Insects

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Where do ants come from? I don’t mean in evolutionary terms. I mean when you put down a piece of bread, or a slice of fruit, or even drop a grain of sugar, where do the hundreds of ants appear from in a matter of seconds? One second there is a crumb on the counter; in the blink of eye the crumb has innumerable tiny shiny bodies swarming and wriggling around it. Is there some sort of signal sent off that suddenly calls into existence an extra hundred ants per crumb, or do they all lurk in invisible corners just waiting their whole lives for the sound of cling film being lifted from the plate, or the lid of the sugar separating from the pot? Everyone knows that if you leave food around, ants will appear sooner or later. A less expected, and even more annoying creature which appears out of nowhere is the fly. After it rains, flies appear everywhere, landing their tiny, tickly, irritating little beings on your skin, turning you slowly but surely into a twitchy, frustrated monomaniac, whose greatest ambition is suddenly to grow huge floppy ears and a tail for fly-swatting, or else an overwhelming desire to roll in some nice squidgy mud, like an elephant. However, it’s not the entire animal kingdom who are out to get us. The butterflies now fluttering around the newly bloomed flowers are beautiful. They can even occasionally be seen flying along behind the boats on the open sea, reminding us of how such small and seemingly fragile beings can perform extraordinary physical feats.

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