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I have never thought "oh this site isn't fast enough with tentative IDs" It's working great and I like it. If anything from the other comments from the mite and silverfish people the IDs come in too quickly and this can cause mistakes.
I'm not someone who thinks AI can never be used to do anything. It's very good at speech to text.
But having watched the state of free information on insects go from "OK" to "unusable" on the rest of the web due to AI this just scares me.
iNaturalist is the last big website where I can know the ant photos are real. 
And the IDs are so correct I haven't found an error and I love finding errors.
I don't think this would touch the photos but... WHY.
WHY.
He's talking about the isopods! I repeat he's talking about the isopods! This is an all hands on deck event... like an emergency but good and cute.
@raganwald @zachweinersmith.bsky.social
Do people who know the rules of go and play it and try to win understand it?
If the answer is "not always" that's a higher use of "understand" I think?
Is this a computer rendering? Something about the head seems odd to me, the mouth parts and the absence of antennae as well as the texture seem off.
I'm curious what other people say. Personally I think an engine programmed with chess rules "understands" chess, but some kind of statistical algorithm that spits out moves based on probability does not. "understand" chess.
If I made a mistake this bad I would instantly die. Literally, just fall over dead and never move again.
(unrelated: I'm trying to convince geoduck to buy a better microphone ... good lord, anyway it's still interesting. )
OK that location changes things a lot. I would need to look at the book and will if I have a photo.
Disregard the comments about solenopsis invicta. It's not them!
Why are peanuts not used in american cooking more? They are often treated as snack and desert only ... but they are so nice in stir-fry.
Is this in the US in the south? Do you have a photo of an individual ant?
This looks like Solenopsis invicta the imported fire ant, but I'd need to see an ant to know for certain.
Which means your mom might be right... however ... go luck with getting rid of them! They have multiple queens.
The messy nest with many entrances is a big tell for these small shiny ants who sting.
The fiction book I've been working on. I just cracked 100 pages.
Filing this under "things that probably aren't racist but still *feel* racist"
If they can't make it back to their home nest they will probably be killed by other insects or ants trying to find their way home.
kettle? not kennel?
I don't have a proof, but I think individual ants make tiny ant choices. They do whatever they feel like based on the state of their sisters. I think this is the case because not all ants are the same. Some are bold, some scared more easily, some cautious, some always ready to bite and ask questions later.
Brother, I can't even tell you if I have any "free will" let alone a box of ants.
They are digging with their front legs in the manner of a dog, flinging sand under the gaster. I suspect they have determined that they cant move the large treat back to the nest, or having it at the nest might attract too much attention, so they are trying to bury it in the sand so they can enjoy it over a few days.
It's interesting to me that they will dig by moving clumps of soil with their mandibles if the soil in moist, but use this method in dry sand.
When ants "boil" they are all moving, changing levels and postures, climbing and coming in and out of sheltered areas in a manner that alarms *my* vertebrate mind. I can only see opening and closing mandibles and it's impossible to focus on any one ant.
A very effective defensive display set off by sufficient danger. And one I think is designed to scare larger disturbances such as curious humans.