It’s easy to imagine, as the United States continues to reckon with its relentless Golden Era, that little of interest could possibly be going on anywhere else in the world. Not even in, say, Gilgil, Kenya, where the annual rainy season’s illegal trade in flying ants has taken off. “The mating ritual sees winged males leave the nest to impregnate queens, who also take flight at this time,” the BBC reported. “This makes it the perfect time to chase down queen ants to sell on to smugglers who are at the heart of a growing global black market, that taps into the pet craze for keeping ants in transparent enclosures designed to observe the insects as they busily build a colony.” A single giant African harvester-ant queen can set you back $220.
As for lands beyond Gilgil:
