In a rare example of biological altruism, sick young ants appear to deliberately signal for their own death to protect the rest of their colony from a deadly disease, new research finds. According to ...

Ant colonies operate as tightly coordinated "superorganisms" with individual ants working together, much like the cells of a body, to ensure their collective health. Researchers at the Institute of ...

Sick young ants release a smell to tell worker ants to destroy them to protect the colony from infection, scientists said Tuesday, adding that queens do not seem to commit this act of self-sacrifice.

New research shows that terminally ill baby ants tell other ants to kill them, potentially protecting the rest of the colony from their infection. In a study published today in the journal Nature ...

If you watch an ant colony over a length of time, the activities appear to move from random to organized. They are doing things with purpose. There are those caring for the babies, those grooming and ...

Illness usually brings trouble in the animal world. A weak member may be pushed aside, attacked, or left behind. Many animals go to great lengths to hide sickness. But for creatures bound by family, ...

Life in an ant colony is a symphony of subtle interactions between insects acting in concert, more like cells in tissue than independent organisms bunking in a colony. Now, researchers have discovered ...

Ant larvae metamorphose into adults by pupating. It was assumed that these inert pupae don’t play a role in the wider ant colony, but a team of researchers have found that they actually secrete a ...

Scientists describe the behavior as "altruistic signalling," a form of social immunity in eusocial insects A new research study finds infected ant pupae emit a chemical signal that prompts workers to ...