When Ants Squeak Eavesdropping on lesser-known bulletins from the hill By S. Milius Leaf cutting Atta cephalotes ants often make noises while they work, generating the sound by rasping a filelike widget on one body segment against a specialized rough spot on a neighboring segment. Here, two ants are cutting a leaf as smaller nestmates loiter. If you haven't stuck an ant in your ear recently, don't write the insect off as the strong, silent type.
Many species make tiny squeaks that people can hear if they hold an ant close enough.
The rich chemical communication of ants has claimed more attention from scientists in recent decades, but a small band of researchers has been sorting out ant sounds. Biologists have long realized that ants can hear with their knees, picking up vibrations humming through leaves or nests or even the ground. In the past 20 years, researchers interpreting the messages that thrum in substrates have revealed a sort of ant-ernet, zinging with communiqu s about lost relatives, great food, free rides for hitchhikers, caterpillars in search of ant partners, and impending doom. Improvements in recording equipment are expanding the range of ant chirps and buzzes available to human eavesdroppers. Some scientists are even challenging decades of textbook truths and suggesting that ants might also be able to detect certain kinds of airborne sounds.