distribution of the different types of workers and immatures to
fill the needs of the overall multi-nest colony.
Colonies can also bud: split into two independent colonies. This is when a
group of workers leaves the main nest along with one or more
inseminated queens and makes a new nest that grows into an independent
colony, with little or no contact with the old nest. Budding is always
found in species where queens are wingless, and sometimes in species
with winged queens.

ANTS AS
PLANTS

In a number of ways, the typical ant colony resembles a plant. Like a
plant, the colony is “rooted” to one nesting site.
Also like a plant, the colony's size is not directly determined by age. A
plant, under stress, can go dormant or even allow much of itself to die,
preserving a smaller living core. The ant colony, under stress from the
environment or competition, can revert to the size and caste composition
of a younger, smaller colony, and grow back later when the time is right.
Ants adjust to social change more in the way plants do than the way
typical animals adjust: by flexibility of response rather than by moving to
a new location.
Also, the patterns of ants as they forage for food resemble the patterns
made by plants as their roots search for nutrients in the soil and their
branches reach for sunlight.

FOOD
As a group, ants eat just about anything. But individually, many ant
species specialize in the food they eat. Some ants eat only eggs of other
insects, some eat only other kinds of ants. Some ants “herd” aphids and
“milk” them for food, some live on tree sap. Some ants eat only seeds,
and some ants eat nothing but fungus they grow underground.
As stated earlier in the Basic Anatomy section, ants don't actually eat;
they drink. They chew up their food, squeeze the juices out, swallow the
juice and spit out the fibre.

TROPHALLAXIS

Trophallaxis is a method of sharing food, practiced by all ants, especially
among the most advanced species. The more advanced the species of ant,
the more they depend on trophallaxis. In more primitive species, more of
the ants, even the larvae, feed directly on food (especially insect parts)
brought into the nest.
Each ant has a crop, which is a “group stomach.” As ants forage for food,
they eat, and fill the crop. Only the amount of food needed by the
individual ant to survive is released from the crop into the ant's intestine
for digestion. The rest is part of the colony food supply, and is distributed
from ant to ant. Not all ants go searching for food. The queen, the
workers that tend the queen, the larvae, their nurses, and many others
need to be fed by other ants through trophallaxis.
Whenever ants meet, they face each other, and touch antennae. If one of
the ants has food to spare in its crop, it will regurgitate a drop, and pass it
to the other ant, mouth to mouth.
Trophallaxis is easiest to understand if you think of the ant colony as one
whole superorganism and the ants as individual cells. The crop is the
superorganism's stomach that just happens to be divided up into many
small, mobile sections, that travel around distributing food wherever it is
needed. This is not really very different from the human body, where all
cells don't have direct access to food and need to be fed by other cells.
The muscles in your arms, for example, do not wander over to your
stomach and grab a bite of lunch. The cells in your arm muscles are fed by
other cells (the blood cells), which transport nutrients from the stomach
throughout the whole body.
Trophallaxis is very effective. The food is shared and spread around the
colony very quickly. In an experiment, a few ants from one colony were
fed some honey containing radioactive iodide. Within thirty hours, the
radioactive substance had been spread to every ant in the colony.
Trophallaxis, in addition to feeding the colony, is one of the main

methods of colony communication and regulation. Each ant that passes
the food on adds its own chemical messengers to it. Since it is passed
around so quickly, the whole colony will be kept up to date on important
colony business within hours, or at most days. Messages that are
transmitted through trophallaxis include: presence or absence of the
queen, status of the larvae, lack of food, the presence of intruders, and
much more.
In some species of ants, especially those found in dry, desert-like parts of
the world, some of the ants have crops that can stretch to many times the
size of the rest of the ant. These ants are called repletes, and act as living
food-storage vats. When food is plentiful, repletes are stuffed with the
ants' liquid food until they are so large that they can't even walk. They
hang from the ceilings of their underground nests and wait. Later, during
times when food is harder to find, the other ants come to the repletes and
are fed through trophallaxis.
The liquid food in the replete's crop is very sweet, like honey. Some
Indians in the American Southwest consider them a delicacy and eat them
like candy.

