Date: October 9, 2018
Source: Institute of Science and Technology Austria
Ants are
neat: when they move into a new nest box, they spend the first days cleaning it
thoroughly, like us humans getting out the cleaning bucket when moving into a
new home. Despite keeping the nest clean, using poison within the nest is
dangerous and can kill unprotected brood. However, the silk cocoon that
surrounds the ant's sensitive pupae protects them from any harmful effects, as
Sylvia Cremer from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST
Austria), and her team, including first author doctoral student Christopher
Pull -- now a postdoc at the Royal Holloway University London (RHUL) -- show in
today's edition of Current Biology.
Many ants
produce highly acidic chemicals from specialized glands in their body. For a
long time, researchers assumed that ants only spray this poison, which is made
mostly of formic acid, to fight other ants and would-be predators. But in two
studies published in 2013 and 2018, Sylvia Cremer and her team showed that ants
use acidic chemicals to disinfect nest-mates contaminated and infected with
pathogens. In the current study, published by Pull et al., Cremer's research
team show that Lasius neglectus ants also spray their nests
prophylactically with their acidic poison, likely ensuring that the nest is
clean for first-time occupancy. But, given the poison doubles-up as a chemical
weapon, the use of the poison within the nest raises further questions, as
Sylvia Cremer explains: "How can ants spray this aggressive acid in their
nest, whilst leaving their sensitive brood in the acidic fog?" Whilst
adult ants are protected from the poison by a thick skin (the cuticle) and eggs
by a protective "shell" (the corion), the cuticle of the pupae is
thin and fragile, and so very susceptible to damage. However, pupae of
the Lasius neglectus species are also covered in a silk cocoon, which Pull
et al hypothesized may offer them protection.
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