Vicious queen ants use mob tactics to reach the top
Friday, September 30, 2011 - 04:30
in Biology & Nature
Leptothorax acervorum ants live all over the Northern hemisphere, but their reproductive strategy depends on habitat. Colonies are polygynous (more than one queen) in the forest of Siberia and central Europe, but functionally monogynous (only one queen reproduces) on sun-exposed slopes in Alaska, Hokkaido and the mountains of central Spain. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Ecology demonstrates that when a colony is functionally monogynous not only do queen ants fight by antennal boxing to become the reproductive queen, but that worker ants reinforce queen behaviour by feeding dominant females and expelling, or killing, their weaker sisters.