Ants: Who looks after the injured in a colony?
7 hours ago
- #Social Behavior
- #Carpenter Ants
- #Wound Care
- Carpenter ants amputate injured legs of fellow ants to prevent infections, primarily carried out by ants transitioning from indoor to outdoor duties.
- No specialized medics exist; wound care is performed by worker ants in a transitional phase of about 20 days.
- Previous social interactions, such as grooming or antennating, influence who cares for injured ants.
- Ants switching between indoor and outdoor roles are better connected throughout the nest, making them more involved in temporary tasks like wound care.
- Automated tracking of 660 ants revealed that spatial and social overlap within colonies drives life-saving wound care behaviors.
- Prophylactic amputation doubles survival rates of injured workers and protects the colony from infection.
- The study, published in PNAS, builds on previous research showing how carpenter ants treat wounds with antimicrobial substances.