linkedin post 2017-07-09 05:49:37

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BAIT AND SWITCH. "As every ant in the colony is ‘programmed’ to obey the every whim of their queen, the colony becomes in time nothing but a proxy for the slavemaker race, as all workers are forced to care for the new brood of masters that the queen hatches. Unknowingly, they will dutifully and carefully tend to the seeds of their own demise." https://lnkd.in/dJrQzst View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2017-07-09 05:50:24

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SLAVE REBELLION. "Slave ‘nannies’ will sometimes turn homicidal on their charges – something that never happens when they tend to their own young. In what’s being labelled variously as an evolutionary resistance to enslavement or a downright act of rebellion, captured worker ants will allow slavemaker young to die through neglect (dumping them in a corner and allowing mould to overcome them) or even consuming them once they reach the pupal stage." https://lnkd.in/dJrQzst View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2017-07-09 05:51:05

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HOMICIDAL NANNIES. "Achenbach and Foitzik collected 88 colonies of the slave-making P.americanus ant that had abducted workers from three species of Temnothorax. They found that the workers clearly care for the larvae, and nearly all of them were raised until their pupated. But at that point, the slaves’ behaviour changed dramatically, taking on a more homicidal bent." https://lnkd.in/d8qZ477 View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2017-07-09 05:51:46

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MURDEROUS SLAVES. "Two-thirds of pupae died before they hatched. The mortality rate was even higher (83%) for pupae containing queens, but very low (3%) for those containing males. The duo saw that the captives were deliberately killing the healthy pupae. In about 30% of cases, as in the photo, the workers would gang up to literally pull the developing ants apart. Another 53% of the pupae were killed by neglect, by workers who moved them out of the nest chamber." http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/04/01/the-rebellion-of-the-ant-slaves/ View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2017-07-09 05:52:28

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SLAVE ANTS REBEL, due to diminished biological fitness as a slave species. "Host ants can be captured by the slavemaker ants, and these captured ants (slaves) normally work for the slavemaker queen. But recently, it was found that they sometimes kill slavemakers. It is unclear why they do this, because they probably cannot reproduce." https://vimeo.com/64925155 View in LinkedIn
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linkedin post 2017-07-09 05:53:00

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SO ENDS this consideration of slavery in ant colonies, an extreme form of parasitism. Tetramorium inquilinum surely is the poster child of the most extreme adaptation to this lifestyle, with the body of the queen stripped down to bare essentials while she rides on the back of the host queen: an unforgettable image. The use of chemical mind control of the slaves chillingly reminds us that an Orwellian dystopia is not limited to the human condition. View in LinkedIn
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