It’s not easy to be an insect, particularly one that’s as small as an Ant. The list of possible predators is long for these tiny creatures, so it’s not surprising that they’ve crafted several defense mechanisms that include hurtful bites, painful stings, and dominating enemies in sheer numbers.
A newly discovered ant species goes far over when it detects danger. It explodes, killing itself, and smothers enemies with a poisonous yellow goo. It is an act that is a supreme display of self-sacrifice in order to defend its colony.
The ants of courage are the most recent new species to join the group Colobopsis cylindrica, which is also known by the name “the exploding ants,” according to a thorough study of the insects that was published today within ZooKeys, an open access peer-reviewed scientific journal. They are found in the forests of Southeast Asia; the tree-dwelling insects were known as “Yellow Goo” before researchers appropriately identified them as Colobopsis explosionnsAlice Laciny, who is the lead author of the study, said in The Washington Post. They’re the only species of exploding ant that has been discovered in the last 30 years, Laciny said.
The tiny ants with a reddish-brown color look like other ants. However, their bodies are stuffed with glandular sacs that contain a lethal fluid, according to Laciny, an entomologist from the Natural History Museum in Vienna and also a doctoral student at Vienna’s University of Vienna.
In the hierarchy of the ants, the ants are considered to be minor players as a colony’s squatters. There’s nothing cinematic about the last act of heroics. “The explosion is not as dramatic as people think it is,” Laciny declared.
The ants instead strike the enemy and then incline their backs to the side and then contract their muscles to the point that hard that their skin breaks open, which releases the goo Laciny explained. Its sticky, quiescent substance strangely is scented with an odd “spice-like, curry-like” scent and is then either killed by the attacker or impedes its attacks, she explained.
Exploding behavior of the ant in an experimental setting with a weaver ant.
If the enemies are able to survive this first layer of protection, they’ll be confronted into contact with the colony’s largest workers, as well as their larger heads that are shaped like plugs, researchers have written. They are also known by the name of “doorkeepers,” these ants block the entrance of the nest as another security line.
Though exploding ants were first discovered by scientists over 100 years ago, much was available about them, such as the different types of ants that existed.
In 2014, Laciny and a team of researchers — comprised of botanists and entomologists as well as microbiologists and chemists of Austria, Thailand, and Brunei — decided to study the explosion of bugs, as described in the review by the journal’s editor. The researchers found that there are at least 15 distinct species of self-sacrificing insects like this one.
Despite the amount of studies that have been conducted and published, Laciny believes there’s still plenty to be discovered about the explosion of ants. Colobopsis explodes and is predicted to sit at the forefront of all.
Two separate research teams at New York University and Rockefeller University claim to have created genetically engineered Ants. (Video: Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)
The newly discovered ant species was chosen as the species of the group’s model after scientists determined it “particularly prone to self-sacrifice when threatened by enemy arthropods, as well as intruding researchers,” the abstract stated. In this way, it will also serve as a model for further research on the exploding ants, said Laciny.
“They’re really nice to watch in their exploding behavior,” she added. “They are very easy to do this. There are species that aren’t really into explosions as much.”
Yet, Laciny said these ants won’t explode due to any reason. They only explode in response to attacks, which is a “form of active self-sacrifice” that causes death. Ants must “really be provoked,” she added.
Minor workers aren’t in a position to reproduce, and that is the reason they are able to be killed. Yet, they play a vital role in the longevity of species. Laciny claimed that their sudden loss helps ensure the survival of a colony so that future generations can reproduce. “Their way of protecting their genes is protecting their sisters.”
“Imagine a single ant is like a cell in a human body,” she explained. “The explosive workers function like immune cells. They give their lives to ward off danger.”
