Discoveries
May 18, 2023Ant Theatrics
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Many animals and insects play dead to escape predators – but one species of ant takes this defense mechanism to an entirely new level, New Atlas reported.
The entire colony plays dead.
Scientists at the University of South Australia said in a new paper that they accidentally came across the melodramatic performance by a colony of Polyrhachis femorata ants while investigating nesting boxes for wild animals on Australia’s Kangaroo Island, off the coast of Adelaide.
One of these boxes was filled with dead P. femorata ants – the researchers initially didn’t think much about it. Then, one of the little creatures messed up and the entire colony’s deception unraveled.
The team closely monitored the ants and repeatedly noticed this behavior, known as thanatosis.
“The mimicry was perfect,” said lead author Sophie Petit.
Petit and her colleagues noted that playing dead has been observed in other ant species – but mainly by individual ants, not the entire colony.
The study marks the first time this survival trick has been observed being pulled off by an entire colony, although scientists are still hunting for the triggers of this behavior.
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