We mapped the exact location of hundreds of ant nests, including information on the relatedness of its inhabitants – both to each other and to enslaved ants in the vicinity. In a new study, we investigated this hypothesis. So by rebelling, slave workers don’t help themselves but protect their close family. By rebelling, slave workers effectively reduce the number of slave-makers in the nest.Īs raiding is a labour-intensive business, fewer slave-makers result in fewer raids on surrounding ant nests – which in turns means that their relatives, hiding in an acorn close by, have a better chance to go undetected. As a consequence, many of these little ant societies inhabit multiple nests in close proximity to each other.ĭuring raids, slave-making ants usually attack only one nest at a time and only carry out a few during any given year. As a consequence, there is a chance that the kin of some enslaved workers will have survived the attack and still live in close proximity to the slave-maker colony that has incarcerated their sisters. This environment forces the ants to relocate on a regular basis and sometimes the colony divides if more than one suitable nest site is found. These ants inhabit a shifting and fragile environment, residing in temporary nest sites – usually acorns – in the forest leaf litter. In order to solve this problem, one has to consider the life history of the enslaved ant species. This guerrilla strategy helps to keep the number of slave-makers small – but will never actually achieve an “overthrow” of the slave-making ants. As slave-makers are much bigger and stronger, slaves never attack their suppressors directly, but instead target their masters' helpless offspring. This is probably one of the reasons why slavery in ants works – young ants can and will learn the odour of the slave-making nest and accept it as their own.įrom an evolutionary perspective, slave rebellion in ants represents an interesting problem, because enslaved ants do not benefit from their behaviour directly. However, the majority of ants are able to learn and accept a wide scent spectrum, including the odour of another ant species. In most cases this system works well, as ants hatch in the nest in which they were reared. When young ants hatch, they learn the scent of the nest and its inhabitants and accept it as their home. These kidnapped ants do not “know” that they are slaves. However, this interpretation is in all likelihood far from reality. It is tempting to take an anthropocentric perspective on this behaviour and interpret it as the well-deserved revenge of the oppressed servants, getting even with their barbaric masters.
These tiny ants (~2-3mm) inhabit the leaf litter layer of mixed forests on the east coast of the USA and the southern parts of Canada, residing in hollow sticks and acorns. This type of “rebellion” is widespread among the ant species Temnothorax longispinosus which are enslaved by the North American slave-making ant Protomognathus americanus. Some violently tear their masters' offspring to pieces, depositing the remains outside the nest. However, not all slaves accept their fate willingly. The slave-makers become so specialised that they can’t even feed themselves any more and need to be fed by their slaves. For instance, they have to care for the brood of the slave-makers – such as feeding and cleaning – because slave-maker worker ants are specialised “raiding machines” and have lost the ability to perform such basic tasks themselves. This new generation of ant workers hatches and, having never known their own kin, accept their new masters and carry out their bidding.
This happens during regular raiding events in which slave-making ants attack neighbouring ant nests, slaughter the adults and carry their unborn young home to their nest. These so-called “dulotic” or slave-making ants specialise in robbing brood from other species. A handful of ant species have figured out a way to outsource all these essential tasks – by exploiting their weaker cousins. However, not all ant species live up to their reputation. They live to serve their queen and take care of all essential tasks including brood care, gathering food and maintaining the nest. Ants have a reputation of being industrious hard-working animals, sacrificing their own benefit for the good of the colony.
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