Ants using armor
Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2020 6:25 pm
These ants seem to have armor as apparently their enemies maximize weapons.
“We show that, in another striking parallel with agriculture-driven human cultural evolution, fungus-growing ants have evolved biomineralized armor that serves, at least in part, both to protect them from other ants, including other fungus-growing ants, in disputes over territory and agro-predatory ants that are known to raid their colonies and to consume their gardens and brood, and protect them from disease organisms that might otherwise spread rapidly in their densely populated colonies.”
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H. Li et al. 2020. Biomineral armor in leaf-cutter ants. Nat Commun 11, 5792; doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-19566-3
http://www.sci-news.com/biology/acromyrmex-echinatior-biomineral-armor-09093.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BreakingScienceNews+%28Breaking+Science+News%29
“We show that, in another striking parallel with agriculture-driven human cultural evolution, fungus-growing ants have evolved biomineralized armor that serves, at least in part, both to protect them from other ants, including other fungus-growing ants, in disputes over territory and agro-predatory ants that are known to raid their colonies and to consume their gardens and brood, and protect them from disease organisms that might otherwise spread rapidly in their densely populated colonies.”
_____
H. Li et al. 2020. Biomineral armor in leaf-cutter ants. Nat Commun 11, 5792; doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-19566-3
http://www.sci-news.com/biology/acromyrmex-echinatior-biomineral-armor-09093.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BreakingScienceNews+%28Breaking+Science+News%29