APHIDS

Aphids are insects that attach themselves to plants and suck sap. They
tend to suck more than they need, and the extra sap, often referred to as
“honeydew,” is squirted out their rear ends. This sap attracts bees, who
gather it, and it will also grow fungus and mold, which can harm the plant.
Ants also gather the sap for food. Some ants will even “milk” the aphids
and collect the honeydew directly from them. In return for the honeydew,
ants keep the plants clean of the squirts so no mold grows to harm the
plants. They also protect the aphids from other insects, especially
ladybugs, and from aphid-eating spiders. They will also remove and eat
caterpillars that compete with the aphids for food.
Ants also help preserve both the plant and the herd of aphids by
controlling the aphid population – enough aphids will kill the plant. When
there are too many aphids, the ants will eat their eggs, larvae and pupae.
Ants aren't smart enough to recognize an aphid and think, “Eureka! A
source of food!” They are actually fooled into harvesting the honeydew
from the aphids. Over the last few million years aphids have evolved so
that their hindquarters resemble an ant's head. As mentioned before, ants
constantly face each other, touch antennae, and share food. When an ant
sees an aphid's rear end, it thinks it's another ant, and goes up to it and
tries to communicate. The aphid doesn't respond like an ant, but it does
squirt food in the ant's face. After a while the ant realizes that the aphid's
rear end isn't another ant, but it is a good source of food.

5: Beyond Ants – Antcillary Material

The biology of ants is about the history of societies and institutions, and about the
future of cities and computers.
- Kevin Kelly

Ants are so omnipresent, such a inescapable part of life on earth, that they
have infested our lives, our houses, our myths, fables, literature, movies
and thoughts. Here's a spattering of stuff about ants.
Ants and Humans
Ant Quotes
Ant Fables, Myths, and Legends
Ant-related Movies, Books, Software, etc.
Ants and the Study of Artificial Life
Ant Colonies as Models for Computers and Human Brains

ANTS AND HUMANS
Today we think of ants primarily as pests, but through the ages, ants have
played many useful roles for human societies.
ANTS AS FOOD
Some humans eat ants. South American natives eat fertile, winged female
fungus-growers, raw or toasted. In Africa, Carebara queens are eaten raw
or cooked. California Indians have been known to eat the larvae and adult
carpenter ants; they bite off and throw away the heads and swallow the
bodies.
Honey ants (repletes) are considered a delicacy in parts of Australia,
North America and Mexico. Usually just the honey-containing gaster is
eaten. Some people in Mexico have fermented honey ants to make an
alcoholic drink.
At one time ants were allegedly distilled with rye to “enhance” the flavor
of cheap brandy.

ANTS AS MEDICINE
Ants have been used for medicinal purposes. In the Middle Ages, “oyle of
antes egges” was used as a cure-all. More recently, crushed Formica ants
were used in medicines for rheumatism and gout. In the past, lumbermen
in Maine were said to eat wood ants to prevent scurvy.
As far back as 1000 B.C. and even today in many parts of the world, ants
have been used as sutures for closing incisions. A live ant is held so it
bites across the opening, pulling it together and holding it closed. Then
the ant's body is pulled off the head, and the head is left there until the
wound heals.
ANTS AND RELIGIOUS RITES
Ants have been used in religious rites, especially by South American
Indians in Guiana. Ants were placed on children when they neared the age
when they should begin walking to “stimulate” them to walk. Men of the
tribe would let ants bite their chests before going out on a hunt. Both men
and women underwent a premarital ceremony where biting ants were
placed on their heads, hands, and feet.
Some Indians of Central and South America placed army ants on their
tribespeople as a part of initiation or puberty rites.
ANTS AS TOOLS OF PUNISHMENT
At least one African tribe has been reported to punish unfaithful wives by
tying them to trees near nests of stinging and biting ants.
And, at least in the cowboy movies, Indians buried their enemies up to
their necks near anthills.

