Ant Mating Swarm

In Sossano (Italy, Vicenza region), another hot day neared its end.
On a little wall surrounding a flower bed, I observed an unusual activity...

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A crow of curious insects bustled around. It took me a little time to understand that they were winged ants...

There was a really huge number of them, and new ones still came out of the ground.

There were big princesses, rather clumsy, and other ones, smaller, males, helped by workers.

Some wingless ants were also here.

Queens were flying up, followed by winged males.

The takeoff was not always successful, as seen on this photo: a big queen fell back and is in a rather ridiculous position, for a queen.

More, there was a little pond below. The real danger was not only to make oneself ridiculous. Many ants ended their mating fly drowning in the water and were eaten by fishes...

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