He Ain't Heavy, He's My "Moth"er

The ants here are quite cooperative, apparently.

I was walking out to the car when I spotted a moth, moving slowly over the ground. Something seemed odd, and I finally realized what it was -- its wings weren't flapping! This gave it the detached, ethereal moving style of the "floating nuns" in the Blues Brother's movie!

A closer look found that the moth was quite dead, and was being carried by an ant:


This was a heavy load! The ant was not dragging the moth, but was actually lifting it off the ground as it carried it in its mouth. As I watched, a second ant jointed the first, taking the opposite side of the moth. Together, and cooperatively, they navigated over rocks and sticks:




I finally lost them in the brush, so I wasn't able to see what finally became of the moth.

I later saw two ants similarly dragging a fallen blossom across the parking lot:



This makes me wonder how big a "find" they can manage to get back to the nest!