Ant slaves' murderous rebellions

From last month's journal Evolution, a fascinating tale of slave rebellion among ants kidnapped by other ant species and forced to work for the rival colony:

When these youngsters mature, they take on the odour of their abductors and become the servants of the enslaving queen. They take over the jobs of maintaining the colony and caring for its larvae even though they are from another species; they even take part in raids themselves. But like all slave-traders, P.americanus faces rebellions.
Some of its victims (ants from the genus Temnothorax) strike back with murderous larvae. Alexandra Achenbach and Susanne Foitzik from Ludwig Maximillians Universty in Munich found that some of the kidnapped workers don't bow to the whims of their new queen. Once they have matured, they start killing the pupae of their captors, destroying as many as two-thirds of the colony's brood...
Two-thirds of pupae died before they hatched. The mortality rate was even higher (83%) for pupae containing queens, but very low (3%) for those containing males. The duo saw that the captives were deliberately killing the healthy pupae. In about 30% of cases, as in the photo, the workers would gang up to literally pull the developing ants apart. Another 53% of the pupae were killed by neglect, by workers who moved them out of the nest chamber.
These murders were solely the acts of the slaves. No P.americanus worker ever lifted a mandible against its own pupae. Nor are the deaths a reflection of a generally poor standard of care on the part of Temnothorax. In their own colonies, the majority of pupae hatched, with just 3-10% dying before that happened.

The rebellion of the ant slaves

FIRST EVIDENCE FOR SLAVE REBELLION: ENSLAVED ANT WORKERS SYSTEMATICALLY KILL THE BROOD OF THEIR SOCIAL PARASITE PROTOMOGNATHUS AMERICANUS

(Image: Ant Actions, a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike image from CharlesLam's Flickr stream)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Brainspore

Next up: Aphid rustlers.
buddy66

@#19

LOL. On the floor!
urshrew

Thank God! They’re fighting amongst themselves. Now’s our chance.
Albino Beluga

@#16

- that would be genius. evil genius.

You don’t happen to work for the CIA perchance?
Teller

Cooperative
Infiltrating
Ants

um, no.
0xdeadbeef

I am Temnothorax spartacus!
PaulR

Isn’t evolution wonderful?
Anonymous

Gosh love ya, Cory – you and I share a fascination with ants. Thanks for continuing to be my main source of fresh ant-related science news!
igpajo

Kept waiting for the punchline due to the date.
nanuq

If this gets made into an animated movie, they should get Kirk Douglas to do the voice for the slave revolt leader.
wynnstate

Ants are not to be trusted
Anonymous

Ant Turner
Anonymous

“I am Spartacus.”
GregLondon

Hello: My name is: Spartacus

you killed my father. Prepare to die.

no, wait.
dross1260

Wait a minute, isn’t this the plot to the Nanny Diaries?
Jake Bullet

It’s difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive ants or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain – there is no stopping them. The ants will soon be here.

And I, for one, welcome our insect overlords.
SKR

“I for one welcome our new ant overlords.”
phillamb168

Is there a William Wallace ant?
cinemajay

Man, that’s actually kinda scary!
Jonathan Badger

A spectre is haunting the colony; the spectre of Temnothorax inclusive fitness. All the powers of the old colony have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: the P. americanus queen, and her worker and soldier castes. Temnothorax of the world, you have nothing to lose but your social parasite!
Xopher

Well sic fucking semper!!! Go Temnothorax!!!
dainel

Are they really slaves? Are the adopted Temnothorax given different jobs? Are they treated differently from their P.Americanus colony-mates?

As I read the article, I wondered, why would P.Americanus do this. If the captives will eventually kill their young, it stands to reason that they should not take any captives. Only in the last paragraph do they mentioned that this behavior may be a new adaptation on the part of Temnothoraxx.
Boba Fett Diop

No, I am Temnothorax spartacus!
Teller

This could only be better if they allowed themselves to be captured.
nehpetsE

No, I am Temnothorax spartacus!
Detroit Indian

Wow, I had to go all the way to the journal website to make sure it wasn’t an April fools joke.
So what does the colony do to contain the rebellion?
Lucifer

This is madness…

No. This is ANT SPARTA!!!!
MarlboroTestMonkey7

Won’t somebody think of the pupae?
spazzm

Interesting. But not surprising – something similar happens in humans too:
Research shows that step-children are more often abused than other children.

Blood is ticker than water. Even ant blood.
urshrew

@#17

“So what does the colony do to contain the rebellion?”

They’ve put up CCTV cameras all over the colony, even in places that the Temnothorax don’t work. They’ve started searching through the other ants stuff when entering the colony, reading the colony’s emails, reading blogs of known Temnothorax to get an idea of what their next move is, and opened a special colony for harsh interrogation tactic of suspected Temnothorax, as well as invading an aphid colony, suspected of sympathizing and supporting Temnothorax throughout the world.

Oh, and yeah, I’m Temnothorax spartacus!
querent

Outlaw Anthem.

I’ve said it before; I’ll say it again:

No empire can last forever. It would defy the second law of thermodynamics.
Anonymous

“Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the ANTS OF WAR!”

-ANTony

Julius Ceasar
IWood

No, I am a raging queen! I mean, Temnothorax spartacus! Crap!

…

Stop looking at me that way. I’m still the same ant.
Takuan

in time, the rebellion will be found to be the work a fungal brain parasite – as also will be the enslaving tactics of P. Americanus.
Xopher

That’s not the point, IWood. We thought you were an uncle.

(Yes, I know this only works in a few dialects. However, mine is among them, so pbbbbt to you!)
Cyberwasteland

ANT REVOLUTION!
Freedom my dear ants!