Why does an iPhone ringtone make ants run in a circle?

A curious video showing a group of ants racing in circles around an iPhone as it rings has gone viral, sparking a host of theories as to what could have caused the bizarre phenomenon.

In the clip the insects are initially seen walking normally in different directions. When the iPhone begins to ring and vibrate, however, the ants mysteriously form a ring around the phone, racing around it in almost perfect circles.

An iPhone

One theory is that the ants’ weird behaviour is caused by an “electromagnetic wave” from the incoming call. An academic who believes that ants often use magnetism to orientate themselves, said,

“Ants have magnetic receptors in their antennae. If they're travelling long distances they use magnetic cues from the earth to know if they are going north, east, south or west.”

Harvester ants carrying seeds into their nest

Another academic has suggested that the odd behaviour could simply be due to the fact that ants are prone to circling things. He explained that the large numbers of ants in the video and the shape of the phone may have influenced the insects’ behaviour, and that a lot of ants will do it even without the phone.

Leaf-cutter ants

According to an entomologist, an ant will follow the trail pheromone or trail chemical of the ant in front of it, so that they endlessly follow their neighbor. The ants’ movements in the video could mean that the trails have become looped around themselves, causing them to form a circle.

Patterns of self-organisation in ants – here they are seen gathering around a drop of honey

However, others have suggested that the strange behavior could simply be because the video is a fake. Claimed another entomologist,

“I’d say it is probably a faked video. Not that ants can’t be tricked into doing amazing, fascinating behaviours but something about the movement in general doesn’t seem quite ant-like to me.”

How tempted are you to try this out with your phone and the nest of ants crawling around in your back garden?

Read more about electromagnetic waves here!

(All images - credit: Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licence)