ANT QUOTES
Ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrassment. They
farm fungus, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies into war, use
chemical sprays to alarm and confuse enemies, capture slaves, engage in
child labor, and exchange information ceaselessly. They do everything but
watch television.
— Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell
The biology of ants is about the history of societies and institutions, and
about the future of cities and computers.
— Kevin Kelly
Consider the ant and be wise...
— Solomon

They taste salty.
— Cassidy Wright
Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise:
Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
Provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest.
— Proverbs 6:6-8
Not so much the weight of an ant in earth or heaven escapes from the
Lord, neither is aught smaller than that, or greater, but is clearly written
in God's book.
— The Koran 10:16
Cicala to cicala is dear, and ant to ant,
And kestrels to kestrels, but to me the Muse and song.
— Theocritus, c. 315-240 B.C.
Th' old story iv th' ant an' th' grasshopper–th' ant that ye can step on and'
th' grasshopper ye can't catch.
— Dunne
An active field of science is like an immense anthill; the individual almost
vanishes into the mass of minds tumbling over each other, carrying
information from place to place, passing it around at the speed of light.
— Lewis Thomas
The ant's a centaur in his dragon world.
Pull down thy vanity, it is not man
Made courage, or made order, or made grace,
Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down.
Learn of the green world what can be thy place
In scaled invention or true artistry,
Pull down thy vanity,
Paquin pull down!
— Ezra Pound 1885-1972
He remembered the belligerent ants, who claimed their boundaries, and
the pacific geese, who did not...
— T.H. White, The Once and Future King
it wont be long now it won't be long
man is making deserts of the earth
it wont be long now
before man will have it used up
so that nothing but ants
and centipedes and scorpions

can find a living on it
— Donald Robert Perry Marquis 1878-1937
Whence we see spiders, flies, or ants entombed preserved forever in
amber, a more than royal tomb.
— Francis Bacon, Historia Vitae et Mortis 1623
Forbear thou great good husband, little Ant;
A little respite from they flood of sweat;
Thou, thine own horse and Cart, under this Plant
Thy spacious tent, fan thy prodigious heat;
Down with thy double load of that one grain;
It is a Granarie for all thy Train.
Cease large example of wise thrift a while
(For thy example is become our law)
................................................................
Austere and Cynick: not one our t'allow
To lose with pleasure what thou gotst with pain.
— Richard Lovelace
Here while I lie beneath the walnut bough,
What care I for the Greeks or for Troy town,
If juster battles are enacted now
Beneath the ants upon this hummock's crown?
— Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862
As a thinker and a planner the ant is the equal of any savage race of men;
as a self-educated specialist in several arts she is the superior of any
savage race of men; and in one or two high mental qualities she is above
the reach of any man, savage or civilized.
— Mark Twain, What is Man? 1906
While an ant was wandering under the shade of a tree of Pha'ton, a drop
of amber enveloped the tiny insect; thus she, who in life was disregarded,
became precious by death.
— Martial: Epigrams Book 6
Ants have bile and flies have spleen.
[In original Latin: Formicœ sua bilis inest, habet et musca splenum]
— Sir Thomas Browne: Pseudodoxia Epidemica 1646
The ant herself cannot philosophize - while man does that, and sees, and
keeps a wife, and flies, and talks, and is extremely wise.
— Julian Huxley: A Book of Essays

None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing.
— Benjamin Franklin: Poor Richard's Almanac 1736
Ants do not bend their ways to empty barns, so no friend will visit the
place of departed wealth.
[In original Latin: Horrea formicæ tendunt ad inania nunquam Nellus ad
amissas ibit amicus opes.]
— Ovid: Tristia Book 1
We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no labouring i' the
winter.
— Shakespeare: King Lear Act 2 Scene 4
Sometimes he angers me
With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant,
Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies,
And of a dragon and a finless fish,
A clip-wing'd griffin and a moulten raven,
A crouching lion and a ramping cat,
And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff
As puts me from my faith.
— Shakespeare: Henry IV Act 3 Scene 1
Even as the tiny, hard-working ant drags all she can with her mouth, and
adds it to the heap she is building, because she is not heedless of the
morrow.
— Horace: Satires Book 1
To her hurt the ant got wings.
— Cervantes: Don Quixote Part 2 Chapter 33
The age of great men is going; the epoch of the ant-hill, of life in
multiplicity, is beginning.
— Amiel: Journal, 6 Sept. 1851
This many-headed, divers-armed, and furiously-raging monster is man;
wretched, weak and miserable man: whom, if you consider well, what is
he, but a crawling, and ever-moving ant's-nest?
— Montaigne: Essays Book 2 Chapter 12
Cicala to cicala is dear, and ant to ant,
And kestrels dear to kestrels, but to me
The Muse and song.
— Theocritus: Idylls 9
An ant is a wise creature for itself but it is a shrewd thing in an orchard or
garden.

