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A new study, published in the journal Nature, demonstrated that leaf cutter ants have developed biomineral armor that protects them from pathogens. Although limestone shield is known to have evolved in many animals, the study’s discovery is the first of its kind.
Ants are known to be small, organized and hardworking creatures that work together to forage and build complicated nests. They take care of their colony and their queen by working together.
Leaf cutter ants, in particular, worked together up to several notches. Classified into four different groups, leaf cutter ants play different roles in their colony to keep the fungus in their colony they eat.
But these top-tier gardeners also receive the occasional waste that makes them vulnerable to pathogens. Therefore, they developed armor to protect them.
Biomineral armor
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison aren’t entirely sure why the ants dressed up in biomineral armor, just assuming it’s to protect them from pathogens.
They analyzed this armor and said the whitish granular coating on the ants is self-made, the first of its kind in the insect world, according to ScienceAlert.
“We have been working on these leaf cutter ants for many years, particularly focusing on this fascinating association they have with the bacteria that produce antibiotics that help them cope with disease,” said Cameron Currie, the University of Wisconsin-Madison microbiologist, author. senior of the studio.
The researchers used electron microscopy, electron backscattering and many other techniques to analyze more deeply the biomineral armor covering the ant’s exoskeleton. Their analysis showed that the biomineral armor consists of a thin layer of rhombohedral magnesium calcite crystals measuring three to five micrometers in size.
Also read: Ant colonies are the most efficient and toughest workspace according to research
Breeding of leaf cutter ants
Biomineral armor is more common on crustaceans such as lobsters. But given that ants evolved from crustaceans, it is understandable that some of them have retained that trait.
Researchers raised leaf cutter ants to know when this armor would first appear. They found that the ants lack the coat until they mature, which hardens significantly to protect the ants.
They tried putting ants into experimental battles to test the hardness of their exoskeleton and found that those with hard armor are more protected both in battle and from pathogens than those without the coating.
Are there more armor bugs to discover?
The team believes that more insects in the wild have developed protective armor like leaf cutter ants even though they don’t yet know how they evolved.
The team wrote that they were able to find this unusual finding because ants are among the most studied tropical insects, which raises the possibility that biomineralization of calcite may be more prevalent in insects than previously thought.
If so, more research will be needed to understand it better. They also noted that this discovery could help in the development of various materials that humans can use in the future. In fact, the field of materials science is an exciting field of science, Currie said.
Read more: chemical used as a defense against parasites, used by moths to lay eggs
Find out more news and information about entomology in the Science Times.
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