Ants - more social than previously thought
In colonies of thousands or even millions of ants, a single individual doesn't count - or so researchers used to think. Now, new research has now disabused them of that notion.
Termites for breakfast
The African Matabele ant primarily has termites on its menu. Two to four times a day, several hundred ants set out to hunt their prey. But not without consequences to themselves...
Fierce resistance
Matabele ants raid termites, killing their workers and hauling the prey back to their nests. Soldier termites show up, though, using their powerful jaws to fend off the attackers. Roughly every 50th to 100th ant gets injured during these combats. Often, termite soldiers bite off the ants' legs.
Triggering rescue
When an ant is injured in a fight, it excretes chemical substances. This is a call for its mates, who will carry the injured insect back to the nest, where it can recover. A German research team of the University of Würzburg have observed this rescue behavior for the first time.
Unbelievably social
Ants live in huge colonies of thousands or even millions of animals. That's partly why researchers were surprised to see them rescuing other ants. It is the first time they had observed such a behavior in invertebrates. Researchers used to think that one individual wouldn't count for much in such a huge ant community.
Jointly strong in masses
One single ant might be tiny, but many ants together can form impressively big piles. In 2011, researchers observed for the first time that fire ants crowd together to form rafts when they sense that water levels are rising.
Small but powerful
Even if they are tiny, ants can carry objects that weigh about 10 times their own body weight. Some species, like this red wood ant can, manage even heavier things of up to 30 to 50 times its own body weight.
Assertive insects
Ants even keep plant lice as pets. They feast on the sugary feces that the lice discard. In return, the ants defend the lice against enemies. However, there are researchers who say this is less a symbiosis and more like slavery. The ants keep the herds of lice together through the use of force.
Fascinating!
It's incredible what ants can do. Researchers are discovering ever more about these social insects. And with 16,000 ant species exist worldwide - and all of them different - there is a lot more to discover.