— Francis Bacon: Of Wisdom for a Man's Self
The ant, as Clarence Day had said, is a monkey's idea of industriousness.
Its furious aimlessness and busy and bossy inefficiency so resemble
“administrative talent” that we have accepted the ant as the type of
admirable energy.
Nothing, actually, would be worse for a sluggard than to contemplate
ants. Their small accomplishment for so enormous an expenditure of
energy would reconcile him to his own indolence. Their infatuation for an
indulgence of their parasites would lead him to parasitism. The only thing
he might admire would be their thieving and their periodic orgies, the
most wasteful saturnalias in nature.
— Bergen Evans, commenting on the Proverb
“Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise.”

ANT FABLES, MYTHS, AND LEGENDS
These are quick summarized versions of the stories.
AESOP'S FABLE: THE PHILOSOPHER, THE ANTS AND
MERCURY
A philosopher stood on the shore and witnessed a shipwreck where all
the crew and passengers drowned. He protested aloud to Providence for
his unfairness in killing so many innocent people. He soon realized that he
was standing near an ant nest, for one stung him. He got mad and
trampled all the ants to death. Then Mercury appeared and struck him,
and basically told him to practice what you preach.
AESOP'S FABLE: THE ANTS AND THE GRASSHOPPER
During the winter, a hungry grasshopper asked some ants for some food.
The ants asked him why he didn't store up food during the summer so he
wouldn't be hungry now. He told them he was too busy singing to gather
food. They said, “Starve, you lazy bum.”
THE ANT WHO MARRIED A MOUSE
An ant found a penny and bought herself a ribbon. She put it on and sat in
the window, watching the passersby. Many animals asked for her hand,
and she chose the mouse, because she liked the way he sang. But the
mouse fell into the stewpot and was killed.
A DOVE SAVES A DROWNING ANT
An ant was carried away by a stream. A dove dropped him a twig, and he
rescued himself. Later, a hunter came with a trap to capture the dove.
The ant stung his foot, making him drop his trap, and the dove was saved.

STRONG, STRONGER, AND STRONGEST
An ant broke its leg in the snow and brought suit. The judge condemned
the snow for considering itself so mighty. The snow answered that the
sun was mightier still, for it could melt snow. The sun replied that the
cloud was mightier still, for it could cover the sun. The chain continues
with the wind blowing the cloud, a wall stopping the wind, a mouse
gnawing the wall, a cat chasing the mouse, etc., until it reaches God, the
mightiest of all.
THE ANT'S BURDEN
A man asks a dwarf to make it rain on his crops. The dwarf tells the man
to hit him (the dwarf) with small sticks. It works, and his crops grow. The
man's father goes to the dwarf to do the same for his fields. He hits the
dwarf with really big sticks, thinking he'll get that much more rain, and
accidentally kills the dwarf. The dwarf was the King's jester, and the King
orders the father to carry the dwarf in a box on his head until someone
willingly takes it from him. He tricks an ant into taking the load, and thus
the ant must permanently carry a burden.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INDIANS
A tribe of Indians from Southern California (I haven't been able to track
down the tribe, if you know, please write and tell us) have a legend that
claims the land itself is made out of ants. If you doubt it, just dig into it,
and you'll find them there.
ANT FOLKLORE (AMERICAN)
If you sweep the floor on Ascension Day, you'll get ants in the house.
If ants are seen in your house on Christmas, it is a sign that bad luck will
come to that household.
To step on an ant is bad luck.
When camping out, wear protection in your ears, or ants will build their
nests in them and you'll go insane.
If you see a red ant and a black ant fighting, and the red ant wins, then you
will win any challenge you attempt.
If you step on an ant, it will rain within the next day.
If you kill seven ants in a row, there is sure to be rain.
To cure warts, rub a piece of fat meat on it, and throw the meat to the ants.
If you find ants in your house, it is a sign you will move.
If you have ants in your kitchen, put coffee grounds outside the kitchen
steps to kill them.
If ants are bothering you, draw a chalk line and the ants won't cross it.

When you see the ground all torn up by ants in the morning, you will know
that summer has begun.

