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By Stephen Beech<\/p>\n
Ants use<\/a> \u2018chemical warfare\u2019 to compel host workers to kill their own queen, reveals new research.<\/p>\n Scientists have observed for the first time an invading ant queen using a chemical spray to compel host workers into murdering their own mother.<\/p>\n They explained that in the ruthless world of parasitic ants<\/a>, taking over a host colony is a matter of life and death.<\/p>\n The conventional understanding had been that an invading queen must physically fight and kill the resident queen to seize control.<\/p>\n But the new study, published in the journal Current Biology<\/a>, details a more \u201csinister\u201d strategy \u2013 a parasitic ant queen that chemically manipulates the host colony\u2019s workers into executing their own mother.<\/p>\n Corresponding author Assistant Professor Keizo Takasuka, of Kyushu University<\/a> in Japan, said: \u201cThe initial discovery was made by my friend Taku Shimada, the first author of the paper, who has been passionate about ants since childhood and runs a popular blog called \u2018AntRoom.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cHe observed the colony infiltration and posted about it in 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cI found the post three years later and was so astonished.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought it was a very valuable discovery that deserved to be documented as academic knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n He says the chemical manipulation was documented in two distantly related species of parasitic ants and their hosts: Lasius orientalis, which infiltrates the nests of Lasius flavus; and Lasius umbratus, which invades the colonies of Lasius japonicus.<\/p>\n Dr. Takasuka said: \u201cThe parasitic behavior of the latter species of ants was discovered by Yuji Tanaka, who is the second author of this study.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is another enthusiastic amateur of ants and followed the same observational methods established by Shimada,\u201d<\/p>\n In the case of Lasius orientalis, he says the parasite sprayed the host colony queen repeatedly, about 15 times over 20 hours.<\/p>\n That slowly agitated the host workers, who began attacking their queen, eventually mutilating and killing her after four days.<\/p>\n But the Lasius umbratus queen used only two targeted sprays.<\/p>\n The researchers said that it was enough to incite an \u201cimmediate and fatal attack\u201d from the host workers, who proceeded to dismember their queen.<\/p>\n In both cases, after the matricide, the host workers accepted the parasitic queen, who soon began laying her own eggs to be cared for by the orphaned colony.<\/p>\n The research team suggests the fluid was formic acid \u2013 a well-known defensive compound used by many ant species to deter predators or as a warning signal to fellow nestmates.<\/p>\n In that context, they say it appears to act as a \u201cdeceptive\u201d social signal.<\/p>\n Dr. Takasuka said: \u201cIn both cases, the host and parasite belong to the same genus, so they both have formic acid and recognize it as a danger signal.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe that when their queen is suddenly covered in a large amount of this chemical, the workers perceive their own mother as a colony-threatening crisis which triggers their aggressive defensive behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n To get close enough to perform the manipulation, the parasite must first bypass the colony\u2019s guards.<\/p>\n The researchers replicated that step in their experiments through a process called host-odour pre-acquisition.<\/p>\n Dr. Takasuka said: \u201cDirect infiltration would fail because the workers would immediately perceive the intruder and attack her.<\/p>\n \u201cTo achieve this, the parasitic queen was housed with a few host workers and cocoons.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter just one night, she acquired the host colony\u2019s specific scent, providing a chemical camouflage that was essential for her to get past the initial defences.\u201d<\/p>\n Even though the two parasitic ant species are not close relatives, the researchers say they share the same genus that is known to have two discrete origins of social parasitism.<\/p>\n Dr. Takasuka explains that the behaviors are an example of \u201cconvergent evolution\u201d \u2013 where similar traits develop independently between unrelated species.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cMy own research focuses on how parasitoid wasps manipulate the behavior of spiders, so I know that in the natural world, parasitic organisms utilize many various and interesting strategies to infect their hosts.<\/p>\n \u201cThis discovery in ants is another fascinating example.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Takasuka added: \u201cI am interested in investigating these different host-killing strategies to understand the evolutionary pressures that drive them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n FOX41 Yakima\u00a9<\/a>FOX11 TriCities\u00a9<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Stephen Beech Ants use \u2018chemical warfare\u2019 to compel host workers to kill their own queen, reveals 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