Katy, have you ever read Herodotus' Histories?

Apart from being really interesting in many ways one of the most fascinating things in the book is when the author states that in Africa there are giant fox sized ants, his proof? Some guy down the pub told his best mates dad, or something along those lines.

Sadly many people think that, "well my best mates Dads friend told his missus that he had seen a Ghost so it must be true" still constitutes a well thought out argument.

Just found this on wiki, maybe the poor old coot was just unlucky!

Peissel offers the theory that Herodotus may have become confused because the old Persian word for "marmot" was quite similar to that for "mountain ant". Because research suggests that Herodotus probably did not know any Persian (or any other language except his native Greek), he was forced to rely on a multitude of local translators when travelling in the vast multilingual Persian Empire. Therefore, he may have been the unwitting victim of a simple misunderstanding in translation. As Herodotus never claims to have himself seen these "ant/marmot" creatures, it is likely that he was simply reporting what other travellers were telling him, no matter how bizarre or unlikely he personally may have found it to be