Enlarge / Scientists have noticed wound care and selective amputation in Florida carpenter ants. (credit score: Danny Buffat/CC BY-SA)
Florida carpenter ants (Camponotus floridanus) selectively deal with the wounded limbs of their fellow ants, in response to a brand new paper revealed within the journal Present Biology. Relying on the placement of the harm, the ants both lick the injuries to scrub them or chew off the affected limb to maintain an infection from spreading. The remedy is surprisingly efficient, with survival charges of round 90–95 % for amputee ants.
“After we’re speaking about amputation habits, that is actually the one case wherein a classy and systematic amputation of a person by one other member of its species happens within the animal kingdom,” mentioned co-author Erik Frank, a behavioral ecologist on the College of Würzburg in Germany. “The truth that the ants are capable of diagnose a wound, see if it is contaminated or sterile, and deal with it accordingly over lengthy durations of time by different people—the one medical system that may rival that may be the human one.”
Frank has been learning numerous species of ants for a few years. Late final 12 months, he co-authored a paper detailing how Matabele ants (Megaponera analis) south of the Sahara can inform if an injured comrade’s wound is contaminated or not, due to chemical modifications within the hydrocarbon profile of the ant cuticle when a wound will get contaminated. These ants solely eat termites, however termites have highly effective jaws and use them to defend in opposition to predators, so there’s a excessive danger of harm to searching ants.
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