Ant drinking from a raindrop. Yeah you heard right.

[snagglepuss]

http://www.wimp.com/antdrinking/

[Auggie]

1. Life is so absolutely and amazingly mind blowing

[Vashta Nerada]

2. I had no idea ants needed to drink water.

[Historic NY]

4. They come to my sink to wait for water...

carpenter ants will seek out a source of water.

[Hissyspit]

8. I give water to ladybugs in the house. It's fun to watch them drink.

[nolabear]

9. We had a swarm of ladybugs winter over in our bathroom.

We lived in a house that sat up high on a hillside and had an East facing wall, and in fall we got a big swarm that landed on the side and warmed themselves. A bunch, maybe thirty, got in through the vent in the bathroom, which was an atrium filled with plants all around the tub. They loved it, and quite a few lived to be escorted out in Spring.

[pscot]

3. Who knew ants had so much fun?

That ant had personality.

[SaveOurDemocracy]

5. Cool...bodysurfing a raindrop! ;o)

[ErikJ]

6. H2O surface tension is a tough barrier

to get through for the little fella.

[Hissyspit]

7. Don't kids have to deal with that in some children's sci-fi novel by Madeline L'engle?

Or am I thinking of something else?

[eppur_se_muova]

12. I would be interested in knowing what story that is ...

"Hollywood" sci-fi gets it wrong; tiny people move around just like big ones, and at the same speed, too ! Real sf authors know better.

[Hissyspit]

13. Yes, that's what interested me as a kid, but I can't remember

What it is I am recalling. I haven't read "Wrinkle in Time" since I was a kid.

[Fumesucker]

14. Perhaps you were thinking of this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_Tension_%28short_story%29

http://www.scribd.com/doc/23396343/Blish-James-Surface-Tension

[Hissyspit]

15. No, but I did read Blish's Star Trek adaptations.

[packman]

17. When, if ever, does surfaced tension not exist?

The ant struggling with it, breaks it-but then does it exist in the droplets from the droplet? If surface tension exists in the most simple H20 bond, how does micro-organisms break it to absorb their need moisture?

[Arugula Latte]

10. I kept expecting the raindrop to pop like a bubble.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

11. so cuuute!!

Used to have ladybugs all the time where I used to live. I would take them over to the kitchen counter and make a drop of sugar water for them. Adorable!!!!!! One of them was a real sugar addict--HILARIOUS! I nudged her over to the sugar-drop and the moment she got her first taste, her butt went up in the air, she face planted in the drop and CHUGGED!!

Well, then I thought maybe it's time for a tiny intervention; she could get a stomache ache carrying on like that!

Apparently she disagreed, cuz when tried to nudge her away, I had a tiny battle to deal with. She refused to be nudged!!! NO YOU CANT MAKE ME!!

I even picked her up and set her down a couple inches away...and she scurried right back!!!

Ok, I guess she told me!!!

[toby jo]

16. This reminds me of when I'm making hay

I always leave some long strips of clover because the butterflies are all over it. I look forward every year to watching them land on a little clover, then put that probiscis down into one little flower let, and take a big, long drink. It's like the whole world just stops, right there. Between them and the honeybees and the grasshoppers and the crickets and lightening bugs and ladybugs, and the ants - I think they're holding our world together.