Natures wonders: Beetles trick ants (Introduction)

by David Turell @, Monday, November 03, 2014, 14:59 (3462 days ago) @ David Turell

These tiny beetles use ants to raise their young which then eat the ants. Turn about is fair play?:-"Ants communicate with one another through a complex system of stridulation (noise making by rubbing together different parts of their body) combined with chemical messaging. Paussus beetles also stridulate and produce chemicals. Their stridulation may mimic that of their host ants, and the chemicals they secrete from their antennae are powerfully attractive to ants. Somehow, the beetles are able to use these traits to interfere with the ants' own chemical communications and hijack the normal functioning of ant society."- Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-11-beetles-hack-ant-colonies.html#jCp-This is not symbiosis in the true meaning of the word. One side is winning.


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