What is it about?
Ants are highly organised social insects that are famous (among specialists) for the way they treat their dead. Ants typically organise common graves outside their nests, where they pile up dead bodies as well as all sorts of litter. This paper specifically aimed at observing whether invasive fire ants would react differently to dead bodies of nestmates as opposed to members of a foreign colony.
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Why is it important?
Understanding insect social behaviour provides numerous insights into the evolution of sociality. Also fire ants are dangerous invasive pests, so understanding how they organise their colonies and prevent infections may help fight infestations.
Perspectives
This is a typical natural history manuscript, relating observations anyone can repeat independently, with local fire ant colonies. We are surprised nobody had given enough attention to how fire ants react to finding dead bodies of their mates, and how this may relate with their chemical ecology. Surely colleagues may provide deeper insights, and identify key chemical cues for their observed reactions.
Dr Eduardo G P Fox
IBCCF / UFRJ
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Differential Behavioral Responses of Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Workers Toward Nestmate and Non-Nestmate Corpses, Journal of Insect Science, July 2020, Oxford University Press (OUP),
DOI: 10.1093/jisesa/ieaa069.
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