Diddy but deadly, suicide bomber ant that covers foes with toxic ‘curry goo’
BIOLOGISTS have discovered a species of ant that explodes when it gets angry – coating its enemies with a toxic liquid that smells like curry.
The ‘suicide bomber ant’ lives in the forest canopy in Borneo. When threatened by other insects, it can rupture its body by violently contracting its abdominal muscles until they split.
The explosion kills the ant instantly and releases a sticky yellow liquid it produces from enlarged glands behind the jaw.
The ‘goo’ can kill or injure the enemy. In addition to that, the ant’s jaws lock on to its opponent when it dies – leaving the attacked insect, if it is not killed, having to haul around the carcass.
In the forest canopy, the encounter often leaves the attacked insects – and the dead ‘kamikaze’ ants – tumbling to the forest floor where they are an easy target for other predators.
Researchers from the Natural History Museum Vienna, who found the ant, have named it Colobopsis explodens after its bizarre behaviour.
Entomologist Alice Laciny said the yellow liquid released in the explosion had a ‘distinct and not unpleasant smell that’s strangely reminiscent of curry’.
Self-sacrifice in animals is rare, but not unknown. Some termite species also explode – but in these cases it is to defend their mounds.
The exploding ants’ suicides take place in one-on-one confrontations far from their nests, but evolutionary theory suggests that as the self-sacrificing worker ants are sterile, they are more likely to carry out ‘altruistic’ behaviour because they do not need to stay alive to pass on their genes.