1 | Annals of Improbable Research | May–June 2020 | vol. 26, no. 3 | improbable.com < Contents >

C!"#$"#%The features marked with a star (*) are based entirely on material taken straight IURP�VWDQGDUG�UHVHDUFK��DQG�RWKHU�2I¿FLDO�DQG�7KHUHIRUH�$OZD\V�&RUUHFW��OLWHUDWXUH�� Many of the other articles are genuine, too, but we don’t know which ones.

On the Front Cover

Small animals and small animal cookies. Montage by Nan Swift.

On the Back Cover

Old children’s books in which the main characters are small animals.

Some Coming Events

See IMPROBABLE.COM for details of these and other events:

NOTE: The 2020 Ig Nobel EuroTour was scheduled to occur in March and April, EXW�ZDV�WUXQFDWHG�DIWHU�WKH�¿UVW�VKRZ��because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The cancelled events will be re-scheduled.

NOTE: Several other events, elsewhere, also will be re-scheduled.

NOTE: Because of the pandemic, the 2020 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will be done entirely via the internet, rather than in Sanders Theatre. Please check our web site WWW.IMPROBABLE.COM for updates!

September 17, 2020 – 30th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony

Fall 2020 (Date TBD) – The Ig Informal Lectures

Fall 2020 (Date TBD, pandemic permitting) – Japan

MAR/APR 2021 (pandemic permitting) – Europe

Where !ere’s More There’s always new improbable — it’s not what you expect! — stuff

on the Improbable Research blog at IMPROBABLE.COM

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News & Notes 2 AIR Vents (letters from our readers): High Adventure for Fish

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30 Ig Nobel Limericks: Ugly Paintings, Prostitution DQG�'UXJV

31 Teachers’Guide

32 Editorial Board

32 Index of Special Issues

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10 | Annals of Improbable Research | May–June 2020 | vol. 26, no. 3 | improbable.com < Contents >

continued >

A!"# R$#$%&'(: O! S")*"#, B+!,$&$-compiled by Bertha Vanatian, Improbable Research sta!

Wolf on Ants on Stilts (2006)“The Ant Odometer: Stepping on Stilts and Stumps,” Matthias Wittlinger, Rüdiger Wehner, and Harald Wolf, Science, vol. 312, no. 5782, 2006, pp. 1965-1967. (Thanks to Michael Smith for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at the University of Ulm and the University of Zurich, report:

Here we test the hypothesis that navigating ants measure distances traveled by using some kind of step integrator, or “step counter.” We manipulated the lengths of the legs and, hence, the stride lengths, in freely walking ants. Animals with elongated (“stilts”) or shortened legs (“stumps”) take larger or shorter strides, respectively, and concomitantly misgauge travel distance. Travel distance is overestimated by experimental animals walking on stilts and underestimated by animals walking on stumps.

Detail from the study “The Ant Odometer: Stepping on Stilts

and Stumps.”

11 | Annals of Improbable Research | May–June 2020 | vol. 26, no. 3 | improbable.com < Contents >

continued >

Wolf on Ants on Stilts (2007)“The Desert Ant Odometer: A Stride Integrator that Accounts for Stride Length and Walking Speed,” Matthias Wittlinger, Rüdiger Wehner and Harald Wolf, Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 210, 2007, pp. 198-207. The authors report:

8QH[SHFWHGO\��TXDQWLWDWLYH�FKDUDFWHULVWLFV�RI�ZDONLQJ�EHKDYLRXU�UHPDLQHG�almost unaffected by imposed changes in leg length, demonstrating remarkable robustness of leg coordination and walking performance

A!"# R$#$%&'(: O! S")*"#, B+!,$&$- ['.!")!+$-]

Detail from the study “The Desert Ant Odometer: A Stride Integrator that Accounts for Stride Length and Walking Speed.”

Harald Wolf, co-author of the studies “The Desert Ant Odometer: Stepping on Stilts and Stumps” and “The Desert Ant Odometer: A Stride Integrator that Accounts for Stride Length and Walking Speed.” Drawing by Nan Swift.

12 | Annals of Improbable Research | May–June 2020 | vol. 26, no. 3 | improbable.com < Contents >

A!"# R$#$%&'(: O! S")*"#, B+!,$&$- ['.!")!+$-]

Ants Trapped and Hunkered in an Old Bunker“Ants Trapped for Years in an Old Bunker; Survival by Cannibalism and Eventual Escape,” Tomasz Rutkowski, István Maák, .DUL�9HSVlOlLQHQ��*HPD�7ULJRV�3HUDO��:RMFLHFK�6WHSKDQ��*U]HJRU]�:RMWDV]\Q��DQG�:RMFLHFK�Czechowski, Journal of Hymenoptera Research, vol. 72, 2019, pp. 177-184. (Thanks to Sonya Taaffe for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland; the Polish Academy of Sciences; the University of Helsinki, Finland; and the Polish Society for Nature Protection, report:

Successful evacuation of a peculiar ‘colony’ of the wood ant Formica polyctena Först, for years trapped within an old bunker previously used for storing nuclear weapons, is reported. Using an experimentally installed boardwalk, the imprisoned ants managed to get through the ventilation pipe to their maternal nest on the top of the bunker. In our previous report, we left open WKH�TXHVWLRQ�RI�KRZ�WKH�µFRORQ\¶�FRXOG� survive seemingly without food. Here we show that the ‘colony’ in the bunker VXUYLYHG�DQG�JUHZ�WKDQNV�WR�DQ�LQÀX[�RI�workers from the source nest above the bunker and mass consumption of corpses of the imprisoned nestmates.

Detail from the study “Ants Trapped for Years in an Old

%XQNHU��6XUYLYDO�E\�&DQQLEDOLVP�and Eventual Escape.”