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The Exploding Ants of Borneo
Colobopsis explodens. Photo credit: Zookeys / Alexey Kopchinskiy
Yes, you read that headline correctly. And while the claim of something so fantastic begs disbelief, these ants really do exist. However unsettling the idea of their existence might be, I consider even more unsettling the unlikely and downright obtuse path that I took to first read about them. Let me explain.
Like many people, I make New Year’s Resolutions. And like many, I hold to them with varying degrees of success. This year, one resolution that I made was said simply enough: finish all outstanding projects before starting new ones. In practice, to a great extent, this resolution explains my relative absence from this forum.
One of my outstanding projects was started in the middle of last year: refresh my competence in Latin by rereading Wheelock’s Latin. This project would be daunting enough if all it entailed was a simple reread. But no, for each chapter there are accompanying exercises. Moreover, I have two Latin readers with entries of increasing difficulty which map easily to the lessons in Wheelock. So, I included these readers in the project as well.
At the moment, I have completed all but the last optional appendix in Wheelock. It contains unsimplified, original Latin from Roman authors, such as Cicero’s denunciation of Catiline, which I am currently reading. But since some of the pieces in this appendix can be rather long, I have supplemented these readings with much shorter pieces published weekly by Radio Finland.
Each week, Radio Finland broadcasts short summaries of the news of the world – in Latin. It has done so for the past 29 years. Their program Nuntii Latini (Latin News) has garnered popularity with Latin buffs worldwide. So much so that when Radio Finland recently announced that they were considering canceling the program, their studios were flooded with emails and posts, written in Latin, begging them to reconsider. They did somewhat and extended the program’s contract until its 30th anniversary.
And it was from Nuntii Latini, Radio Finland, in Latin, that I first read of the newly discovered species Colobopsis explodens – the exploding ants of Borneo.
At first, I thought that I had read incorrectly. I distinctly remember thinking, “that can’t be right.” I consulted a dictionary for alternate meanings of explodere. But no, I had read correctly. When their colony is threatened, the worker females of Colobopsis explodens will latch onto that threat with their mandibles and then stretch their limbs and bodies to the point where they rupture. This suicidal act expresses a venom which flows onto the threat and kills it.
How odd. How terrifying. How beautiful. And more to the point, how unnoticed because it was so unsettlingly underreported.
Consider: while our pathetic excuse for a media chronically pleasures itself hourly to its obscene soap opera of a fading porn star and its sick revenge fantasy of a Pyrrhic coup d’etat, there is a new wonder in this world: a species of ant discovered in Borneo. They explode. And whether the knowledge of their existence fills you with wonder, or terror, or mirth, I thought that you might like to know.
Published in General
I needed that. Thank you.
JOOC, does Radio Finland broadcast in shortwave? My Latin training was back in the prehistoric era so I seriously doubt that I could follow the newscast, but I used to be an enthusiastic SWL and it would be nice to know that there is something on the air still other than religious cults and RFE/RL.
You’re welcome.
No. It looks like their last shortwave broadcast was in 2006.
Thanks for reading, Douglas.
Thanks. That fits the timeline. The Internet took down shortwave radio and CompuServe, two of my passions. Ah well, creative destruction and all that. I don’t want to go back.
I don’t know which is more fascinating and unexpected: the exploding ants of Borneo, the fact that Radio Finland broadcasts news of the world in Latin, or that you somehow know that Radio Finland….
Take your pick, it’s all good.
Thanks for reading, Ekosj.
I won’t believe any of it until Media Matters confirms it.
Confirmation depends on if MM can fund raise on it or demagogue it into a boycott of conservative media.
Thanks for reading, Ret.
You read Latin – that is incredible. Over the past year I have started attending the Traditional Latin Mass and am embarrassed that I know no Latin whatsoever (other than the words I chant during the mass). Very impressive man – good job – and good post.
I’ll be waiting for the Latin Group you will start to teach us Latin!
CompuServe I don’t miss.
Not so for shortwave. Every so often I dig out my Sony portable and hope to find something. As someone who even enjoyed the likes of Alex Jones and the various Bible thumpers, I really miss it. Is there anything left?
Don’t even try to tell me dialing in broadcasts from far away is anything like the internet.
This is so interesting. About the venom: can the workers also inject it from their mandibles, or does it only exude when their joints rupture?
Yes, but your resolutions shimmer with the brilliance of sheer awesomeness. Mine are kind of lame.
