Well, not quite. The carcass does lie there for two days and it is carted off to a pile of dead ants. As Harvard entomologist Edward O. Why the higher death rate? The researchers can't say for sure, but they speculate that "corpses artificially staying longer in the nest may have increased the occurrence of microorganisms, requiring a greater investment in the immune system for live ants and possibly resulting in a reduced lifespan.
The study "shows a fundamental effect that … everybody thought we knew but nobody [had] really tested," wrote Olav Rueppell —an expert on social insects at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro who was not involved in the study—in an email to National Geographic.
The implications of corpse removal for group health may also apply to other social animals like honeybees and prairie dogs. But for the common red ant, at least, the situation is clear: Dead ants beget more dead ants, so it's best to keep the nest nice and tidy.
All rights reserved. Dead Are Deadly Many insects habitually remove dead nestmates from their colony. Follow Katie Langin on Twitter. Share Tweet Email. Why it's so hard to treat pain in infants.
This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city. Animals Wild Cities This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city Caracals have learned to hunt around the urban edges of Cape Town, though the predator faces many threats, such as getting hit by cars.
India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big. The undertakers drag them out of the hive and then fly off and dump them, which could be what happened here. It may be a nice thought that the ants found the discarded body of the bee and felt it should have the funeral rites befitting its important stature in nature — and the world.
However, that's highly unlikely unless we're in a Disney movie. However, David Notton , Senior Curator of Hymenoptera the order of insects that includes ants, bees, and wasps at the Natural History Museum, London, has another suggestion. Thomas O'shea-Wheller, a postdoctoral researcher of entomology at Louisiana State University, had two further theories.
Or, a food store upon which they are storing items that they have foraged for," he told IFLScience. Worker ants can bite and produce a painful sting but are generally reluctant to sting. Based on the Schmidt sting pain index, red harvester ants rate a pain level of 3 on the scale Schmidt et al. Effects of the stings can spread along lymph channels and may be medically serious. Although some species of harvester ant prefer wooded environments, the red harvester ant prefers open grasslands, especially areas with clay loam soils.
They are common along the edges of dirt roads. Red harvester ants are most active during hot, dry conditions. Red harvester ant foragers collect grass seeds and store them in their nests.
In addition to seeds, dead insects are also collected for food. They are a favorite food source of horned lizards. Worker harvester ants are often collected or sold as inhabitants of ant farms.
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