Trap-building ants torture prey(sinister and clever)

BBC News ^ | 04/23/05

[TigerLikesRooster]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4472521.stm

Trap-building ants torture prey

 

	With cunning and patience, the ants cut hairs from the stem of the plant they inhabit, and use the tiny fibres to build a spongy platform. The elaborate trap snares its prey, which is then stretched like a victim on a mediaeval rack before being hacked to pieces. The ants divide labour according to age, with the oldest individuals being trap builders

A fierce species of Amazonian ant has been seen building elaborate traps on which hapless prey are stretched like medieval torture victims, before being slowly hacked to pieces.

With cunning and patience, Allomerus decemarticulatus worker-ants cut hairs from the stem of the plant they inhabit, and use the tiny fibres to build a spongy snare, Nature magazine reports.

This ingenious feat of engineering has only ever been observed in one other species of related ant, French researchers say.

What the ants do is cut hairs to clear a path under the plant stem, while leaving some hairs standing to form "pillars" on top of which the lethal platform will sit.

Using the plant hairs they have harvested, the ants weave the platform itself, which is bound together and strengthened using a special fungus.

When the ants have completed the chamber they puncture holes all along its surface, each just big enough to poke their heads through.

Then, hundreds of worker ants climb into the chamber and wait for an unfortunate victim.

Ancient sacrifice

"Workers will hide inside the platform, with their mandibles just inside the hole and they will wait there for prey to come," co-author Jerome Orivel of the University of Toulouse, France said.

Anything with legs slim enough to fit through the carefully constructed holes will meet a miserable fate if they are foolish enough to enter the trap.

There is no limit to the ants' ambition - they will try to catch any mammoth of the insect world

"They will catch almost anything that goes on the trap," continued Dr Orivel. "And they will grab anything they can - legs, antenna, anything."

Once the prey is well secured by jaws fastening all its extremities, it is stretched over the platform like an ancient sacrifice to the gods.

Scores of worker ants then stream out from inside the trap and sting it vigorously to cause paralysis.

Once the creature is dead or fully immobilised, the ants will carry it to their nest, where they will dismember their prey before carrying it inside.

"Small insects will be immediately dismembered and transported to the nest," said Dr Orivel. "But bigger insects will stay on the trap for up to 12 hours."

There is no limit to the ants' ambition and they will attempt to catch any mammoth of the insect world - so long as it has slender legs.

"Their success depends on the type of insect," Dr Orivel told the BBC News website. "The insects' legs have to be smaller than the holes otherwise they cannot get hold of them.

"The ants must have something to catch - for example, caterpillars will have nothing to get hold of so they will not be preyed upon."

[Ichneumon]

"With cunning and patience, ... "

Certainly a product of evolution ... you know ... happenstance, accident, chance, ka-boom fart of the universe.

The behavior is a product of evolution (it's a relatively minor variation on the behavior of other ant species), but the "cunning and patience" part is just a product of the reporter's rhetoric.

[Ichneumon]

While in the Army, I was stationed on an island off the entrance to the Panama Canal accessed thru Ft. Amador. While on one of my explorations of the island, I came across a trail of leafcutter ants that was about 3 feet wide and appeared to extend forever up thru the jungle underbrush. Talk about being totally creeped out, I was traumatized forever.......

I recently read that in some rainforests, leafcutter ants make off with over 10% of the total annual foilage production. Pretty impressive.

[Ichneumon]

The worst part is, those ants in California aren't even American ants. They're from Argentina! They killed our native ants!

Same for the fire ants in Texas and other southern states. They invaded and wiped out the more benign native ants.

[mewzilla]

THEM!!!!

[reagan_fanatic]

Certainly a product of evolution ... you know ... happenstance, accident, chance, ka-boom fart of the universe

Exactly. Amazing what a random collection of cells with no intelligent design whatsoever can do, isn't it?

[knarf]

The behavior reply from Ichneumon is a product of evolution (it's a relatively minor variation on the behavior of other ant species), but the "cunning and patience" part is just a product of the reporter's rhetoric.

Could we ignore the pseudo intelligence of your posts for similar reasons?

If you think about this Ich, I'm trying to elevate you above the ant.

[Ichneumon]

Exactly. Amazing what a random collection of cells with no intelligent design whatsoever can do, isn't it?

It is, but it demonstrably happens anyway, so there you have it.

[Ichneumon]

Could we ignore the pseudo intelligence of your posts for similar reasons?

No, but you might want to try reading it again, because you obviously missed my point.

If you think about this Ich, I'm trying to elevate you above the ant.

So was I -- I was pointing out that the ant's behavior doesn't actually involve any "patience" or "cunning", contrary to what the reporter was claiming about it. The reporter was anthropomorphizing, imputing human qualities to the ants' behavior, when in fact the ants' behavior was mechanistic, pre-programmed into its nervous system by its genetics.

[Zrob]

>The worst part is, those ants in California aren't even American ants. They're from Argentina!

hey, cheer up! dont sound so glum. they just came here to work! be happy and proud youre an american, at least until you have to "Press 1 for Spanish, 2 for Ant, 3 for English" Lets hope that Bush offers them amnesty, thats the compaaaaSHIniTe thing to do.

[Tuscaloosa Goldfinch]

Bought a huge bag of Amdro, didn't work really well, bought a bag of Over and Out, still waiting on the results.

[RightWingAtheist]

[RightWingAtheist]

[reagan_fanatic]

It is, but it demonstrably happens anyway, so there you have it.

You've been able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt there is no intelligent design whatsoever in the behavior of the lowly ant?

Impressive.

[Old Professer]

Ohmigod, how long will it be before all Amazonian insects will be sporting Hillary Legs?

[Old Professer]

I've heard that if you can get them to eat baking powder they will swell up and bust.