Science Corner - Ant Slaves and Ant Spartacus

Ant slaves' murderous rebellions - Boing Boing

A fascinating tale of slave rebellion among ants kidnapped by other ant species and forced to work for the rival colony:

Some of its victims (ants from the genus Temnothorax) strike back with murderous larvae. Alexandra Achenbach and Susanne Foitzik from Ludwig Maximillians Universty in Munich found that some of the kidnapped workers don't bow to the whims of their new queen. Once they have matured, they start killing the pupae of their captors, destroying as many as two-thirds of the colony's brood...

That's right kids, not only do ants farm aphids, they kidnap and enslave other ants. Then some slave ants plan rebellion and rise up. Full on classic drama in the insect world.

This kind of shit can freak one out. Let's hope Jeff reads all the details.

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