Ants
Today I have learned about ants, the most fascinating of the social insects. If ants were as cuddly and good at making tasty food as honeybees, and less fond of formic acid, I would switch to keeping them in a heartbeat.
How's this description of the parasitic ant Polyergus for ingenuity...
'In most cases the Polyergus queen quickly detects the entrance and erupts into a frenzy of ruthless activity. She bolts straight for the Formica queen, literally pushing aside any Formica workers that attempt to grab and bite her,...using her powerful mandibles for biting her attackers and a repellent pheromone secreted from the Dufour's gland in her abdomen. With the workers' opposition liquidated, the Polyergus queen grabs the Formica queen and bites her head, thorax and abdomen for an unrelenting twenty-five minutes. Between bouts of biting she uses her extruded tongue to lick the wounded parts of her dying victim. Within seconds of the host queen's death, the nest undergoes a most remarkable transformation. The Formica workers behave as if sedated. They calmly approach the Polyergus queen and start grooming her - just as they did their own queen. The Polyergus queen, in turn, assembles the scattered Formica pupae into a neat pile and stands triumphally on top of it. At this point, colony takeover is a done deal.'
It's the standing on top of the pile of pupae that gets me. I like to imagine her waving her antennae royally, looking down contemptously at her new slaves.
Ants are just so damn efficient too. I thought a honeybee queen was prolific for laying 2,000-2,500 a day during her peak. But there is a species of army ant whose queens can lay tens of millions of eggs a year each. And honey-pot ants can even make themselves into living larders, stuffing themselves on golden honeydew until their abdomens swell into giant balloons.
How's this description of the parasitic ant Polyergus for ingenuity...
'In most cases the Polyergus queen quickly detects the entrance and erupts into a frenzy of ruthless activity. She bolts straight for the Formica queen, literally pushing aside any Formica workers that attempt to grab and bite her,...using her powerful mandibles for biting her attackers and a repellent pheromone secreted from the Dufour's gland in her abdomen. With the workers' opposition liquidated, the Polyergus queen grabs the Formica queen and bites her head, thorax and abdomen for an unrelenting twenty-five minutes. Between bouts of biting she uses her extruded tongue to lick the wounded parts of her dying victim. Within seconds of the host queen's death, the nest undergoes a most remarkable transformation. The Formica workers behave as if sedated. They calmly approach the Polyergus queen and start grooming her - just as they did their own queen. The Polyergus queen, in turn, assembles the scattered Formica pupae into a neat pile and stands triumphally on top of it. At this point, colony takeover is a done deal.'
It's the standing on top of the pile of pupae that gets me. I like to imagine her waving her antennae royally, looking down contemptously at her new slaves.
Ants are just so damn efficient too. I thought a honeybee queen was prolific for laying 2,000-2,500 a day during her peak. But there is a species of army ant whose queens can lay tens of millions of eggs a year each. And honey-pot ants can even make themselves into living larders, stuffing themselves on golden honeydew until their abdomens swell into giant balloons.