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Wednesday, 3 April 2013

Ants that do slavery

The Polyergus breviceps is a specie of ant that doesn't know how to look after its self of its offspring The workers do not forage for food, feed the young or the queen, or even clean up their own nest. There only mean of survival is to invade other ants nests and take their pupae, once hatched they become workers of a mixed nest. This sort of relationship is not unique, of the approximately 8,800 species of ants, at least 200 have evolved some form of symbiotic relationship with one another. What makes Polyergus special is the way a newly mated queen can, all by herself, take over a Formica nest and start a new colony.
These type of ants are only found in america so they will not be taking over the world of ants anytime soon.

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