How fire ants survive a plunge

The Daily Mail online is reporting on a technique used by fire arts to survive a sudden drop in the water.

To find out how the tiny, stinging insects dealt with flooding, scientists dropped 8,000 of them into water. The solution? They bind together using their claws and jaws to create a living raft. The scientists found that the ants could form the living rafts in as little as two minutes and in the wild could float along for several months.

An explanation from the Daily Mail on what happens to the ants on the bottom is below.

“The ants that form the base of the raft are usually on top of the water, but if they are knocked underwater, they are able to survive due to pockets of air trapped beneath the surface, it was reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”

There is a video.

Safe to assume the Queen ant is on the top of the heap or somewhere her three sets of legs won't get wet. So are her young, according to the story.