The communal stomach of an ant colony
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 - 12:28
in Biology & Nature
(PhysOrg.com) -- How do ant colonies manage the nutrients in their food? Audrey Dussutour from the Centre de recherche sur la cognition animale (CNRS/Université Paul Sabatier) and Steve Simpson from Sydney University have shown that an ant colony functions like a `collective mouth and gut`. The members of a colony are capable of dealing with the nutritional needs of their social structure by sharing tasks (foraging, digestion and excretion). The results of this study were published in Current Biology on 12 May 2009.