TOKYO, Dec 10 (News On Japan) –
A report in a tutorial paper by ant specialists describes how employee ants that usually defend their mom, preserve the nest and lift larvae can, at a sure second, all of a sudden activate the queen who gave beginning to them, tearing her aside and in the end killing her.
According to the observations offered within the examine, this brutal act of matricide is triggered by two species of socially parasitic ants that manipulate one other species’ colony to grab its queen’s place and finally take management of the whole nest, revealing the precise technique by which the unique queen is eradicated.
The experiment confirmed that an invading parasitic queen first lives upfront alongside the host colony’s staff and pupae to accumulate their scent, permitting her to method the resident queen and spray what’s believed to be formic acid from her stomach onto the queen, a transfer that causes close by staff to mistakenly understand their very own mom as an enemy and assault her till she is killed. Afterward, though she is an intruder, the parasitic queen turns into the brand new queen of the colony, commanding the employees to serve her and lift her offspring. For a time, the 2 species coexist contained in the nest, however as the unique staff die naturally, the colony step by step shifts right into a single-species neighborhood consisting solely of the parasitic ants, leading to an entire takeover. Because the parasitic species quickly exploits the host colony’s labor and assets, the phenomenon is called momentary social parasitism.
The findings had been reported in a tutorial paper by Tokyo-based ant fanatic and specialty-shop proprietor Taku Shimada, Hachioji resident Yushi Tanaka, and Kyushu University assistant professor Keizo Takasuka.
Source: 産経ニュース