Brood Parasitic Ant Colony
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A Brood Parasitic Ant Colony is an ant colony that is a brood parasite.
- AKA: Slave-Making Ant.
- See: Host (Biology), Obligate Parasite, Facultative Parasite, Convergent Evolution.
References
2014
- (Wikipedia, 2014) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave-making_ant Retrieved:2014-4-21.
- Slave-making ants are brood parasites that capture brood of other ant species to increase the worker force of their colony. After emerging in the slave-maker nest, slave workers work as if they were in their own colony, while parasite workers only concentrate on replenishing the labor force from neighboring host nests, a process called slave raiding.
The slave-making ants are specialized to parasite a single species or a group of related species, and they are often close relatives to their hosts, which is typical for social parasites. The slave-makers may either be permanent social parasites (thus depending on enslaved hosts ants throughout their whole lives) or facultative slave-makers. The behavior is unusual among ants but has evolved several times independently.
- Slave-making ants are brood parasites that capture brood of other ant species to increase the worker force of their colony. After emerging in the slave-maker nest, slave workers work as if they were in their own colony, while parasite workers only concentrate on replenishing the labor force from neighboring host nests, a process called slave raiding.