Never watch “Ant-Man” with an entomologist!

Never watch Ant-Man with an entomologist! They are likely to lament how perfect and cute creatures ants are all the time and complain about scientific errors in the next film from time to time. The following is an example.

This article contains spoilers! However, in the opinion of my entomologist friend named John Cambridge, the plot of "Ant-Man" is not important anyway ...→_→

For me, who is keen on entomology, the wonderful thing about "Ant-Man" is the large number of ants. However, the realistic portrayal did not meet my expectations for Marvel hero movies.

The enviable details of Hank Pym's intimate relationship with the ants detract from the believability.

I want to point out that the chemical signals that ants can recognize are not precise.

There is no chemical signal in nature that directs a colony of ants to hang together upside down and drops a sugar cube into a teacup. Of course, the information can be encoded into a composite signal. However, ants are not sensitive enough to detect details at this level.

As for vocal communication, ants can not click or grunt.

If they do vocalize, they are more likely to squeak with their bellies rather than mouths. Ants can hear in nature, but they can not follow sound instructions like puppies. If Hank Pym wants to use sound to train them. I'm afraid it is extremely difficult.

(Unlike puppies, ants are amazingly clean. So the dirty tunnels in this movie probably piss them off.)

The four main types of ants are used in the film.  They are carpenter ants, bullet ants, mad ants, and fire ants from left to right.

In "Ant-Man", Hank Pym mainly taught Ant-Man Scott Lang the control methods of four ants: carpenter ants, bullet ants, fire ants, and mad ants. Let us analyze the intraspecific relationship between them separately.

Carpenter ants

Carpenter ants (actually belonging to the genus Camponotus).

Scott rode the carpenter and Anthony to heaven and earth. What, the price of carpenter ants flying is that they cannot make sex? Movies will not tell you this...

Ant-Man treats the carpenter ants like a flying cars.

It makes sense that he uses the ants as a means of transportation. Carpenter ants do carry a lot of leaves like that.

However, the flying carpenter ants never move things. They shed their wings during mating. So, if Ant-Man wants to take advantage of them to fly, he has to have perfect timing. Moreover, he has to have no mental hurdles to riding around on sexually repressed ants.

Paraponera clavata

Paraponera clavata.

Scott leads an army of Paraponera clavata in the film.

Paraponera clavatas are Ant-Man's goons. It is reasonable. Their stings are very painful.

About The Starr sting pain scale mentioned in the movie， the index considers the ant's bite to be one of the most terrifying indeed.

But the screenwriter reversed the order! The higher the number, the stronger the pain, not the other way around.

Solenopsis mandibularis

Solenopsis mandibularis are craftsmen of this group known for building rafts in the water.

Ant-Man uses an ant raft to get through the sewers. The filmmakers were right to make this ant a little smaller than the others.

To watchers who know well about ants, fire ants are the most recognizable of all the ant types depicted in the film.

Solenopsis mandibularis forms rafts on the water.

Solenopsis mandibularis gathered together can even pour out of a teapot like a liquid.

mad ant

Mad ants (Nylanderia fulva)

The cute little crazy ant in "Ant-Man".

The mad ants seem to have been inspired by the yellow mad ant named Nylanderia fulva, which is a disgrace to entomology.

In the movie, they have the incredible ability to generate electricity electromagnetically and conduct electricity. It is based on the fact that mad ants are indeed known for short-circuiting the power system in the southeastern United States.

But the problem is that the yellow mad ants eat the wire, not because they damaged the Tesla coil.

My last entomological rant is about the super-sized ants in the film.

There is a famous theoretical question about limb structure and exoskeleton strength in ants. What would happen if an ant is the size of a German Shepherd?

The correct answer is that it will collapse under its weight.

However, we know it, watching a child feed a giant pet ant at the dining table is a real treat.

In the end, so many ants in the Ant-Man movies are a treat to me. Ants are awesome.