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FOT Community => Links => Topic started by: Trembling Eagle on November 15, 2008, 12:18:18 PM

Title: Enslaved Ants Revolt
Post by: Trembling Eagle on November 15, 2008, 12:18:18 PM
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2008/08/18/enslaved-ants-revolt-slaughter-their-captors-children/


(http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/files/2008/08/temnothorax220.jpg)


Many ants are known to be slave masters—their raiding parties steal the young from colonies of rival ants and raise the foreigners as workers in their own nest. However, Susanne Foitzik of Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich may be the first researcher to study an ant slave rebellion.

The rebels are Temnothorax, tiny ants only about the size of the comma in this sentence. Their captors are called Protomognathus americanus, and despite being only a little larger, these bullies enslave the smaller insects. Inside the larger ants’ nest, which is built inside an acorn, the smaller ants are put to work caring for their masters’ young. But sometimes, Temnothorax slaves revolt against their servile existence and slaughter the Protomognathus larvae they’re supposed to be babysitting, as well as some of the enemy workers.
Title: Re: Enslaved Ants Revolt
Post by: daveB from Oakland on November 15, 2008, 01:02:12 PM
Acorns are breeding grounds for socialism and class warfare, as we learned in this recent election season.
Title: Re: Enslaved Ants Revolt
Post by: Come on, Jason on November 15, 2008, 06:56:12 PM
Who does that bug think he is, Ant Turner?! (http://www.instantrimshot.com/)

(...) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Turner)
Title: Re: Enslaved Ants Revolt
Post by: Trembling Eagle on November 15, 2008, 06:57:47 PM
Enslaved Ant Revolt is a kick ass name for a band though
Title: Re: Enslaved Ants Revolt
Post by: chrisfoll577 on November 16, 2008, 11:55:40 AM

The rebels are Temnothorax, tiny ants only about the size of the comma in this sentence. Their captors are called Protomognathus americanus, and despite being only a little larger, these bullies enslave the smaller insects. Inside the larger ants’ nest, which is built inside an acorn, the smaller ants are put to work caring for their masters’ young. But sometimes, Temnothorax slaves revolt against their servile existence and slaughter the Protomognathus larvae they’re supposed to be babysitting, as well as some of the enemy workers.

This phenomenon is vaguely reminiscent of the Passover story in Exodus.
Title: Re: Enslaved Ants Revolt
Post by: Sarah on November 16, 2008, 12:57:50 PM
Who does that bug think he is, Ant Turner?! (http://www.instantrimshot.com/)

(...) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Turner)

Anagram humor.  Can't beat it.