In the forest, ants usually live underground, even if only partially.

This story is about a family of ants who lived high up in a nest they built in a tree in a valley deep in a dense jungle.

The tree was very, very old and huge. It had lots of branches and leaves and flowers and sweet berries. The berries were the food the ants lived on. There were so many berries during Summer that the tree ants always managed to save enough food to eat during Winter and Spring when no trees in that jungle bore fruit.

During snowy seasons, the higher the snowfall, the more the ground ants benefited from the warmth generated under the snow cover.

High up in trees, there never is enough snow accumulation to generate warmth. Instead, ants have to apply their natural engineering genius to constructing nest exteriors that prevent snow accumulation on surfaces, because snow accumulation would add dangerous extra weight to a nest perched on a branch.

Another advantage ground ants have over tree ants is that whereas underground expansion of a nest is virtually unlimited; it is significantly not so in a tree.

The tree ants were perfectly content most of the time. Sometimes they were bothered by the teasing and the taunting by ants who lived in underground nests.

Ants living in nests in trees are considered to be downright weird by land-living ants, if only because there is a much, much higher mortality rate among ants in trees.

For instance, in wind and rain while ants on the ground easily take shelter, ants in trees are never safe from the chaotic blowings-about of leaves and branches.

As well, for ants, eluding predators is easily successful more times on the ground than on tree leaves and branches.

Why the tree ants built high up in a tree was a mystery that only a few oldest ants remembered.

Many, many generations earlier, ancestors of the tree ants had dared to build a nest high up in a tree because ant-eating animals on the ground were decimating those species of ants that built nests that were partially underground and partially aboveground.

Species of ants that lived entirely underground had nothing to fear from ant-eating animals on the ground, as long as the ants built their nests deep enough to elude the phenomenal sense of smell of the ant-eaters.

After the ants took to building their nests high up in a tree, the ant-eaters stopped entering the forest because their easy food supply diminished significantly.

Nonetheless, the tree ants were not about to return to building nests partially above ground.

Having a nest high up a tree had one serious problem. An ant nest built on a branch was always the cause of the branch, within a few seasons, withering. The nest had to be re-located.

Most serious is if ants find a natural hole anywhere in a tree, and build a nest inside that hole. Once inside a hole, there is no limit to how far the ants can ramify their nest inside a tree. Most trees that die naturally in a wild forest, die from within because of burrowing insects, like ants.

Unlike tree ants, underground ants can build nests that last for centuries.

Underground ants expertly engineer their nests to be able to exploit pockets of air that prevent underground water from flooding most of the nest.

Flooding is the only natural seasonal disaster from which underground ant nests might not recover.

Next to invasion by an ant-eater, only a volcanic eruption producing flowing molten lava can both permanently destroy an ant nest and persuade ants to never re-build on the site.

There came a time when some of the adult children in later generations of the tree ants who knew nothing of the former danger from ant-eaters, extinct in that forest, could not take the teasing and taunting anymore.

They decided to leave the tree and go build themselves a home underground like the other ants.

The rest of the family were sad that some of the adult children ants wanted to leave. However, they said they would help the children, as long as the children would live deep underground as the other ants,  and not revive the ancient tradition of living partially above ground.

The children agreed. A day was set. The children ants prepared to leave the tree.

Their last night in the tree came. They were packed and ready to leave. After the family had a going-away party, everybody went to sleep.

That night a once-in-a-lifetime ferocious storm hit the valley. The strong winds battered the valley from all directions, simultaneously. The rain was so heavy it made the night darker than it actually was.

There was thunder. So loud it kept everybody awake.

There was lightning. So bright it hurt even closed eyes facing it.

The storm raged the whole night. It died away only when the sun came up the next day. The ants who were leaving the tree were very glad they did not have to leave in a storm.

When they stepped outside their home high up in the tree they saw the whole valley was deep under water. The heavy rain had turned the valley into a lake.

The ants could not leave the tree. They had to wait many days and nights before the water subsided and left the valley.

This wasn't so bad because their tree was the only one that had been strong enough to survive the storm with most of its berries. The tree ants still had more than enough food for the whole time the valley was under water.

When those tree ants who wanted to leave the tree went down to the ground they found all the ants sad who lived underground. The water hadn't reached their underground homes, but the water had washed away all the food they could have gathered to store away for Winter and Spring. They would starve during the next Winter and Spring.

The tree ants told the ground ants there was enough food in the tree for everyone to share. The tree ants helped the other ants to pluck berries to store for Winter and Spring.

The ground ants never teased or taunted the tree ants anymore. All the ants became best of friends.