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Kamikaze ants protect the colony

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G

Gaborn

Member
mg21128295.400-1_300.jpg


caption said:
A carpenter ant (Camponotus cylindricus) has ruptured her body to spew a sticky yellow glue, which has killed both her and the larger worker of another ant species (Image: Mark Moffett/Minden Pictures/FLPA)
Click to expand...

THE ants of Borneo go out with a bang, thanks to a body built to blow up during a suicidal death grip.

They are known to grab enemy ants and expel a lethal sticky substance in a final act of altruistic defence of their colony which kills attacker and intruder. Now, Johan Billen of the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL), Belgium, and his team have shown just how much the ants invest in their suicide strategy - with the largest gland reservoirs yet known in ants.

All 10,000 species of ant have glands in their jaws to release chemicals in alarm or defence. But Billen found that in the south-east Asian Camponotus cylindricus ants most of the body is given over to storing the deadly secretion. The insects operate on a hair-trigger; their abdomen walls ruptured even when researchers lightly touched them with forceps (Acta Zoologica, DOI: 10.1111/j.1463-6395.2011.00523.x).

"It's too bad for the ant itself, but its nest mates will survive," says Billen. "It makes perfect sense genetically," agrees William Foster of the University of Cambridge. "Fight for your siblings, protect the nest."
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Story Here

Ants fascinate me.
 
oxrock

oxrock

Gravity is a myth, the Earth SUCKS!
I came to mention banelings and am beaten to the punch yet again =( Who would win between this ant and a baneling?
They'd both die of course, lawl
 
Smiles and Cries

Smiles and Cries

Member
how the hell does evolution work with this one?
How can they survive with something that could easily wipe them out?

Its like Humans with nukes sooner or later booom!
 
D

dinazimmerman

Incurious Bastard
Smiles and Cries said:
how the hell does evolution work with this one?
How can they survive with something that could easily wipe them out?

Its like Humans with nukes sooner or later booom!
Click to expand...

evolution of altruism is a fascinating subject
 
S

Souldriver

Member
Smiles and Cries said:
how the hell does evolution work with this one?
How can they survive with something that could easily wipe them out?

Its like Humans with nukes sooner or later booom!
Click to expand...
Maybe in evolution these ants view their whole colony as a single life form, and the "struggle for life" is programmed in these creatures to protect the chances of the colony's survival as much as possible. By that, ants can have the instinct to let themselves get killed if it means the rest of the colony has a bigger chance of surviving because of it.


Just a guess. Fascinating either way.
 
oxrock

oxrock

Gravity is a myth, the Earth SUCKS!
The queen and her suitors survived and passed on their genetic awesomeness when kamikaze ants blew shit up to protect them. Makes sense to me.
 
B

BLagiver

Banned
Souldriver said:
Maybe in evolution these ants view their whole colony as a single life form, and the "struggle for life" is programmed in these creatures to protect the chances of the colony's survival as much as possible. By that, ants can have the instinct to let themselves get killed if it means the rest of the colony has a bigger chance of surviving because of it.


Just a guess. Fascinating either way.
Click to expand...

They should of evolved in to flying ants or does that require a moon stone?
 
P

Parallax Scroll

Banned
Souldriver said:
Maybe in evolution these ants view their whole colony as a single life form, and the "struggle for life" is programmed in these creatures to protect the chances of the colony's survival as much as possible. By that, ants can have the instinct to let themselves get killed if it means the rest of the colony has a bigger chance of surviving because of it.


Just a guess. Fascinating either way.
Click to expand...
I think that's pretty much it. The exploding ants don't reproduce anyway.
 
B

badcrumble

Member
Not particularly different from the way that bees die after stinging (since the venom bag stays attached to the barbed stinger to pump more venom into the wound, it basically rips their internal organs out when they fly away).
 
G

googleplex

Member
Smiles and Cries said:
how the hell does evolution work with this one?
How can they survive with something that could easily wipe them out?

Its like Humans with nukes sooner or later booom!
Click to expand...
Is evolution is beneficial, to the survival of the species rather then the individual's survival.
 
H

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
As long as the queen and enough males are left to inseminate her, it doesn't really matter how many drones/workers die. It would be like sacrificing a finger to protect your head, when you can easily grow another finger to replace the one that was lost.

Also it looks like the ability is triggered only when the ant is grappling with another. It is probably short enough not to trigger the explosion by accidentally brushing the ground. Nor will explosions propagate.
 
W

Wazzim

Banned
Karl2177 said:
It's almost like the Zerg is already here. We have neural parasite, and now we've got banelings.
Click to expand...
The man in the video says the ant "consumes the slime" but that isn't true. He eats it, consuming is buying something. I can consume a bag of chips but throw it away unopened but it would still be consuming.
 
F

fizzelopeguss

Banned
If ants were the size of dogs....we'd be fucked. They'd swarm, they'd gnaw your fucking legs off, they'd burrow, they'd build epic, magnificent, earthen edifices, they'd reproduce in the goddamn billion and now they fucking explode like banelings.
 
S

serotonina

Member
Wazzim said:
The man in the video says the ant "consumes the slime" but that isn't true. He eats it, consuming is buying something. I can consume a bag of chips but throw it away unopened but it would still be consuming.
Click to expand...
Wth? To consume means eating/drink too.

If it's a joke post I don't get the need for it.
 
N

nib95

Banned
y2dvd said:
I wonder why some insects defense mechanism usually requires self sacrifice.
Click to expand...

I'd imagine a quick evolutionary get around to dealing with stronger or more dangerous predators.
 
W

Woorloog

Banned
Wasn't there a thead about virus that turns caterpillars into zombies?
And now suicide ants.
Hmm.
Are ant based bioweapons forbidden by international treaties?
 
R

rdrr gnr

Member
Ants fascinate me as well. I'll never forget this one clip about how ants communicate. Experimenters sprayed a living ant with the chemicals that are supposed to signal a dead ant. The worker ants proceeded to pick up this completely alive ant and throw him in with their dead. I'm pretty sure it was part of an Edward Wilson documentary.
 
Q

quinntendopower

Banned
i have had ants in my house since i've moved in. just an old house, they show up all the time and i always see them in the summer

i've gained TONS of respect for them. i've followed them around watching their patterns

seen them attempt to carry things that are just too big, and i've seen them actually move things i didn't think were possible.

amazing little bastards
 
D

dragonelite

Member
Typographenia said:
Makes me think of the Aliens with the melty blood stuff.
ofaF5.jpg
Click to expand...

Dont know which alien it was but they had cloned 3 aliens and the two biggest killed the smallest one to so his blood would melt through the steel door. :p
 
W

Wazzim

Banned
serotonina said:
Wth? To consume means eating/drink too.

If it's a joke post I don't get the need for it.
Click to expand...
No joke post, it only means 'buying' something in Dutch ( 'consumeren'= to consume). Many Dutch people confuse it with 'eating and drinking' though, I thought it was the same for English. My bad.
 
S

Sumidor

Member
Cool story and all... But the replies made me load up Starcraft even though i'm supposed to be running errands. Damn you GAF!
 
M

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
Gaborn said:
Ants fascinate me.
Click to expand...

They are some of the strangest and most interesting creatures on the planet. The only animals other than humans who wage organized war on one another.
 
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