[ad_1]
Scientists accidentally discovered that a species of mushroom-growing ant is growing its own armor using biominerals, something never before seen in insects.
Leaf cutter ants are an extremely unusual evolution of the ant line, as over the past 60 million years they have evolved alongside the mushrooms they grow for food.
A mature colony of some species of these ants is an effective superorganism, with potentially millions of ants divided into rigid castes, sometimes four and sometimes seven, including gardeners and warriors.
Because the colonies contain fungal cultures and large broods of immature ants, they provide a rich nutrient resource for marauding ant species, including army ants.
Leaf cutter ants evolved along with the fungus they grow
Scientists have made a startling discovery while researching the relationship between ant species that grow fungi and a bacterium that produces antibiotics that help protect them and their crops from disease.
According to the study published in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers found that many leaf-growing ant species are covered with a mineral layer that covers their exoskeleton, providing them with body armor.
Researchers led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that this bulletproof vest was made by the ants themselves, developing as the ants mature.
By testing whether biomineral armor actually helped them, the researchers put the ants into battle, replicating territorial ant wars that occur relatively often in the wild.
“In direct combat with substantially larger and stronger soldiers, ants with biomineralized cuticles lost far fewer body parts and had significantly higher survival rates than biomineral free ants,” they found.
In six-day battles, they found that 50% of the ants with body armor were able to repel the strongest soldiers, while 0% of the ants without it managed to survive.
‘In particular, biomineral armor is present in large mature workers, who forage outside the nest, further indicating that high-magnesium epicuticular calcite is critical in a highly competitive environment,’ added the researchers.
They say their findings are “consistent with a role of high-magnesium epicuticular calcite as armor defending workers from aggressive interactions with other ants, although more ant species need to be further investigated.”
Source link
