Year: 2022

QUEEN'S MILK. "Tetramorium inquilinum lives entirely on food regurgitated by its hosts, even the liquid meant for the host queen. Nourished and nurtured well by its hosts, Tetramorium inquilinum has high fecundity. Older individuals lay an average of two eggs every minute." https://lnkd.in/dGEyArn View in LinkedIn

POLYERGUS MASTERS AND FORMICA SLAVES. "The slave-making Polyergus ants initiate the parasitism by raiding the Formica nests and carrying off the pupal brood; these will do all the chores for the Polyergus master ants including cleaning their nest, foraging for food, and feeding the brood and queen." http://www.jstor.org/stable/29774232?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents View in LinkedIn

THREE SLAVE SPECIES. "Slave making ants of the Polyergus lucidus Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) complex enslave 3 different Formica species, Formica archboldi, F. dolosa, and F. pallidefulva, in northern Florida." https://lnkd.in/dBuAyKw View in LinkedIn

INDEPENDENT EVOLUTION. "Polyergus species are obligate social parasites, wholly dependent on the host (enslaved) species to carry out all of the tasks necessary for colony function (foraging, maintenance, brood rearing). This form of social parasitism is unusual among ants but has evolved several times independently in the ant subfamilies Myrmicinae and Formicinae." https://lnkd.in/dBuAyKw View in LinkedIn

INVENTORY OF HOUSEWORK, comparing Polyergus master ants with their slaves, Formica ants. Only scouting and aggression are greater in the dominant ant species. https://lnkd.in/dBuAyKw View in LinkedIn

ANT WARFARE. "While ants in particular do share Homo sapiens‘ inclination towards mutual annihilation by a process startlingly similar to our own foreign invasions and wars, they may also choose to subject their invertebrate victims to a fate that some might consider ‘worse than death’. This system is also one which is not unknown within the human world: slavery." https://lnkd.in/dJrQzst View in LinkedIn

CHEMICAL PROPAGANDA. "Having evolved independently several times across different ant families, ‘slave-making’ is a life history which makes use of the way in which ants communicate in order to coordinate raids as well as to subdue and coerce the target species with a type of ‘propaganda’." https://lnkd.in/dJrQzst View in LinkedIn

DUAL PURPOSE MESSAGES. "While the siege is underway, slavemaker workers of certain species possessing extremely swollen Dufour glands will spread their ‘propaganda’ amongst the enemy – chemicals that convince them to disperse, while continuing to incite the battle-frenzy amongst the attackers." https://lnkd.in/dJrQzst View in LinkedIn

INSECT OTTOMANS. "Slavemaker ants will carry off all the eggs they can get their mandibles on and bring them back to their own nest. Just as the Ottoman empire once captured the young of their Christian enemies, raising them to be loyal Muslim citizens, so the young of the slave species are raised to be loyal to the their new colony." https://lnkd.in/dJrQzst View in LinkedIn

INFILTRATION. "In certain species, an even more insidious technique is used. During the chaos of the raid, a young slavemaker queen will infiltrate the target colony and kill the queen. Having completed this act of matronly regicide, she will then ‘impersonate’ the queen by consuming the pheromones still present in her rivals’ dead body." https://lnkd.in/dJrQzst View in LinkedIn