In an ant colony , every pismire has their job to do accord to their caste . The queens make babies , the soldiers fight back the nest , the worker scrounge for intellectual nourishment ( orstealit ) , and some ants , mysteriously , piece of work atnothingall day . In some species , the dissimilar castes even have differentbody typesand set of behaviors that help them do their jobs , and they join forces to keep the settlement hum along smoothly and to check the survival of the whole group . Their intense collectivism allows them to buildrafts made of themselvesandflow likeketchupas if transition between solid and liquid states .
It ’s a means of life that ’s led scientist to mean of ant settlement and other insect bon ton as “ superorganisms ” instead of just groups of individuals dwell together . The unlike ants and caste are less like multitude in a city and more like the cell and organ in a dead body . BiologistThomas O’Shea - Wheller ’s recentresearch , published inPLOS ONE , usher that ant colony well merit that nickname , reacting to threats “ much like a single organism would in response to onrush on different parts of its organic structure , ” he write .
When an individual animal is in danger , its reaction depends on the case and stock of the scourge . If you come to a red-hot stove burner , for example , you ’d force your deal away . If the kitchen range set your kitchen on flame , though , you ’d probably track down out of the household to safety . To see if ant colonies respond likewise , O’Shea - Wheller and his research squad at the University of Bristol submit the insects to mock attacks on dissimilar parts of their colonies . They solve with the speciesTemnothorax albipennis , because these pismire drop their time in dissimilar location in and around the nest according to their roles , giving the research worker the opportunity to attack the superorganism ’s different “ torso parts . ”
The squad collected 30 ant colonies from a quarry in Dorset , England , and transferred them to their lab . Once the pismire were determine into their Modern home , the researchers simulated predator attacks by scooping up certain worker ant with a tiny brushing and removing them from the colony . In some attacks , they removed scouts that were leaving the nest or walking around the fringe , while in others they pulled the tops off the nest and kidnapped pismire from their centers .
The colony responded differently to the various type of attacks . When scouts were removed , other ants retreated inside the nest and the colony slowed or stop over the exit of new scouts . The response is similar to the backdown reflex a single being might show in reply to injuring a limb , the research worker say . Meanwhile , when ant were removed from the center of the nest , the whole colony piece up and run out , ordinate a mass evacuation of the nest and moving to a novel one — all while protecting the queen , eggs , and larvae .
In both of these situations , the ants respond conjointly to the passing of just a few workers in ways that were specific to the location of the attacks . In other words , they dealt with injuries to their " extremities " and their " heart " in different ways .
“ Superorganisms may benefit from respond as a single entity to the scourge of predation , ” the research worker write . " This highlights the propensity for ant dependency to employ a multi - organismic ‘ nervous system ’ to deal with challenges . ”
