A new video has surfaced on YouTube which shows ants moving in a ring around an iPhone when the phone receives a call – suggesting that the electromagnetic waves emitted from a ringing phone can affect the insects.
Researchers are divided on the matter. One Australian researcher, Simon Robson of Queensland’s James Cook University, believes the phone has nothing to do with the ants circling the phone.
“There are many ants that actually start forming in a circle without the phone. It’s an unavoidable consequence of their communication systems. Having the ants together like that, the shape of the phone may have something to do with it and the vibration might get them a bit more excited, but a lot of ants will do it even without the phone,” Robson said.
Yet, other researchers are puzzled by the event and have even attempted to explain how electromagnetic waves could mess with the internal guidance system of ants.
“A lot of ants use magnetism to orientate themselves. They have magnetic receptors in their antennae. If they’re traveling long distances they use magnetic cues from the earth to know if they are going north, east, south or west,” Nigel Andrew Associate Professor at the University of New England, said.
The video could also be an “an example of an ant mill, where a group of blind army ants become separated from the main hunting group, lose the pheromone trail they use to navigate and start following each other. The ants then coalesce into a large constantly rotating circle and will continue to march to their eventual deaths from exhaustion,” according to 9news.
Professor Andrew noted that conducting further experiments could possibly shed some light on the situation.
“The theory could be tested by trying the experiment with different ants or turning the phone around to see if the insects re-orientated and started marching in the opposite direction,” Andrew added.