ANT- AND SUPERORGANISMRELATED MOVIES, BOOKS, SOFTWARE,
ETC.
MOVIES, STAGE & TV
THEM

The classic 1950s science fiction film of science run amok and creating
giant mutant ants.
EMPIRE OF THE ANTS

A movie with giant ants that live in the Everglades, take over a town and
brainwash the people.
PHASE IV

A movie where lots of different ant species cooperate and get smart. An
entomologist notices, and builds a research station to study them, but the
ants take over.
UNDER THE SYCAMORE TREE

Written in 1952 by Samuel Spewack, this is a play where ants learned to
talk. they became worried about humans destroying the earth so they
made a short-wave transmitter and receiver to talk to the president of the
United States.
THE HELSTROM CHRONICLES

A factual account of the potential rivalry between humans and insects for
domination of the earth.
OTHER

Monty Python did a skit about a pet store that sells ants. It wasn't a very
successful store.
POETRY
“DEPARTMENTAL”

Robert Frost wrote this poem about the burial of an ant. It features a
dead ant named Jerry McCormick (no relation to Justin McCormick, one
of the co-designers of SimAnt---at leastnot that we know).
“ANTS CRAWL MY DRUNKEN ARMS”

by Charles Bukowski

ANT VIDEOS
Ants: Backyard Science, National Geographic Society (11 min.)
Ants: Hunters and Gardener,. National Geographic (11 min.) Society
Amazing Ants, Coronet Films (11 min.)
The Ant and the Aardvark, MGM/UA Home Video (Cartoon. 32 min.)
The Ant and the Dove (Aesop fable), Coronet Films (Cartoon. 8 min.)
The Ant and the Grasshopper (Aesop). Coronet Films (Cartoon. 11
min.)
The Ant and the Grasshopper, Phoenix/BFA Films (Cartoon. 11 min.)
Ant Life, International Film Bureau (17 min.)
Ant World, Pyramid Film and Video (15 min.)
Army Ants: A Study in Social Behavior, Brittanica Films (19 min.)
Life Story of a Social Insect. Brittanica Films (11 min.)
In Search Of: Deadly Ants. Pyramid Film and Video (24 min.)
BOOKS AND STORIES
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
A masterful award-winning novel that combines computer games,
adventure and intelligent hive-mind insects. Wonderful.
Sand Kings by George R. R. Martin
A real scary story about alien social insects. If you read it at night, leave a
light on.
Blood Child by Octavia E. Butler
A Hugo-winning short story about intelligent insects and their relations
with humans. Read it.
Morrow's Ants, by Edward Hyams
A novel about a captain of industry who studies ants and from what he
learns builds a huge partly underground factory and human colony that
works quite well. He controls the humans' behavior with pheromones in
the air and food.
The Ants Who Took Away Time by William Kotzwinkel
A tribe of giant ants steal the Great Timepiece and cause time to stand
still.
Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg
Two bad ants desert their colony, experience a dangerous adventure and
return home.
The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White
There is a scene where Arthur gets turned into an ant by Merlin for a

lesson in life.
The Author of the Acacia Seeds by Ursula K. LeGuin
A short story about how ants communicate by arranging acacia seeds and
begin an ant revolution.
Bug House by Lisa Tuttle
A horror story about a house with some very unusual occupants.
SOFTWARE
“It Came From the Desert”
A CinemaWare Adventure game based on the movie Them.
“Ant21”
A shareware program from Autodesk, Inc. for IBMs and compatibles that
lets you evolve ants that move in different patterns. It's like breeding art.
MUSIC SCORE:
Anthem for Ants by Aulis Sallinen

ANTS AND THE STUDY OF ARTIFICIAL
LIFE
Ants, because of their individually simple behavior and the resulting very
complex group behavior, are used in studies of artificial life.
WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL LIFE?
To quote Christopher Langton, co-organizer of the A-Life conferences:
“Artificial Life is the study of man-made systems that exhibit behaviors
characteristic of natural living systems. It complements the traditional
biological sciences concerned with the analysis of living organisms by
attempting to synthesize lifelike behaviors within computers and other
artificial media.”
A-Life isn't a bunch of computer scientists trying to exercise the power of
life and death over their creations (well, maybe just a little...); it's a whole
new way to study biology, evolution, and life. It's a complete laboratory
in a computer.
An advantage to experimenting with A-Life (as opposed to “real life”) is
the ease with which you make exact changes to the environment or to the
life-form itself during experiments. It also eliminates many moral issues
involved with animal experimentation—at least for a number of years.
(Check out The Seventh Sally by Stanislaw Lem, a story that poses the
question, “How real does an artificial life-form have to appear before it is
real?” For that matter, check out the character Data on Star Trek: The
Next Generation. There was an episode exploring this very topic.)

