“One theory was that the queen was trapped in my car and the swarm were following,. But they couldn’t find the queen anywhere so I’ve no idea if that was right. Apparently bees can swarm at this time of the year and it is a very strong instinct for them to follow the queen. I still don’t really understand why because they couldn’t see the queen anywhere. Perhaps they just like the heat of my car. It is possible the queen had been attracted to something in the car – perhaps a sweet or food in the car. ” The swarm of around 20K had followed her and were sat around on the boot of the car.

The level of eusociality required for this is breathtaking.
2022-12-02: How eusociality may have evolved

Ant pupae—which are equivalent to the chrysalis stage of the butterfly—produce a milklike substance derived from molting fluid that is eaten by both adult ants and larvae. Typically, when insects molt, they secrete a fluid that’s simply resorbed by the animal when the molt is complete. But in ants, this nutrition-rich substance serves as a kind of “metabolic currency” within the colony and may have played a role in the ants’ evolutionary transition from a group of loosely cooperating individuals into a truly integrated superorganism

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