Ant (Phase IV)
Background
Phase IV Ants are insects which have been mutated into developing a more cooperative culture due to interplanetary phenomena.
During the events of Phase IV (1974)
An Ant moves through the colony mound to the Ant Queen and communicates with it. The Ant Queen then communicates to the rest of the Ants. As Dr. Ernest D. Hubbs is taking photos of the ant hills, he is watched by the Ants.
Dr. Hubbs destroys some of the ant hills and during the night the Eldridges' horses are attacked and Mr. Eldridge tells Clete to set the fire trap. Mr. Eldridge shoots the dying horses and the Ants attack the house, forcing the Eldridges and Clete to escape in their truck. Mildred Eldridge notices some of the Ants made it onto the truck and Mr. Eldridge crashes it. The Ants destroy the generator to the laboratory and Dr. Hubbs counters with a large stream of insecticide that sprays out of a cylinder. Kendra Eldridge breaks the testing maze Dr. Hubbs had made when she sees the Ants in it and Dr. Hubbs is bitten by an Ant. An Ant drags some of the pesticide into the mound and then dies and another Ant continues the task before it too dies and is followed by another. An Ant drags the insecticide to the Ant Queen who eats it and then produces a mutated larva. During the night, the Ants produce new ant hills which start to reflect light onto the laboratory. Dr. Hubbs shows James R. Lesko the new ant hills and the new Ant mutation which is immune to their insecticide. James realizes Dr. Hubbs didn't call for the recovery helicopter and as he tries to call for help, the radio explodes due to Ants attacking the circuit boards. James counterattacks by sending loud sound at the ant hills, causing them to collapse. An Ant gets inside the air conditioner and starts to chew through a copper line, but is eaten by a preying mantis, which is then attacked by the Ant that communicated with the Ant Queen, causing the preying mantis to fall into the air conditioning unit and shorting it. The dead Ants are collected by the other Ants and brought back to the mound and appear to be mourned. James sends a message to the Ants based on the principles of math. The communication Ant climbs onto Kendra and Kendra tells it to go away. Dr. Hubbs accuses Kendra of working with the Ants and sees the communication Ant and starts chasing after it. He corners it and squashes it.
The Ants send back a message to James with a modification of a circle and dot. Dr. Hubbs walks out of the laboratory and James tries to stop him. Dr. Hubbs falls into a pit trap and is surrounded and eaten by Ants. James puts on a protective suit and some blue colored pesticide and heads towards the Ant Queen lair. He goes inside the lair and finds Kendra still alive inside, but now mutated. James is then mutated and he and Kendra are let back into the world.
