The more I think about this the more I think the comparison is not relevant. Ants are all going from point A (the colony) to point B (the food). Additional ants are not joining the line midway, nor are any splitting off to some other destination, nor do different streams of ants cross one another's paths.

If you had a one-way one-lane road with no cross streets, merges, or exits, MAYBE the situation would be comparable; in the real world, I don't see a whole lot of relevance.