One highly-publicized (and much disliked) type of A-Life is the computer
virus: a self-replicating electronic beastie that lives in computers.
The future of A-Life holds much potential and promise. It may someday
go beyond the experimental world into the practical realm of design. the
tools and techniques being developed now will someday allow us to grow
or evolve designs for complex systems ranging from software to airplanes.
In a sense, A-Life has the same goals as Artificial Intelligence (AI), but
uses opposite methods. AI is the top-down approach to creating a
thinking machine that emulates the human brain. A-Life is the bottom-up
approach—start with single cells and grow/evolve intelligence.
ARTIFICIAL LIFE MASCOTS
The “key” concept in A-Life is emergent behavior—the complex resulting
behavior that emerges from the combination of many individuals
exhibiting simple behaviors. Ants are a perfect example of emergent
behavior, and for that reason have become the unofficial “mascots” of
A-Life. In the recent second Artificial Life conference, there were quite a
number of artificial worlds that used ants or ant metaphors for the main
inhabitants.
ARTIFICIAL LIFE AND COMPUTER GAMES
All of Maxis' simulation games (SimCity, SimEarth, SimAnt, etc.) are at
least partially based on A-Life concepts and techniques. We will continue
to use and explore the latest methods and discoveries in A-Life in our
future games.

ANT COLONIES AS MODELS FOR
COMPUTERS AND BRAINS
An ant colony is a highly redundant, fault-tolerant system that is capable
of high degree of specialization --- remarkably like a brain. Because of
this, a number of theorists have compared the working of an ant colony
to the working of a thinking brain.
“ANT FUGUE”
by Douglas Hofstadter
Douglas R. Hofstadter, in his Pulitzer Prize winning book Godel, Escher,
Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, uses an ant colony, referred to as Aunt
Hillary, as an analogy for how the human brain works. He proposes that
individually, ants are not endowed with intelligence, but as a whole, the
colony is.
His human parallel is that an individual neuron in a human brain is not in

and of itself intelligent, but together, a few billion brain cells can carry on
an intelligent conversation. He makes further analogies comparing
working groups and castes of ants representing different levels of the
organization of thought.
The scope of “Ant Fugue” goes far beyond the bounds of this book and
beyond my ability to summarize without butchery. As part of Godel,
Escher, Bach, it deals with philosophy of mind and thought, and is worth
reading even if you don't like ants.

6: Appendix

None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing.
- Benjamin Franklin
Poor Richard's Almanac

GLOSSARY
Altruism — behavior by an animal that is not beneficial or may be harmful
to itself but that benefits the survival of its species.
Amber — a hard yellowish to brownish translucent fossil resin that takes a
fine polish and is used chiefly in making ornamental objects. Often the
source of well-preserved fossil remains.
Arthropods — any of a phylum (arthropoda) of invertebrate animals (as
insects, arachnids, and crustaceans) that have a jointed body and limbs,
usually a chitinous shell molted at intervals, and the brain dorsal to the
alimentary canal and connected with a ventral chain of ganglia.
Associative Learning — a learning process in which discrete ideas and
percepts become linked to one another.
Biology — a branch of knowledge that deals with living organisms and vital
processes; also, the plant and animal life of a region or environment.
Biomass — the weight of all the living organisms in a given population,
area, or other unit being measured.
Brood — the immature members of a colony collectively, including eggs,
nymphs, larvae, and pupae. In the strict sense, eggs and pupae are not
members of the society, but they are nevertheless referred to as part of
the brood.
Callows — newly eclosed adult workers whose exoskeleton is still relatively
soft and lightly pigmented.
Caste — any set of individuals of a particular type or age group, or both,
that performs specialized labor in the colony. More narrowly defined,
any set of individuals in a given colony that is both morphologically
distinct and specialized in behavior.
Chitin — a tough, resistant, nitrogen-containing polysaccharide that forms
the cell walls of certain fungi, the exoskeleton of arthropods, and the

