radioactive ant fiction [in J. Hymenoptera Research]

Following a link in Nature, I read a short communication in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research [which I confess I rarely peruse!], which sounded more like a B movie from the 1950s than a scientific article. Starting with the title “Ants trapped for years in an old bunker; survival by cannibalism“! (This is actually the second episode in the series.) While the bunker was intended for storing Soviet nuclear weapons, no radioactivity impacted on the ants and they (the colony) survived in the dark at the bottom of the bunker for 22 years, with no source of food but their own, with new ants falling into the bunker on a regular basis. Hence the title. What I found most surprising in the paper is the fact that it is a sheer description of an observation (with field pictures) and of an intervention (we set a 3m vertical boardwalk to allow for escape) that reminded me more of my childhood fascination with ants (involving radical interventions) than of a typical science paper!