Determining friend and foe is how?

Ants with Argentine
(Photo: berkeley.edu)

When it comes to distinguishing comrades and enemies based on genetic differences, humans appear to be far behind ants. These tiny insects can detect genetic differences of other flocks in the same species.

Argentine ants are quite aggressive. With their large physique, health and aggression, they have established many extremely large "empires" with a radius of hundreds of kilometers, including several tens of millions of nests. Ants from different groups in the same group rarely cause or fight. But ants do not play together often conflict, leading to fierce battles that cause thousands of children to die.

Biologists at the University of Western Australia (Australia) conducted the study of the largest ant colony in southern California (USA). Their territory is a land area of ​​up to 960 km, located adjacent to the territory of 3 smaller herds. Battles in contiguous areas killed at least 15 million worker ants in 6 months.

The team picked up the worker ants of a nearby team, then laid the worker ants in a nest hundreds of kilometers away, but still the same herd, at the position of the dead. The ants in the nest did not attack newcomers. Fighting broke out immediately when they placed ants in a nest a few dozen meters away, but belonging to another herd.

Scientists believe that ants in the same herd have similar genetic structures, even though their habitats are hundreds of kilometers apart. But the genetic structure of non-territorial animals is different, even if their residence is only a few meters apart.

Myrmecia nigriscapa ants (Photo: LiveScience)

"Worker ants still recognize the same herds and, therefore, do not fight. This proves that other species of the same species have genetic differences and the ants are able to detect those points." , Melissa Thomas, a member of the research team, said.

Researchers believe that maintaining a friendly relationship with other groups in the same group allows ants in one to concentrate more resources on reproduction.

"War takes time and lives of ants," Thomas said. If you invest time and force in finding food and nurturing larvae instead of fighting to protect the territory, each team will grow at a very fast pace. This is very beneficial for the development of the whole herd.

The results are published in the December issue of Molecular Ecology.

Viet Linh