Bitten by the biting just because she lied

The members of the royal family are always ready to attack the female worker ants who intentionally perform the reproductive function.

An ant Aphaenogaster cockerelli.Photo: wordpress.com.

In the gods' nest, most worker ants have to give up reproductive behavior to take care of the queen's daughter, and their younger brother. Previously, many entomologists said that when reproductive, worker ants secreted some chemicals, so that their fellow humans discovered the act of "laying under".

To test this hypothesis, a group of German and American experts experimented with ants Aphaenogaster cockerelli. They synthesized a type of hydrogen carbon compound only available in queen ants and applied it to some worker ants.

Among the queen ants, the team saw ant colonies attacking chemical workers. Some keep and drag the 'cheating', while others use their teeth to bite. But in nests without princess ants, the situation is completely different because worker ants can lay eggs freely without being punished.

Dr. Jurgen Liebig, an expert at the University of Arizona (USA), said that the hydrogen carbon compounds secreted from the body of heterosexuals are 'a reliable signal' for the members of the ant nest. .

'In the queen's nest, the act of attacking underwriters is important for maintaining the balance of the number of individuals in the nest. Preventing and punishing deceitful individuals is the behavior that is applied in the vast majority of living organisms of enormous numbers, ' Jurgen said.

If you want to spawn without being punished, worker ants must meet two conditions. First, they must control the odor of the hydrogen carbon compounds that the body produces when laying eggs. Second, they have to put those compounds on their eggs so that the members of the team cannot distinguish the 'illegal eggs' from the ants' eggs.

Some ants not only attack the cheating but also destroy their eggs.