Snippet: Ants free siblings from spider webs

Desert harvester ants (Veromessor pergandei) charge into danger and dismantle spider traps. Researchers first observed the ants in rescue mode in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts. Not only did the insects free their comrades from the sticky silk, they dismantled the entire web afterwards, ripping it apart with their jaws for up to two hours. Read more: Read the paper: About Science Snippets: These videos are short snippets from researchers’ work—often videos actually used as data in a study or to demonstrate results in a paper. For context or additional explanation, check paper links and credits.