The 'corruption' of the royal class spread in the world of ants

According to researchers at the University of Leeds and Copenhagen, the world of ants is far from being a collaborative social model, it is flooded with fraud and corruption, and up to the top classes.

Ants are often said to work together for the benefit of the flock rather than for personal gain. But Dr. Bill Hughes of Leeds University's Department of Biology has found evidence to break this illusion.

Together with Professor Jacobus Boomsma of the University of Copenhagen, he found out that some ants have tried to deceive the system, to ensure their children become fertile queens rather than become worker ants. no fertility.

'The theory is acknowledged that queen ants are created by care; certain larvae are fed their own food to promote the development of queen ants and all these larvae have the same chance, ' explains Dr Hughes. 'But we did DNA footprint experiments on five leaf-cutting ant colonies and discovered that the children of some ancestors were more likely to become queens than others. These ants have the 'royal' gene, giving them an unfair advantage and they can deceive their sisters and make them have no chance to become queens . "

Princess ant and worker ant in leaf-cutting ants (Photo: DR Nash)

But what surprised the scientists is that the ' royal ' lines are always rare in every herd.

Dr. Hughes said: 'The best explanation is that these ants have carefully calculated steps to avoid detection. If there are too many ants of a growing genetic line to become queens in a single flock, other ants may notice and take action against them. So male ants with royal genes have evolved to somehow bring their young offspring to other flocks and thus avoid detection. The rarity of the royal bloodline is actually an evolutionary strategy by deceiving to avoid repression of the masses they are taking advantage of. '

Several times each year, ant colonies give birth to new males and queens, they fly off their flocks to find partners and mate . The males died shortly after mating and the females continued to look for new flocks. Researchers are interested in studying this process, to determine whether their hypothesis is correct and the mating strategy of males with the royal genome to ensure their rarity, to keep Their benefits are not detected by other ' civilians '.

However, scientists' findings prove that, although insect herds are often cited as evidence that society can be based on egalitarianism and cooperation, they are not as great as they are. I thought.

'While studying insects like ants or bees, their socially collaborative aspects are often exposed first, ' said Dr Hughes. 'However, when you look deeper, you will see conflicts and lies - and obviously human society is also perfect evidence of this problem. We thought that ants are an exception, but genetic analysts have shown that their society is also full of corruption - and corruption of the royal class! '