Nature & Environment

New species of 'exploding ant' discovered

By T.K. Randall
April 20, 2018 ·  10 comments

The species is native to the rainforests of Borneo. Image Credit: Laciny et al., ZooKeys, 2018 Unlike other ants which typically bite in an effort to deter attackers, these bizarre tree-dwellers latch on to an enemy, tear open their own body and then secrete a toxic substance all over them.

Unsurprisingly, the defending ant does not survive the process.

Named Colobopsis explodens, the species was discovered by PhD student Alice Laciny and colleagues at the Natural History Museum in Vienna.

"It's a bit like the mechanism of when a bee stings," she said.

"An ant colony shouldn't be treated as a family of individuals, but really like a super organism, and each ant acts more like a cell in a body and it has its own role to play."


Source: ABC.net.au | Comments (10)

Tags: Ant, Borneo