This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Some insects, including honeybees and ants, live in highly organized colonies where individuals take on specific roles. In many ant societies, young adult workers typically care for developing young inside the nest before beginning to forage, or search for food, outside it.
Some ant species, however, start hunting for food as soon as they reach adulthood, without undergoing a transition period. One example is Stigmatomma pallipes, a species belonging to a group commonly called Dracula ants because adults can pierce the skin of their developing young and drink a bloodlike fluid called hemolymph. The age-independent behavior of these ants was first reported in a Science paper published in 1978 by Dr.
James Traniello, who is now a professor of biology at Boston University. Researchers at Boston University recently tried to better understand how the brain development of S. pallipes workers contributes to this early readiness for work. Their findings, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggest that regions in the brains of S. pallipes reach their largest size during the pupal stage, when immature ants transition into adulthood.
"In social insects, adult workers typically change social roles as they age—progressing from nursing tasks to foraging—a transition accompanied by changes in neuroanatomy," Frank Azorsa, first author of the paper, told Phys.org. "Young honeybee workers, for example, nurse the brood and transition to foraging as they age. However, some species exhibit precocial behavior." This precocial behavior (i.e., the ability to perform foraging tasks soon after emerging as an adult) is reported in at least six species of ants.
One of these ants (S. pallipes) exhibits social and ecological traits thought to resemble those of early ants. "The larvae actively feed," said Azorsa. "Secondly, workers sting and paralyze centipedes, which are then brought to the nest to directly provision larvae.
Foraging and nursing tasks are thus coupled in this ant. Workers also feed on larval hemolymph (hence the name 'Dracula ant'). This species has small subterranean colonies of fewer than 20 workers." Finally, this species does not show temporal polyethism, indicating the absence of age-related task specialization.
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