How ants mutilate their injured mates to save their lives

It looks like a scene from a war movie: a wounded man enters the emergency room. Amputation By a friend to save his life. With the difference that the heroes are not human, but Ants.

Although it’s not the first time wound care has been observed in ants, the scientists say their discovery is the first example of a non-human animal performing amputations to treat leg wounds and prevent infection from occurring or spreading. guardian.

“Ants are able to some extent to diagnose wounds and treat them accordingly, in order to maximize the patient’s survival,” said lead author of the study, Dr. Hashim.

Writing in the magazine Present biologyFrank and colleagues reported how ants of this species infect Camponotus floridianus (Florida carpenter ants, as they are called) on their right hind leg and then watched the reactions of their nestmates for a week.

The results revealed that 13 out of 17 ants with thigh wounds were mutilated by their peers, with their limbs. Cut in the round – Prominence of the femur on the outer side of the hip.

“Other ants begin licking the wound before moving up to the trochanter. They then bite the affected leg repeatedly until it is amputated,” the team wrote.

In contrast, the nine ants with wounds to the leg or lower leg were not amputated. In these cases, the rest of the ants tended to the wounds by licking them.

The team recorded similar results when the experiment was repeated using ants with infected wounds.

“Treating the injured is important.”

Another series of experiments revealed that isolated ants with infected wounds were more likely to die than those with sterile wounds. However, their survival rates improved significantly if the infected ants were returned to their colony—suggesting that treatments provided by their peers were beneficial—or if the researchers amputated the affected limb.

According to Frank, ants are more susceptible to infection. Territorial disputes with neighboring coloniesAnd healing the wounded is important. “We see in Camponotus species that about 10-11% of ants that go hunting or foraging carry an injury from the day before,” he said. “So they are still an important part of the colony.”