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Research universities may sound boring, but you never know exactly what those crazy guys will be up to. Perhaps they will be teaching Argentinian ants to hate each other, for example.
That’s right, you heard correctly. Researchers from UC Berkeley have just figured out that certain chemical cues will cause normally friendly ants to turn on each other. They isolated the chemicals that promote fighting behavior and the ants attacked. “‘The enemy chemicals generated significantly greater instances of flared mandibles, biting and other attacking behavior than did the control chemicals,’” according to the co-lead author of the study.
In other words, as far as ants are concerned, it’s “gimme the chemicals and it is SO on.”
These ants are apparently a big problem in our state, especially since they band together to form some kind of “supercolony” and attack all the other ants. But now we’ve got a way to make them attack each other, thus enabling us to continue with our wider plan for the state (drowning it in deficits, presumably).
There’s probably some life lesson to be learned from these ants. Something about working together and putting up a common front against adversity. But we’re too excited about ant battles to care. 20 bucks on the one with the big antennae. He’s loaded with chemicals and raring to flare some mandibles!
When ants attack: Researchers recreate chemicals that trigger aggression in Argentine ants [UC Berkeley News]
Image source: NeilsPhotography under Creative Commons
Tags:aggression, ant, chemical, fighting words, Research
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