Crazy Ants v/s Fire Ants : A story of chemical warfare and epic battles fought across centuries. Of an arms race which escalated to using your own venom on yourself. The front lines spewing venom at each other. This story makes our human wars seem like minor skirmishes.

Article Extract: The two species march to war across an arid landscape. When they meet, it is an immediate mixture of carnage and chemical warfare. Both sides swarm the front lines, spewing corrosive venom and dying by the thousands. But while the melee may look uneven at first glance—one species has reigned this foreign soil uncontested for decades, while the other is a smaller and weaker newcomer—the odd newcomer is the clear victor when the dust settles.

"Other ant species typically avoid fire ants," says LeBrun, "fire ant venom is so toxic that it's not something other ants will confront. But these crazy ants will just charge on into the fray with what seems like wild, willful abandon."

The key to their success, is the crazy ants' chemical defenses. Once a crazy ant suffers what should be a fatal dose of fire ant venom, the ant quickly retreats from the battle to apply its own caustic venom onto its body. For reasons the researchers still don't quite understand, the crazy ant venom acts like a healing salve, neutralizing the effect of the fire ant's toxic ammunition. "And when they're done, they'll run right back in to fight and take on another fire ant," LeBrun says. This tactic is so effective that in the places where both kinds ants live, "the tawny crazy ants are just steamrolling the fire ant populations."

"One of the really fascinating things is that these two species share a long, common evolutionary history," Holway says. "They're both from some of the same parts of South America. So this detoxification ability in the crazy ants is something that might have emerged from interactions with the fire ants over many millennia." In other words: While the U.S. is a new battleground for these two species, theirs is an age-old conflict.

Article Link: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/how-crazy-ants-crush-fire-ants-their-own-venom-is-the-antidote-16488787?click=pm_news

Sciencemag paper: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/02/12/science.1245833.abstract

Pic from main article, courtesy Science/AAAS.

Youtube video link: Fire ants vs. Rasberry Crazy Ants

Additional reading: http://www.livescience.com/34491-crazy-ants-driving-out-fire-ants.html

#ants #fireants #crazyants #science #warfare