Don’t drink before 0800. Oops. Had a varying degree of success, there.
Question: Would Wheelock’s Latin be a good start point for studying the language? Or do you have a better recommendation?
I mean, c’mon, I should be doing something productive sitting outside watching the sun come up and enjoying my breakfast beer. Latin is a worthy endeavor.
My first business partner was one of the smartest, most well read people I have ever met. He never went to college. He graduated from a fine Jesuit high school in Brooklyn where Latin was mandatory. He firmly contended that all you needed to become a well rounded, educated individual were some good, rigorous courses of Mathematics, and Latin. He was not a frivolous man.
Before I could do it, I thought the same of people who could. It just takes persistence. At one time, most of the ancient world spoke it – how hard can it really be?
For not so much teaching as goofing around, try S.P.Q.Ricochet.
Thanks for reading, Scott.
From what I’ve read, only from their bodies. But I also have only read online news articles, not the actual research paper.
Thanks for reading, Hypatia.
You clearly have not met me.
I’ll see that and raise it – “Don’t drive like a New York Metro Area lunatic through the ‘city’ streets of your new mid-western home town.”
Yes, but with guidance – no matter what book you use, you will have questions. You can always post those questions to the S.P.Q.Ricochet group.
That sounds like a good morning.
Thanks for reading, Boss.
I see his point. Both studies are essentially puzzles that teach you to think critically. Studying Latin also provides two further benefits. The first is that you really start to understand grammar and vocabulary – I often say that the best course in English I ever took was Latin. The second is that the more you read ancient authors, the more you really understand that humanity has not changed one iota in 2500 years. Sure, we’ve got niftier tools now, but as people, we’re absolutely no different.
I gather your mention of the MSM in this connection is because they do the same but in reverse; they spew venom until their heads explode.
I use Henle Latin with my students. I learn alongside them. Now that I’m on my fourth high school student I’ve learned a lot, but am still a newbie.
As an already-avowed grammar freak, I adore Latin.
Thanks for the link to the Nuntii Latini!
GK Chesterton, in his book Everlasting Man, makes this point beautifully.
He’s making fun of the common idea in his day of the caveman, our brute inner man who drags women off by the hair and thumps things with a big club.
He says that when he looks at the evidence of men living in caves, such as the cave drawings in Lascaux, he sees no evidence of brutality and dragging women about, but rather he sees the hand of another Man. He sees Art. He sees that which makes us human.
Of course, Chesterton says it much better than I.
Lest we forget, there is a certain type of libertarian among us who says we are now better off in every way.
Thanks for bringing this up, IWalton, because you’re coming close to the understated point of the piece. It’s not about my News Year’s resolutions or my ability to read Latin, it’s this:
Have any of you heard about these ants from our media? It turns out that a few outlets did do stories on them, but those stories were drowned out by our media’s ridiculous Trump obsessions.
Myself, I only found out about these ants from a novelty news service by Radio Finland in Latin! How ridiculous is that?!?
Our media has truly jumped the shark, or the exploding ant as it were, suicided by the very venom that IWalton correctly quipped that they spew.
Thanks for reading, IWalton.
Thank you for the tip.
It’s funny, Latin can be really cool. But most people will look at you a little funny if you say so.
NP. What I like most about Nuntii Latini is that they, out of necessity, introduce words and phrase for things in the modern world – words such as automobile and neuro-toxin.
Thanks for reading, CB.
There are two pieces that I especially like to point to to illustrate this.
One is a story that the Roman poet Horace tells about how he was approached on the street by a hanger-on. Horace tries and fails to get rid of the guy by approaching an actual friend and saying, “hey, you remember, we got that thing, right?” And while saying it, he’s screwing up his eyes to signal to his friend to help him get away from the hanger-on. The friend, however, knows what a pain the hanger-on can be, and wanting nothing to do with the situation, leaves Horace holding the bag. It’s hysterical. You could easily see it happening today.
The second is a short, two line poem by the Roman comic/insult poet Martial. It speaks for itself.
Diaulus was recently a doctor, now he’s an undertaker.
What the undertaker does, the doctor did.
I credit the Latin SAT with “enhancing my admission profile,” as the College Board would say. Here’s a little test.
The reporter failed to answer the biggest question raised by the headline: Do they taste like chicken?
My elder daughter is taking the Latin Subject Test later this spring.
Vale, Filia mea!