[ExI] Termite-hunting ants rescue injured comrades

[BillK]

New research finds that Matabele ants routinely carry injured
nestmates back to the nest to recover

<https://cosmosmagazine.com/social-sciences/termite-hunting-ants-rescue-injured-comrades>

Quotes:
Research published today in Science Advances reveals that specialist
termite predator the African Matabele ant (Megaponera analis) operates
a medevac service for its soldiers during raids on termites.

The finding, by a team led by Erik Frank from the University of
Würzburg's Biocentre, is highly unusual. Ants – along with termites
and some types of bees and wasps – are eusocial species, which
demonstrate a level of colony organisation and collective action that
render individual lives unimportant.

Matabele ants, however, are different. Two to four times a day they
descend on termite feeding grounds, killing their prey and dragging
them back to the nest. Their opponents, however, are not exactly
defenceless, and many of the ants are slaughtered or maimed by soldier
termites, equipped with massive pincers.

Frank and his team observed that a wounded ant releases a specific
chemical compound that serves to trigger a rescue response in other
ants nearby. These then pick up the damaged insect and carry it back
to home territory, where any attacking termites still attached are
forcibly removed.

Those ants not too badly wounded eventually recover and return to
active duty. The number that do so must be great enough for the
unprecedented strategy to pay a survival dividend for the colony.

“We have observed helping behaviour vis-à-vis injured animals for the
first time in invertebrates,” say Frank.

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BillK