Chemical disguise, chemical attack and social manipulation: matricide begins with smell.
It was a rare and possibly disturbing phenomenon captured by researchers from Kyushu University, in Japan, who caught ants eating their own mother.
The colony did not do this exactly of its own free will: it was manipulated by a parasitic queen, who orchestrated an internal coup and took control of a colony that was foreign to her.
Scientists analyzed the behavior of parasitic species Lasius Orientalis e Lasius umbratus. These infiltrate colonies of Lasius flavus or Lasius japonicusin a highly specialized strategy that involves chemical disguise, chemical attack and social manipulation.
According to behavioral ecologist Keizo Takasuka, lead author of the study in Current Biology, it all starts outside the nest.
To avoid being detected as an intruder, the parasitic queen rubs her body against the worker ants that roam outside, acquiring the colony’s characteristic smell. With this chemical camouflage, you can enter the nest without arousing suspicion.
Once inside, the coup begins.
The parasitic queen approaches the resident queen and repeatedly attacks her with jets of liquid expelled through the acidopore, a specialized opening. The team of researchers suspects that this is formic acida common substance in the chemical arsenal of many ants.
This spray, in addition to being aggressive, has a crucial function: altering the natural odor of the legitimate queen, explains .
Upon becoming impregnated with a “disgusting” smell, the queen of the colony starts to be interpreted as an enemy by her own daughters, who until then had protected her. Manipulated by the chemical change, the workers violently attack their mother, without realizing that they are eliminating the pillar of the colony.
The parasite, knowing well the danger of formic acid, momentarily moves away from the area to prevent any residue from revealing it. Then return and repeat the process as many times as necessary until the resident queen is dead.
With the leadership eliminated, a void of power. It is then that the parasite queen takes control, begins laying her own eggs and transforms the colony into a new kingdom under her command. And surprisingly, almost as if respecting this evil plan, the workers accept the new sovereign and take care of their descendants as if they were legitimate.
