When ants die, a few days later they emit oleic acid, which tells the living ants to dispose of their corpse.
A myrmecologist named Ed Wilson discovered this and dropped the chemical on a living ant. It was immediately carried off, despite the fact that it was still moving, and clearly not dead.
“I’M GETTING BETTER”
Bring out your dead. Eh, close enough.
IM NOT YET DEAD SIR
You left out the part where the ant, believing HERSELF to be dead, stayed in self imposed exile in the ant graveyard until the acid wore off and she realized she was not supposed to be in the ant graveyard.
@finite-experience, this seems like the sort of thing you’d like to see
Ant 1: To the ant graveyard with you
Ant 2: But I’m not dead
Ant 1: You smell dead
Ant 2: Fair enough
Ant 1: “I thought you were dead.”
Ant 2, after acid wears off: “I got better.”
Ant 2, returning to the colony: i lived bitch