epidermal cuticle of other surface structures of certain other
invertebrates.
Claustral — the procedure of colony founding during which queens (or in
the case of termites, royal pairs) seal themselves off in cells and rear the
first generation of workers on nutrients obtained mostly or entirely from
their own storage tissues, including fat bodies and histolysed wing
muscles.
Cocoon — the protective covering of a resting or developmental stage,
sometimes used to refer to both the covering and its contents.
Eclose — to emerge as an adult from the pupa; less commonly, the hatching
of an egg.
Entomology — a branch of zoology (the branch of biology concerned with
the animal kingdom) that deals with insects.
Evolution — change in the genetic makeup of a population with time.
Exocrine Glands — a type of gland that releases its secretion through a
duct, such as digestive glands and sweat glands; contrasts with
endocrine.
Exoskeleton — an external supportive covering of an animal (as an
arthropod).
Female-calling Syndrome — the release of sexual attractants by a
reproductive female who stands in one place and “calls” males to her.
Funiculus — all of the antenna except the first segment, or scape.
Gaster — a special term occasionally applied to the metasome, or terminal
major body part, of ants.
Habituation — a form of learning often involving a diminishing response to
a repeated stimulus or the ignoring of an often-repeated stimulus.
Homeostasis — the maintenance of a steady state, especially a physiological
or social steady state, by means of self-regulation through internal
feedback responses.
Hygroscopic — readily taking up and retaining moisture; taken up and
retained under some conditions of humidity and temperature.
Imprinting — a rapid learning process that takes place early in the life of a
social animal and establishes a behavior pattern, such as recognition of
and attraction to its own kind or a substitute.
Initiators — ants that recruit other ants to forage, defend or attack.
Instar — any period between molts (the casting of the outgrown skin or
exoskeleton in the process of growth) during the course of development.
Instinct — stereotyped, predictable, genetically programmed behavior.

Learning may or may not be involved.
Male-aggregation Syndrome — the mating pattern in which males from
different nests gather in a group and queens join them to be inseminated.
Microclimate — the essentially uniform local climate of a usually small site
or habitat.
Minims — a minor worker, especially the smallest worker of the kind
typically seen in founding colonies or at the low end of size variation of
strongly and continuously polymorphic species.
Monogynous — existing with only one functional queen in the nest.
Primary monogyny: monogyny through the founding of the colony by a
single queen. Secondary monogyny: monogyny through the elimination
of multiple founding queens until only one is left.
Myrmecology — the scientific study of ants.
Myrmecophiles — organisms that must spend at least part of their life
cycles with ant colonies.
Nanitics — the dwarf workers produced from either the first ant broods or
late ant broods that have been subjected to starvation. Nanitic workers
occur in both monomorphic and polymorphic species.
Nuptial Flight — the mating flight of the winged queens and males.
Operant Conditioning — conditioning in which the desired behavior or
increasingly closer approximations to it are followed by a rewarding or
reinforcing stimulus.
Partially Claustral — the procedure during which the queen founds the
colony by isolating herself in a chamber but occasionally leaves to
forage for part of her food supply.
Petiole — the first segment of the waist of insect groups including the bees,
ants and many of the wasps. It is in fact the second abdominal segment,
since the first abdominal segment (propodeum) is fused to the thorax.
Pheromones — a chemical substance or a blend of substances, usually a
glandular secretion, which is used in communication within a species.
One individual releases the material as a signal and another responds
after tasting or smelling it. Primer pheromones alter the physiology of
individuals and prepare them for new behavioral repertories. Releaser
pheromones evoke responses directly.
Polygynous — coexisting in the same colony with two or more egg-laying
queens. When multiple queens found a colony together, the condition is
referred to as primary polygyny. When supplementary queens are added
after colony foundation, the condition is referred to as secondary
polygyny. The coexistence of only two or several queens is sometimes
called Oligogyny.

