Worker ants 'thanks' you transport food

A popular ant species has found a simple solution for the portion of food that is too large for the carrying capacity of one of the herds. That is, they will bring a friend to help with the transportation of the food found.

When the worker ants Pachycondyla chinensis found pieces of bulky food, they would return to the nest and use their mouths to grab another ant, take it with them and release their friends next to the food found. The researchers describe this as a tactic for finding worker ants.

According to the BBC news agency, Pachycondyla chinensis ants are particularly interested in the research group of the University of North Carolina (USA) because this is an invasive species, first introduced from Asia to North America in 1930s.

The scout snaked up another worker to help him transport bulky food.
Help ants are completely passive in this process. (Photo: BBC)

Benoit Guenard, the head of the research team, recalled: " I am conducting an observation of the food-seeking behavior of Pachycondyla chinensis ants as well as how they compete with other ants to find something wrong. When a worker ant finds a source of food that is too big for it to carry alone, such as a cockroach, it will return to the nest, grab another worker worker with its jaw and carry it to the food ".

Two ants will then cut and bring food back to their nest.

To learn more about how ants decide whether they need assistance or not, Mr. Guenard placed dead cockroaches in two boxes near the ant nest. A box contains many small cockroaches that an ant can transport itself, while the other box contains a huge cockroach.

The ants quickly knew to bring another worker ant to the box containing the big cockroach. However, at that time, researchers fooled them by turning boxes. Even so, it only took about 5 minutes, the ants found a way to get their partner to the right box with the giant cockroach.

" It seems that the first worker ant plays a role as a scout . It approaches large portions of food and decides not to be transported alone, so go back to the team to recruit helpers, " Guenard explained.

Help ants " completely passive " in the whole process. Researchers still do not understand how this ant is self-directed once it is dropped by a reconnaissance ant near the food source.

Mr. Guenard concluded: " The search for food is very unusual in ants. No other species has ever been known to have a way to recruit workers this way ."

Brian Fisher, an expert on ants at the California Institute of Science, said the Guenard team's research showed that it was " great solution experts ".