ichthyologist:
Slavemaker Ants
The larger brown slavemaker ants (Protomognathus americanus) rest idly by as their ‘slave’, a golden acorn ant (Temnothorax curvispinosus) attends to the brood and performs worker tasks.
Slavemaker ants are social parasites. Instead of foraging for food, the workers raid the colonies of other ants and steal their larvae, bringing them back to their own slavemaker colony.
The captured larvae imprint onto the pheromone scent of the slavemaker queen, and develop into loyal workers for the colony. These captured ants perform the ‘worker’ tasks such as caring for the eggs and foraging for food.
A small slavemaker colony consists of one queen, two to five workers and 30 to 60 captured slaves. Due to their small size, the whole colony can inhabit one hollow acorn.
All Images: Alex Wild www.alexanderwild.com