Headless Ants!
No, this isn’t just another scary halloween costume idea. You can actually find headless ants in nature! Well, maybe not LIVE headless ants but let’s not get “ahead” of ourselves. Get it?! yeah…
We’re talking about fire ants here…the ruthless, venemous pests that live in the southwest and have a stinging bite. So why would this big fire ant have anything to fear from the tiny, smaller-than-a-grain-of-rice phorid fly? Well, it turns out that the phorid fly actually has a pretty strange nest preference (or where it chooses to lay its eggs). The phorid fly actually lands on the fire ant and deposits eggs in its chest.
Sounds a little disturbing, but how does it go from this to causing ant decapitation? Once the baby flies hatch, they eat the ant from the inside out and this eventually causes its head to fall off. What the ants don’t know is that their own powerful venom is working against them. Entomologists have done studies on these ants and flies, placing electrodes on the flies and exposing them to different fluids from the ants. They were able to record which fluids got the flies most excited, and the scientists found that it was the ant’s venom trail. Flies are then able to follow the ants easily and then lay their eggs, ultimately leading to the ant’s demise.
So don’t forget…never discount the little guy, because you never know what he’s capable of! Who needs scary Halloween stories when you can just look to nature and find something just as chilling?
sciencenewsforkids.org