Polymorphic — in social insects, the coexistence of two or more
functionally different castes within the same sex. In ants it is possible to
define polymorphism somewhat more precisely as the occurrence of
nonisometric relative growth occurring over a sufficient range of size
variation within a normal mature colony to produce individuals of
distinctly different proportions at the extremes of the size range.
Primer Effects — alterations of ant physiology caused by primer
pheromones that prepare the ants for new behavior patterns.
Pupate — to pass through the pupal stage, an intermediate (usually
quiescent) stage of a metamorphic insect that occurs between the larva
and the imago, usually enclosed in a cocoon or case and undergoing
internal changes by which larval structures are replaced by those typical
of the imago.
Releaser Effects — ant behavior changes caused by releaser pheromones
that evoke direct stimulus/response reactions.
Repletes — ants whose crops are greatly distended with liquid food, to the
extent that the abdominal segments are pulled apart and the
intersegmental membranes are stretched tight. Repletes usually serve as
living reservoirs, regurgitating food on demand to their nestmates.
Scape — the shaft of an animal part, as an antenna or feather.
Semiochemicals — chemicals used in communication within or between
species.
Social Homeostasis — the maintenance of steady states at the level of the
society either by control of the nest microclimate or by regulation of the
population density, behavior, and physiology of the group members as a
whole.
Sociobiology — the comparative study of social organization in animals and
man especially with regard to its genetic basis and evolutionary history.
Sociology — the science of society, social institutions, and social
relationships; specifically, the systematic study of the development,
structure, interaction, and collective behavior of organized groups of
human beings.
Stridulation — the production of sound by rubbing one part of the body
surface against another.
Substrates — the foundations to which organisms are attached; a molecule
upon which an enzyme acts.
Superorganisms — any society, such as the colony of a eusocial insect
species, possessing features of organization analogous to the
physiological properties of a single organism. The insect colony, for
example is divided into reproductive castes (analogous to gonads) and

worker castes (analogous to somatic tissue); it may exchange nutrients
by trophallaxis (analogous to the circulatory system); and so forth.
Symbiotic — the living together of dissimilar organisms in more or less
intimate association or close union, often of a mutually beneficial nature.
Taxonomy — the classification of organisms on the basis of their
evolutionary relationships.
Trophallaxis — the exchange of alimentary liquid food among colony
members and guest organisms, either mutually or unilaterally. In
stomodeal trophallaxis the material originates from the mouth; in
proctodeal trophallaxis it originates from the anus.
Trophic Egg — an egg, usually degenerate in form and inviable, which is
fed to other members of the colony.
Trunk Trails — the principle foraging trails laid out by repeated chemical
release during food collection and return to the nest, significantly seen in
army ants and driver ants.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
These are the books used for research for both the program and the
manual:
Arnett, Dr. Ross H. Jr., and Dr. Richard L Jacques, Jr. Simon and Schuster's
Guide to Insects. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981.
Barlow, Connie, ed. From Gaia to Selfish Genes: Selected Writings in the
Life Sciences. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1991.
Chapman, Graham, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and
Michael Palin. The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus. New York:
Pantheon Books, 1989.
Crompton, John. Ways of the Ant. New York: Nick Lyons Books, 1954.
Hofstadter, Douglas R. Gšdel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.
New York: Basic Books, 1979.
Holldobler, Bert, and Edward O. Wilson. The Ants. Cambridge: The
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1990.
Keeton, William T. Elements of Biological Science. 2nd ed. New York: W.
W. Norton & Company, 1973.
Kelly, Kevin. “Perpetual Novelty: Selected Notes from the Second Artificial
Life Conference,” Whole Earth Review 67 (Summer 1990): 20-29.
Langton, Christopher G., ed. Artificial Life: The Proceedings of an
Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living

Systems. Redwood City, CA: Addison-Wesley, 1989.
Larson, Peggy P., and Mervin W. Larson. All About Ants. New York:
Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1965.
Ordish, George. The Year of the Ant. New York: Charles ScribnerÕs Sons,
1978.
Raven, Peter H., and George B. Johnson. Biology. 2nd ed. St. Louis: Times
Mirror/Mosby College Publishing, 1989.
Wilson, Edward O. Sociobiology. Abridged ed. Cambridge: The Belknap
Press of Harvard University Press, 1975.
Wilson, Edward O. The Insect Societies. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1971.

CHILDREN’S
BOOKS

Chinery, Michael. Ant. Mahweh, New Jersey: Troll Associates, 1991.
Fischer-Nagel, Heiderose, and Andreas Fischer-Nagel. An Ant Colony.
Lucerne: Carolrhoda Books, Inc., 1989.
O'Toole, Christopher. Discovering Ants. New York: The Bookwright Press,
1986.
Overbeck, Cynthia. The World of Ants. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications
Company, 1982.
Selsam, Millicent E. Ants. New York: Four Winds Press, 1967.

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