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 As unbelievable as they were, the giant ants in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull are semi-real. They’re called “dorylus” ants.
While they’re not the enormous size they were in the movie, and they certainly can’t devour a healthy human being in a matter of seconds, they are pretty scary. From the Dorylus page at Wikipedia (the proper name of the ants):
Seasonally, when food supplies become short, they leave the hill and form marching columns of up to 50,000,000 ants which are considered a menace to people, though they can be easily avoided; a column can only travel about 20 meters in an hour. It is for those unable to move, or when the columns pass through homes, that there is the greatest risk. There have been reported cases of people - usually the young, infirm, or otherwise debilitated who could not escape - being killed and eventually consumed by them, often dying of asphyxiation.
This last sentence should be taken with a grain of salt, as it lacks a proper citation on Wikipedia. They are, however, pretty impressive. While they’re not nearly as large or fast-moving as they are in the movie, the picture on the left is a swarm of them eating a grasshopper, and they’re pretty big as far as ants go.
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1/9/2009
Bride Wars 
