Ant slaves' murderous rebellions
The rebellion of the ant slavesWhen these youngsters mature, they take on the odour of their abductors and become the servants of the enslaving queen. They take over the jobs of maintaining the colony and caring for its larvae even though they are from another species; they even take part in raids themselves. But like all slave-traders, P.americanus faces rebellions.
Some of its victims (ants from the genus Temnothorax) strike back with murderous larvae. Alexandra Achenbach and Susanne Foitzik from Ludwig Maximillians Universty in Munich found that some of the kidnapped workers don't bow to the whims of their new queen. Once they have matured, they start killing the pupae of their captors, destroying as many as two-thirds of the colony's brood...
Two-thirds of pupae died before they hatched. The mortality rate was even higher (83%) for pupae containing queens, but very low (3%) for those containing males. The duo saw that the captives were deliberately killing the healthy pupae. In about 30% of cases, as in the photo, the workers would gang up to literally pull the developing ants apart. Another 53% of the pupae were killed by neglect, by workers who moved them out of the nest chamber.
These murders were solely the acts of the slaves. No P.americanus worker ever lifted a mandible against its own pupae. Nor are the deaths a reflection of a generally poor standard of care on the part of Temnothorax. In their own colonies, the majority of pupae hatched, with just 3-10% dying before that happened.
(Image: Ant Actions, a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike image from CharlesLam's Flickr stream)
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Thank God! They're fighting amongst themselves. Now's our chance.
I am Temnothorax spartacus!
Isn't evolution wonderful?
Kept waiting for the punchline due to the date.
If this gets made into an animated movie, they should get Kirk Douglas to do the voice for the slave revolt leader.
Ants are not to be trusted
Ant Turner
Wait a minute, isn't this the plot to the Nanny Diaries?
It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive ants or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain - there is no stopping them. The ants will soon be here.
And I, for one, welcome our insect overlords.
"I for one welcome our new ant overlords."
Is there a William Wallace ant?
Man, that's actually kinda scary!
A spectre is haunting the colony; the spectre of Temnothorax inclusive fitness. All the powers of the old colony have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: the P. americanus queen, and her worker and soldier castes. Temnothorax of the world, you have nothing to lose but your social parasite!
Well sic fucking semper!!! Go Temnothorax!!!
No, I am Temnothorax spartacus!
This could only be better if they allowed themselves to be captured.
No, I am Temnothorax spartacus!
Wow, I had to go all the way to the journal website to make sure it wasn't an April fools joke.
So what does the colony do to contain the rebellion?
This is madness...
No. This is ANT SPARTA!!!!
Won't somebody think of the pupae?
@#17
"So what does the colony do to contain the rebellion?"
They've put up CCTV cameras all over the colony, even in places that the Temnothorax don't work. They've started searching through the other ants stuff when entering the colony, reading the colony's emails, reading blogs of known Temnothorax to get an idea of what their next move is, and opened a special colony for harsh interrogation tactic of suspected Temnothorax, as well as invading an aphid colony, suspected of sympathizing and supporting Temnothorax throughout the world.
Oh, and yeah, I'm Temnothorax spartacus!
No, I am a raging queen! I mean, Temnothorax spartacus! Crap!
...
Stop looking at me that way. I'm still the same ant.
in time, the rebellion will be found to be the work a fungal brain parasite - as also will be the enslaving tactics of P. Americanus.
That's not the point, IWood. We thought you were an uncle.
(Yes, I know this only works in a few dialects. However, mine is among them, so pbbbbt to you!)
ANT REVOLUTION!
Freedom my dear ants!
@#19
LOL. On the floor!
Hello: My name is: Spartacus
you killed my father. Prepare to die.
no, wait.
Interesting. But not surprising - something similar happens in humans too:
Research shows that step-children are more often abused than other children.
Blood is ticker than water. Even ant blood.
Outlaw Anthem.
I've said it before; I'll say it again:
No empire can last forever. It would defy the second law of thermodynamics.
"Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the ANTS OF WAR!"
-ANTony
Julius Ceasar
@#16
- that would be genius. evil genius.
You don't happen to work for the CIA perchance?
Cooperative
Infiltrating
Ants
um, no.
Gosh love ya, Cory - you and I share a fascination with ants. Thanks for continuing to be my main source of fresh ant-related science news!
"I am Spartacus."
Are they really slaves? Are the adopted Temnothorax given different jobs? Are they treated differently from their P.Americanus colony-mates?
As I read the article, I wondered, why would P.Americanus do this. If the captives will eventually kill their young, it stands to reason that they should not take any captives. Only in the last paragraph do they mentioned that this behavior may be a new adaptation on the part of Temnothoraxx.
Next up: Aphid rustlers.