Over the time of the study, and especially in the past 10 years, there's been a very severe and deepening drought in the Southwestern U.S., and it turns out that the colonies that conserve water, that stay in when it's really hot outside, and thus sacrifice getting as much food as possible, are the ones more likely to have offspring colonies.
Tijekom vremena proučavanja, a posebice unazad deset godina, bilo je vrlo ozbiljnih suša u jugozapadnom SAD-u, i ispada da kolonije koje konzerviraju vodu, koje ostaju unutra kad je jako vruće vani, žrtvujući da skupe što je više moguće hrane su one koje kasnije imaju više kolonija potomaka.