Nature & Environment
Save the Queen: Ants use Bodies as Flotation Devices to Save the Mother
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Feb 24, 2014 10:19 AM EST
Ants care a lot about their queen ant-otherwise known as the main adult, reproducing female ant in an ant colony. And they love her so much, in fact, that they'd risk drowning to save her life.
A recent study found some unusual behavior among these insect creatures. According to lead study author ecologist Jessica Purcell from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, during floods, ants that live in flood plains may actually use their babies as life rafts to help save themselves, and the queen ant. Researchers said they believe that such behavior may have evolved from ants that lived long ago in the rainforests of Brazil.
"It was an interesting contribution. No one had really looked at this idea of the brood as a flotation device," said David Hu, a mechanical engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology who was not involved in the study, via the L.A. Times. "It adds a level of sophistication to the rafts that was previously not understood."
But how exactly can ants make their bodies into a flotation device? Here's how it works, according to Purcell: The baby ants are linked together via a flat circle that's capable of trapping air beneath it--not unlike at actual raft!
In the lab, ants were placed into groups of 60 workers with a queen and some brood ants. As the researchers gradually raised the water levels, the ants reacted by forming small rafts that were ultimately used to save the queen.
They also discovered that in laboratory conditions, these rafts can contain up to 8,000 individuals. Yet in the wild, the number is closer to 100,000.
At the end of their findings, some might find it odd that the more vulnerable and young groups of insects would hold such a responsibility, which also comes with a high risk of death. Yet they discovered that younger ants were typically "more buoyant" than the grown worker ants.
What do you think?
More information regarding the study can be found via the journal PLOS One.
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First Posted: Feb 24, 2014 10:19 AM EST
Ants care a lot about their queen ant-otherwise known as the main adult, reproducing female ant in an ant colony. And they love her so much, in fact, that they'd risk drowning to save her life.
A recent study found some unusual behavior among these insect creatures. According to lead study author ecologist Jessica Purcell from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, during floods, ants that live in flood plains may actually use their babies as life rafts to help save themselves, and the queen ant. Researchers said they believe that such behavior may have evolved from ants that lived long ago in the rainforests of Brazil.
"It was an interesting contribution. No one had really looked at this idea of the brood as a flotation device," said David Hu, a mechanical engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology who was not involved in the study, via the L.A. Times. "It adds a level of sophistication to the rafts that was previously not understood."
But how exactly can ants make their bodies into a flotation device? Here's how it works, according to Purcell: The baby ants are linked together via a flat circle that's capable of trapping air beneath it--not unlike at actual raft!
In the lab, ants were placed into groups of 60 workers with a queen and some brood ants. As the researchers gradually raised the water levels, the ants reacted by forming small rafts that were ultimately used to save the queen.
They also discovered that in laboratory conditions, these rafts can contain up to 8,000 individuals. Yet in the wild, the number is closer to 100,000.
At the end of their findings, some might find it odd that the more vulnerable and young groups of insects would hold such a responsibility, which also comes with a high risk of death. Yet they discovered that younger ants were typically "more buoyant" than the grown worker ants.
What do you think?
More information regarding the study can be found via the journal PLOS One.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone