Store fat for famine days

Excess fat seems to be unacceptable for sports athletes, but with ants, it's a matter of survival and they do everything they can to store energy.

When conditions are favorable and food is abundant, ants store a lot of fat that can be used in times of hunger. They can pass fat to each other through excretion from the mouth and through non-fertilized eggs when needed.

(Photo: LiveScience)

"Understanding this energy storage mechanism will be important to understand the division of labor characteristics of insect groups and evolution such as the time of reproduction, hibernation," Daniel researcher Hahn at the University of Florida said.

Hahn examined two closely related ant species to see how they stored fat. Both ant groups live in the same environment but differ in their genes and are distinguished by their light and dark body color.

The darker group has more fat than the total number of thin ones, while the bright-colored group has more fat, Hahn said.

In general, weaver ant colonies consist of 2 types of ants: large soldier ants and moderate worker ants. Soldier ants can store more fat than worker ants. The study found that bright ants had more fat soldiers. However, dark ants have a lot more worker ants, so the total fat of the two groups is equal.

"The difference in the fat storage strategy of the two species has led to significant differences in behavior, and also led to different rates of growth in each individual," Hahn said.

MT