This week's Ants Canada video spotlights a new and unique colony of ants. The are known as bullet ants. They are a very large species that have small colonies of a few hundred workers. They are a hunting species and are equipped with stingers and an effective toxin. The hunt individually, and drag their prey back to the nest.
The interesting part of these ants is that they have a way to replace a dead queen. In most ant colonies, when the queen dies, the colony dies because only the queen can lay eggs to replenish the work force. The bullet ants have an interesting solution to this problem. Each larvae hatched has the ability to become a queen. They have two small buds on their sides that allow them to become fertile and then mate and lay eggs. So the current acting queen has to inspect all newborns and bite off these buds. When the buds are removed, the baby ant becomes infertile and loyal to the current queen. So when the queen dies, the newborns keep their buds and fight it out for dominance. The winner secretes a pheromone that attracts male ants and she mates and become the reigning queen. So these colonies can survive the death of any queen.
Interesting stuff, enjoy the video:
