Ant "ninja robber" and slavery discovery - The World

This species of the genus Temnothorax , which includes several hundred species of small ants living in trees or on the forest floor, was named “pilagens” , meaning “robber” because it is launching raids on other ant species for their slaves. It is in the states of Vermont and Michigan researchers have tracked down the nests, where tyrants exploit the labor of their captive cousins.

But unlike the famous slave Amazon ants, who can deploy up to 3,000 troops on the ground during their raids, Temnothorax pilagens favors stealth and a great economy of means, which earned him the unofficial rank of “ant ninja.”

It only two other species of ants around his, who take up residence in hollow acorns nuts or processed in real castles. Fortresses which plays Temnothorax pilagens , whose small size (2.5 mm on average) limit its reach to a few square meters of wooded ground. A massive attack or a prolonged siege, time consuming and lives, the little slave therefore prefers stealth and infiltration.

CHEMICAL ATTACKS

squad usually consists of four slave whose scout responsible for flushing out targets. Thanks to their small size, the robber sneaking using a chemical camouflage, their secret weapon to go unnoticed.

Usually, an attack by an enemy ant colony is the promise of a struggle, and often death. But curiously, biologists from the University of Mainz and the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz have nothing observed during such raids Temnothorax pilagens . Not only their victims do not defend themselves, but they let them freely carry larvae or adult individuals, the robbers are then work on their own account.

explanation for this voluntary enslavement in chemicals that ninja ants secrete, and prevent their prey to recognize them as enemies, found the study published in the online journal ZooKeys.

But appearances are not always doing the monk, even in Formicidae, sometimes intruding be unmasked, and chemical camouflage foiled. Ninjas to the end, then they use their sting with deadly accuracy, knowing perfectly hit their cousins ??recalcitrant in their weakness to the point of the neck, where the shell is soft. A sting that causes immediate paralysis, followed by a quick death, causing a mortality rate that can reach 100% in the colonies attacked with almost zero losses among robbers.

also read the blog Treader Science: How a tree ants leads to slavery