12/11/2022 0 Comments Empire of the undergrowth leaf cutterThey distribute lumps of it over the surface of the colony and, like a doormat, the resin disinfects the ants as they walk over it. In another approach to keeping society healthy, wood ants ( Formica paralugubris) exploit the protective properties of tree resin, a strong antimicrobial, to inhibit the spread of contagious disease. To reduce the possibility of contamination to these vital areas of the colony, these tiny ants “shelter in place” and remain inside. The smallest workers, who care for the brood and maintain the gardens, are covered in a white coat of this bacterium. ![]() In addition, the ants harbor and maintain a bacterium that inhibits a virulent parasitic fungus that could otherwise spread rapidly and take over the colony. A specialized gland on the middle segment of their body secretes an antibiotic that is used to inoculate each piece of vegetation brought into the colony. More impressively, leafcutter ants deploy antibiotic strategies to suppress the growth of harmful microorganisms. (When the ants are removed, the pH jumps to 7 or 8 and the garden is overrun by noxious microbial “weeds.”) Leafcutter ants control the chemical properties of their subterranean world, carefully maintaining their gardens at an acidic pH of 5, which is ideal for their crop but detrimental to alien fungi. The waste is sterilized before it is even taken to the refuse chamber, echoing the way we now wipe down our groceries before bringing them into our homes.Įlsewhere in the nest, painstaking efforts are made to keep the chambers clean and productive. As ants weed and groom the gardens, removing parasites and spent fungus, they load the contaminated material into a special compartment in their mouth that contains an antibiotic. With Atta cephalotes, a species I worked with in Costa Rica, the midden is located underground in special chambers. To ensure that garbage collectors returning from the dump do not infect the colony, a two-tiered labor system is used: refuse is first gathered and taken to a collection point, and then brought to the dump by ants that live outside. Leafcutter ants of the species Atta colombica dispose of their waste outside the nest. Waste removal is critical to the survival of any dense population center, be it city or colony. They also clean the colony and take out the garbage. Just as we bathe and (with increased frequency) scrub our hands, ants wash their bodies and groom each other. Good hygiene is essential for them, as it is for us. Ant colonies are emergent systems whose challenges are addressed not by top down command and centralized control, but through a network of diverse inputs that connect and collaborate. Leafcutter ants are fungus farmers, and these exacting conditions are essential for the growth of their crop-but they also create ideal grounds for invading microbes.Īnts do not have the option to socially distance, but over the course of evolution they have crafted their own solutions to some of the very problems we encounter today. Like us, the ants engineer their own climate, although unlike us, this engineering is not harmful to them or to the larger ecosystem. The colony is a warm, humid, underground metropolis in which the atmospheric balance of oxygen to carbon dioxide is precisely controlled. ![]() Wilson called “the most complex social creatures other than humans.” They live in massive colonies with up to eight million members that can spread over thirty square feet and be twelve feet deep. To begin to answer this question, consider leafcutter ants, which eminent biologist E.O. How do they prevent deadly microbes from blooming into pandemics? The features of city life-dense urban environments, frequent physical contact, fixed homes used day after day-have countless advantages, but as we have witnessed with the Covid-19 pandemic, they make it much easier for disease to spread to all members of a society, whether anthropoid or arthropod.Īnts have lived in crowded colonies for millions of years. As our cities grow larger and humanity becomes a predominantly urban species, we live more and more like ants do. We have compared ourselves to ants, in our stories and fables, for thousands of years.
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