repost remix: Photo shows suicide bomber ant self-detonating
 

Photo shows suicide bomber ant self-detonating

http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/MSNBC/C...a.grid-6x2.jpg

Terrorism doesn't just exist among humans, according to ecologist Mark Moffett, and he has the photos to prove it.

In his new book " Adventures Among Ants" (University of California Press, 2010), Moffett describes — and shows — how some ants will commit suicide in a very dramatic way while taking others out with them.

Moffett told me that in this photo, "the reddish worker cylindricus ant has detonated — rupturing her body to release a toxic yellow glue that kills her and the enemy instantly."

Just before this picture was snapped in Borneo, Moffett had set a trap at the base of a tree colonized by cylindricus ants. The trap was simply some honey that he drizzled around the tree trunk.
He describes what happened next:

"After an hour, weaver ants along with another species of carpenter ant located the bait and started arriving at the cylindricus-occupied tree. One of them started up the trunk, but then came down again. That one would live another day. Another climbed a bit higher and attempted to walk by a cylindricus minor worker. Just as I clicked the shutter there was a splash of yellow, and both ants were immobilized in a sticky, grotesque tableau."

In his book, Moffett describes yet another species of cylindricus ant that includes "living doors." The major worker's head flattens into a disc, he explains, "enabling her to serve as a living door to nests in hollow branches. She allows her nestmates inside only after they identify themselves by tapping the blockading disc with their antennae."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38243325...ience-science/

I guess the third time is the charm.

Threepost FTW!
You sir have scored an e-turkey.
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Oh geez, not again

Three-post Tom ftw!
Bwahahahahaha!

;)
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Well done. Rep.

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/8894/kaneklapqo6.gif

ROFL
You're a good sport man. The new story is interesting. That gif never gets old btw.
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With so little football news coming out right now (& with the PFT story posting today), I didn't think that I'd have to look past page 2 of CP for the story. But there it is on pg 4. Of course, PFT was a little slow compared to Lenny P's original article. The posters here are way too quick for this old dog. Cheers to all the good folks here at CP: :BLVD: