Enslaved Kill Their Captors' Young
Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 10:25 am
At lesat there's one N. American slave maker who's paying a heavy price for their enslaving of others.
Species such as the Protomognathus americanus, a notorious slavemaker in North America that relies on its subjects to survive, have driven neighbouring populations to devise counter measures that ensure their own survival. No longer could the common worker ant idly sit by and allow the slavemaker to reduce it to a species of day care providers -- what is referred to as "brood parasitism", where slaves are forced to tend to their captors' young.
"Parasite pressure has led to the development of defensive strategies in hosts," says the study, "which, in turn, resulted in the evolution of counter-adaptations in parasites, a process which may lock both species in a coevolutionary dynamic, potentially escalating in an evolutionary arms race."
Ant slaves trapped in their oppressors' nests covertly kill off the offspring they are left to care for in acts of rebellion that are part of an evolutionary ant "arms race" (Wired UK)
Species such as the Protomognathus americanus, a notorious slavemaker in North America that relies on its subjects to survive, have driven neighbouring populations to devise counter measures that ensure their own survival. No longer could the common worker ant idly sit by and allow the slavemaker to reduce it to a species of day care providers -- what is referred to as "brood parasitism", where slaves are forced to tend to their captors' young.
"Parasite pressure has led to the development of defensive strategies in hosts," says the study, "which, in turn, resulted in the evolution of counter-adaptations in parasites, a process which may lock both species in a coevolutionary dynamic, potentially escalating in an evolutionary arms race."
Ant slaves trapped in their oppressors' nests covertly kill off the offspring they are left to care for in acts of rebellion that are part of an evolutionary ant "arms race" (Wired UK)