What is this, a regime change for ants?<\/p>\n
Shimada, Taku et al. \u201cSocially parasitic ant queens chemically induce queen-matricide in host workers.\u201d Current Biology.<\/a><\/p>\n Every so often, a study opens with such a forceful hook that it is simply best for me to stand aside and allow it to speak for itself. Thus:<\/p>\n \u201cMatricide\u2014the killing of a mother by her own genetic offspring\u2014is rarely observed in nature, but not unheard-of. Among animal species in which offspring remain with their mothers, the benefits gained from maternal care are so substantial that eliminating the mother almost never pays, making matricide vastly rarer than infanticide.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHere, we report matricidal behavior in two ant species, Lasius flavus and Lasius japonicus, where workers kill resident queens (their mothers) after the latter have been sprayed with abdominal fluid by parasitic ant queens of the ants Lasius orientalis and Lasius umbratus.\u201d<\/p>\n Mad props to this team for condensing an entire etymological epic into three sentences. Such murderous acts of dynastic usurpation were first observed by Taku Shimada, an ant enthusiast who runs a blog called Ant Room<\/a>. Though matricide is sometimes part of a life cycle\u2014like mommy spiders sacrificing their bodies for consumption by their offspring\u2014there is no clear precedent for the newly-reported form of matricide, in which neither the young nor mother benefits from an evolutionary point of view.<\/p>\n In what reads like an unfolding horror, the invading parasitic queens \u201ccovertly approach the resident queen and spray multiple jets of abdominal fluid at her\u201d\u2014formic acid, as it turns out\u2014that then \u201celicits abrupt attacks by host workers, which ultimately kill their own mother,\u201d report Shimada and his colleagues.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe parasitic queens are then accepted, receive care from the orphaned host workers and produce their own brood to found a new colony,\u201d the team said. \u201cOur findings are the first to document a novel host manipulation that prompts offspring to kill an otherwise indispensable mother.\u201d<\/p>\n My blood is curdling and yet I cannot look away! Though this strategy is uniquely nightmarish, it is not uncommon for invading parasitic ants to execute queens in any number of creative ways. The parasites are just usually a bit more hands-on (or rather, tarsus-on) about the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cQueen-killing\u201d has \u201cevolved independently on multiple occasions across [ant species], indicating repeated evolutionary gains,\u201d Shimada\u2019s team said. \u201cUntil now, the only mechanistically documented solution was direct assault: the parasite throttles or beheads the host queen, a tactic that has arisen convergently in several lineages.\u201d<\/p>\n When will we get an ant Shakespeare?! Someone needs to step up and claim that title, because these queens blow Lady MacBeth out of the water.<\/p>\n In other news\u2026<\/p>\n That\u2019s one small stem for a plant, one giant leaf for plant-kind<\/p>\n Maeng, Chang-hyun et al. \u201cExtreme environmental tolerance and space survivability of the moss, Physcomitrium patens.\u201d iScience,\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Scientists simply love to expose extremophile life to the vacuum of space to, you know, see how well they do out there. In a new addition to this tradition, a study reports that spores from the moss Physcomitrium patens survived a full 283 days chilling on the outside of the International Space Station, which is generally not the side of an orbital habitat you want to be stuck on.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even wilder, most of the spacefaring spores were reproductively successful upon their return to Earth. \u201cRemarkably, even after 9 months of exposure to space conditions, over 80% of the encased spores germinated upon return to Earth,\u201d said researchers led by Chang-hyun Maeng of Hokkaido University. \u201cTo the best of our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating the survival of bryophytes\u201d\u2014the family to which mosses belong\u2014\u201dfollowing exposure to space and subsequent return to the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n Congratulations to these mosses for boldly growing where no moss has grown before.<\/p>\n Hints of a real-life ghost world<\/p>\n Hopp, Timo et al. \u201cThe Moon-forming impactor Theia originated from the inner Solar System.\u201d Science.<\/a><\/p>\n Earth had barely been born before a Mars-sized planet, known as Theia, smashed into it some 4.5 billion years ago. The debris from the collision coalesced into what is now our Moon, which has played a key role in Earth\u2019s habitability, so we owe our lives in part to this primordial punch-up.<\/p>\n Scientists have now revealed new details about Theia by measuring the chemical makeup of \u201clunar samples, terrestrial rocks, and meteorites\u2026from which Theia and proto-\u00adEarth might have formed,\u201d according to a new study. They conclude that Theia likely originated in the inner solar system based on the chemical signatures that this shattered world left behind on the Moon and Earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe found that all of Theia and most of Earth\u2019s other constituent materials originated from the inner Solar System,\u201d said researchers led by Timo Hopp of The University of Chicago and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research. \u201cOur calculations suggest that Theia might have formed closer to the Sun than Earth did.\u201d<\/p>\n Wherever its actual birthplace, what remains of Theia is buried on the Moon and as giant undigested slabs<\/a> inside Earth\u2019s mantle. Rest in pieces, sister.<\/p>\n Goosebumps of yore<\/p>\nA reddish-brown spore similar to those used in the space exposure experiment. Image: Tomomichi Fujita<\/p>\n
KABLOWIE! Image: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/p>\n