It is very warm today with hardly so much as a breeze to cool the air. This made for a somewhat oppressive atmosphere for us though it proved to be suitable conditions for another group of creatures, as we shall see.
Today was the turn of Myddelton’s to supply our coffee and as they close at 3pm on Sundays, we had to look sharp.
On the way there, I spied a familiar figure.
Man with hat
Photo by Tigger
We saw this gentleman and his hat on a previous occasion (see Give-away day) when I remarked favourably on his hat.
Today was rendered notable, however, by creatures other than homo sapiens, as indicated by the title. Yes, all the way to the shop and back we had to tread carefully because of the flying ants.
Winged ants, called alates, appear once a year in July or August. During a short period, when conditions are suitable, as they were today, the flying ants appear. There are both males and females, and they mingle for mating. They have only a brief time for this, hence the swarming in numbers and their seeming lack of caution around humans.
Once mating has taken place, the females chew off their wings and look for a suitable place to found their own colonies. This single mating, perhaps with several males, provides sperm for the rest of their lives.
The males, however, their job done, die within a few days.
For a more academic account of flying ants, see here.
Ant without wings
The ant in the photo has already lost her wings and is therefore a mated queen. As you can imagine, photographing them is quite difficult because even though alates are larger than ordinary worker ants (and the queens are larger than the males), they are still very small from the human point of view! Not to mention fast moving!
Ant still with wings
Tigger was able to photograph this winged ant because it obligingly landed in my jacket! (Judging by its size, I think it’s a female.) Having photographed it, Tigger put it carefully on the ground so it could continue doung whatever it should do next.
Strange object in the window
Treading carefully (avoiding both people and ants!), we reached Myddelton’s. While Tigger was buying the coffee, I glanced across at Lloyd’s on the opposite corner and saw something strange in the window. I couldn’t investigate further becsuse the coffee was ready and we had to make for home.
What is it? It looks like an inflated object in the shape of a bird, perhaps a gull. What’s this doing in a hairdresser’s salon?
We may never know…
SilverTiger at home and abroad 