World's largest ant colony found in Europe

Swiss, French and Danish scientists believe they have found the largest cooperative unit of ants ever recorded.

The colony is 3,600 miles long, stretching from the Italian Riviera to northwest Spain. It consists of billions of Argentine ants living in millions of nests that cooperate with each other. Some ant colonies can achieve a cooperative effort which allows them to work as one single unit, and in essence, one being.

Ants from different nests normally fight. However, researchers assume the ants in the super colony are so genetically linked that they recognize each other, despite the fact that they are from different nests with different queens.

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