Woe is the insect that crosses the path of the Colobopsis explodens ant.
Scientists exploring the Borneo jungle have just discovered the species, which dwells in the trees, and they were most intrigued by the ant’s unique ability – to explode and shower toxic yellow goo on to its enemies.
Yet as impressive and effective as the detonation is in killing its predators, it is ultimately a suicide defence, for it also explodes the ant’s whole body which ultimately leads to its own demise.
Exploding ants are a rarity and the Colobopsis explodens ant is the first new species to be found since 1935, with the finding published in the journal Zookeys.
The small, reddish ant was discovered living in the treetops of Borneo by a team including Alice Laciny, an entomologist with the Natural History Museum in Vienna, who described how the ants would detonate themselves to save other members of the colony.
When faced with an enemy that will not back down, the Colobopsis explodens will latch onto the insect and bite down on it, angle their backsides directly at their attacker and then flex their abdomens so hard they tear their own bodies apart, releasing the fatal yellow substance stored inside.
Laciny described the bright goo as having “a distinct and not unpleasant smell that’s strangely reminiscent of curry”.
The ability to explode however, is not something all the ants in this species have. It is only the minor workers, all sterile females, who will sacrifice their lives by exploding in order to protect the bigger members of the colony. They were found to be “particularly prone to self-sacrifice” as a defence and would even detonate when the intruding researchers approached.
This suicidal tendency, which is similar to that of a bee delivering a sting when threatened, is called autothysis, and is common in superorganisms like ants, who work as a collective and where the needs of the group are more important than the individual in a colony.
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