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A fresh investigation reveals that parasitic ant queens, as invaders, dupe ant workers from rival colonies into eradicating and mutilating their own progenitor, allowing the intruder to take over and seize the throne.
“The queen’s scent is expunged through the methanoic acid, and quickly the person whom workers guard most intensely becomes a harmful menace. It is a complete tragedy for both the host queen and the workers,” Keizo Takasuka, principal investigator and biologist at Kyushu University in Japan, told Live Science through email.
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Certain ant species, like Lasius orientalis and Lasius umbratus, function as social parasites. Instead of initiating colonies independently, the queens of these species invade colonies of other species, such as Lasius flavus and Lasius japonicus, taking command, so the workers work for them instead.
Researchers were already aware that invading queens utilize appropriated scents to disguise themselves to seem like a member of the colony. This is effective as ant vision is poor and the nest is shadowy, leading workers to depend considerably on fragrances for recognition and judgments.
Nevertheless, they were yet unsure how the invaders swayed worker daughters to slay their own mother. To explore this, Takasuka and his team scrutinized the ants’ behavior within a laboratory environment. The conclusions were documented Monday (Nov. 17) in the publication Current Biology.
First, they situated an invading queen alongside host workers and cocoons to confirm that she obtains the suitable scent, Takasuka stated.
The parasitic ant queen Lasius orientalis (left) penetrates the lair of Lasius flavus and nears their queen (right) in order to emit her compound spray.
Daniel Kronauer at Rockefeller University in New York, unrelated to the analysis, conveyed to Live Science that this scent appropriation replicates what happens in the wild. “One can observe these queens exterior to host species colonies, chewing on host workers and grooming themselves through the host workers’ chemicals, consequently gaining a level of invisibility,” he mentioned.
Subsequently, the team launched an L. orientalis queen into an L. flavus nest, along with an L. umbratus queen within an L. japonicus nest.
For the most part, the workers approved the invading queens, allowing their passage towards the host queens.
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Each parasite queen showered the host queen using abdominal fluid, then receded rapidly as the agitated workers turned upon their own queen and set upon her. When the host queen endured the assault, the parasitic queen relapsed to shower her anew, up until the host queen was killed and dismembered by her own offspring.
When threatened, the ants eject methanoic acid, possessing a pungent, vinegar-like smell — what Takasuka suspects the queen is sprayed with.
“Often, when ants face attack, they shower the intruder with methanoic acid, alerting other ants in the colony,” Kronauer explained. “Therefore, it is reasonable for the parasitic queen to repurpose this action. Essentially, through showering her with methanoic acid, she signals to the workers that the queen is an intruder, and that then initiates the attack.”
Once the situation is serene, the parasitic queen starts laying her own eggs, and the workers provide care for her along with her offspring. Kronauer said that at that instant, due to the constant crawling of the workers over the queen, she merges within the collective aroma of the colony, “so the parasitic queen no longer has to repeatedly kill workers and consume them.”
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Ultimately, the former workers die, and the brood of the parasite queen will become her entire offspring.
In certain other parasitic ant species, the invader queen executes the incumbent herself. Matricide, the slaying of a mother by their offspring, is extraordinary in nature. In instances where it occurs, it’s frequently to benefit the species, like how a hump earwig (Anechura harmandi) mother sacrifices herself as nourishment for her nymphs, or like how wasps terminate their queen, to enhance variety within the colony.
However, merely the parasite species benefits in the case of such ants. “It’s a manipulative act that is selfish when seen from the view of the social parasite. What the resident workers do is a senseless, non-adaptive choice,” Kronauer specified.
Chris SimmsLive Science Contributor
Chris Simms is a freelance journalist who previously worked at New Scientist for a decade+, in roles involving chief subeditor and assistant news editor. He was also a senior subeditor at Nature and holds a degree in zoology from Queen Mary University of London. In recent years, he has authored various articles for New Scientist and in 2018 was shortlisted to become Best Newcomer within the Association of British Science Writers awards.
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