| Re: Are common house ants cannibals? |
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Group: sci.bio.entomology.misc · Group Profile
Author: mmmm Date: Aug 23, 2008 19:25
On Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:49:31 -0500, "HeyBub" NOSPAMgmail.com>
wrote:
>
>> My question..... Are ants cannibals or did the inadvertant pickling
>> entice them to cannibalism?
>
>Your ants are either omnivores or carried away the bodies of their loved
>ones for proper Christian burials.
>
>I say this because cremation is probably not an option for an ant.
I don't know about most ants, but in the tropics, like Costa Rica,
there are leaf-cutter ants, that cut little crescents out of leaves,
bring the pieces back to the hill and feed them to the fungus that
they cultivate. As the fungus grows, they eat some of it, take the
waste out of the hill and pile it outside. Amazingly complicated I
think.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leafcutter_ant
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