A width of 6 allows the width 4 patterns to be separated by a channel and to stretch to arbitrary lengths. Certain interruptions allow channel switching, as indicated by the alternative (pmut) at the node 333. Any permutation of the node 223 is allowed in continuation, which is to say, any rotation by two cells.
With a width of 6, ants have still more freedom of movement; even a wide bodied ant is possible, which can lead ordinary ants in its wake. Unlike an ordinary ant, the wide one requires lateral support for strips of width greater than 6.
Thus there are four basic configurations which may lead from one to another, finally trailing off into a shower of small sparks. The ants themselves can be freestanding, in the sense that parallel columns of marching ants may be separated by arbitrary quiescent regions, even though each individual column extends upward to infinity.
0.15em
