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I had to convert. That equals an inch and a half. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen ants scurrying around that fast. May depend on which type of ants.

Alternatively - could an ant run a meter in 25 seconds? Seems reasonable.

A quick Google search shows some can go upwards of 800mm/sec but they’re outliers. https://www.sciencealert.com/world-s-fastest-ants-clock-855-...

Btw - I appreciate that you took the time to check the numbers yourself. Very few people do the math on their own first.

41 mm/s is not fast, according to this website a black ant runs at 80mm/s: https://idswater.com/2019/12/13/how-fast-is-an-ant-in-mph/

I just wonder who marked an individual ant in presumably rough forest terrain, and then watched it for 2.5 hours...

All you need to do is warch one ant for a minute or few and extrapolate.

> An ant mill was first described in 1921 by William Beebe, who observed a mill 1200 ft (~370 m) in circumference. It took each ant 2.5 hours to make one revolution.

William Beebe, apparently.

You can click through the citation and read the excerpt. It's an amusing bit of writing about the joys of discovery.

Miniaturization: ant pedometers.