Not our fault staff say, it's the ants

Breaking news from our local correspondent, edited by Alan Lee In the latest version of the dog ate my homework, the staff of Refugio Amazonas blame army ants for being unable to deliver supplies. It was feared that visitors may have had to go hungry as the Red Army rampages through the winch used to bring supplies from the boats to the lodge. However, supplies were carried in pack-horse style by the staff and no-one has had to skip dinner so far. This follows on from a remark from someone having dinner the previous night about having an ant in their soup. The independant was removed and it then spread the word of the high quality cooking to his substantial family, who decided to commandeer the lodge’s supply line. Careful diplomatic negotiations by lodge management with the Red Army queen have convinced her that the local cicadas and crickets are a better source of protein and so far raiding parties have avoided the kitchen. It is expected this truce will last the 3 or so odd weeks that the ants are tenants in the area as part of the natural cycle of the army ant hive. However, local researchers have been asked to locate Tamanduas and Giant Anteaters to draft them in as potential allies during surveys should the situation change. This is not the first time Army Ants have hit international headlines (see BBC news article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3014011.stm). Wikipedia has the following to say on the Refugio Amazonas Army Ants: Eciton army ants lifestyle alternates between a nomadic phase and a stationary stage. In the stationary phase, which lasts about three weeks, the ants remain in the same location every night. They make a nest out of their own bodies, protecting the queen and her eggs in the middle. This temporary home is known as a "bivouac". In the nomadic phase the ants move their entire colony to a new location nearly every night for two weeks. When the ants enter the stationary phase, the queen's body swells massively and she lays as many as 250,000 eggs in less than a week. While the eggs mature, the ants swarm with less frequency and intensity. When the eggs hatch, the excitement caused by the increased activity of the larvae causes the colony to enter the nomadic phase. The colony swarms much more intensely and nearly every day, and the ants move to a new location every night. After two weeks, around the time when the larvae begin to pupate, the colony again enters the stationary phase, and the cycle begins again. Because of the regularity and intensity of swarms, many insect and bird species have evolved complex relationships with these ants. There are flies that are obligate associates of army ant raids, and females lay their eggs on insects (mostly crickets and roaches) flushed into the open by the ants. There are ant-mimicking beetles, shaped like the ants they follow, that run with the swarm, some of them preying on stragglers or other insects injured or flushed by army-ant activity. Many species of birds—mostly cuckoos, woodcreepers, tanagers, and antbirds—feed near the swarms. About 50 of the approximately 200 species of antbirds specialize in preying on insects fleeing the ants, getting up to half their food this way. Some of these birds actively check army-ant bivouacs each morning and follow the foraging trail to the swarm front, where they take positions based on their species' relations in a dominance hierarchy. A swarm may be attended by as many as 25 birds of one or two "professional" species and individual birds of as many as 30 other species. In the meantime we will keep you updated with any breaking news on the Red Army raid on Refugio Amazonas right here on the Amazon Times.