Epic Ant Battles End in Sudden Truce
Battles between colonies of Acacia ants end suddenly when ants stop fighting and the colonies merge
Acacia ants' ferocious fights end suddenly with colonies merging
Acacia ants live in the hollow thorns of acacia trees throughout Africa. The ants aggressively defend their colonies, which can encompass one or many trees. When a colony is disturbed, often by foraging elephants knocking one tree colony into another, the ants instantly wage battle that results in many thousands of ants fighting to the death.
But a new study by Dr. Kathleen Rudolph, a researcher in the Department of Biology at the University of Florida in Gainesville, has found that these battles between rival colonies end in a sudden and mysterious truce, in which the winners and losers unite.
It is possible that the pheromone odours that distinguish one colony from the other become confused in the physical conflict. The ants can no longer distinguish friend from foe and simply become one colony.
Related Links
- Paper in Behavioural Ecology
- University of Florida release
- Cosmos magazine story