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Ants are fairly organized little creatures. Very social insects, they know how to forage, build complicated nests, steal your pantry snacks, and generally care for queens and the colony, all working together.
Leaf-cutter ants increase this cooperation by several notches. Colonies of leaf-cutter ants like Acromyrmex echinatior can contain millions of ants, divided into four castes all of which have different roles in maintaining a garden of mushrooms that ants eat.
These breeding ants can make a great team of gardeners, but that doesn’t mean they don’t end up in the occasional junkyard, and living in such large groups usually means facing an increased risk of agents as well. pathogens.
For these reasons, a little bit of protection never goes astray, and while scientists aren’t quite sure why, it seems these little guys need enough protection to evolve their very own paraphernalia. -natural balls.
A team led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison analyzed this “ whitish granular coating ” on A. echinatior and came to the conclusion that the coating is self-made bio-mineral body armor – the first known example in the insect world.
“We have been working on these leaf-cutting ants for many years, particularly focusing on this fascinating association they have with bacteria that produce antibiotics that help them fight disease,” author told ScienceAlert. University of Wisconsin-Madison principal and microbiologist, Cameron Currie.
“It was in our effort to identify what the ant might produce for the bacteria [first author Li] Hongjie discovered the biomineral crystals on the surface of the ant. “
The team took a deep look at the mineral layer that covers the ant’s exoskeleton, using electron microscopy, electron backscatter diffraction and a number of other techniques. They found that the coating consisted of a thin layer of rhombohedral magnesium calcite crystals of about 3 to 5 microns.
Above: shining armor. Bottom: SEM image of the coating. (Li et al., Nature Communications, 2020)
You may be more familiar with the biomineral skeletons of crustaceans such as the hard shells of lobsters. However, insects evolved from crustaceans, so it makes sense that some retained an armor-like trait.
The team also bred the ants to see when this coating occurred and how it protects them – finding that the coating is not present in baby ants, but grows rapidly as the ants mature and this finished coating significantly hardens the exoskeleton.
To confirm this, the researchers put the ants in experimental battles, finding that those with the armor were more protected in combat, as well as pathogens.
“To further test the role of biomineral as a protective armor, we exposed Acromyrmex echinatior the main workers with and without biomineral armor for Atta cephalotes soldiers in ant assault experiments designed to mimic territorial ‘ant wars’ which are a relatively common occurrence in nature, ”the team writes.
“In direct combat with the biggest and the strongest AT. cephalots soldiers, ants with biomineralized cuticles lost significantly fewer body parts and had significantly higher survival rates than ants without biomineral. “
They also found that without the armor, ants were much more likely to be infected with an insect-attacking fungus called Metarhizium anisopliae.
While we don’t understand how this species of leaf-cutting ants evolved this covering, the team thinks it’s probably not the only insect to have developed such protection.
“Given that fungal-growing ants are among the most studied tropical insects,” the team writes, “our finding raises the intriguing possibility that biomineralization of high-magnesium calcite is more prevalent in insects than it was not previously suspected, suggesting a promising avenue for future research. “
While there may be a number of ant species that have a similar coating, with more research the “ armor ” technology could even make the leap to humans – or at least our business.
“We believe there is potential for the material to develop by adding strength to a range of products. It is light and thin,” Currie told ScienceAlert.
“The field of materials science is an exciting field of science.”
The research was published in Nature’s communications.
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