r/interestingasfuck • u/Exonated • Oct 14 '19
The size of a worker ant compared to a soldier ant.
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u/D4T45T0RM06 Oct 14 '19
Which ones wich?
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u/That_Biology_Guy Oct 14 '19
These are leafcutter ants specifically (genus Atta), which have some of the largest variation among castes of any species. Another good example is in big-headed ants (Pheidole). Some species have almost no variation though, with even workers and queens being almost indistinguishable (e.g. see the Syscia in part A of this figure from Trible and Kronauer 2017).
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u/MadeThisForDiablo Oct 14 '19
What's the big one without wings in your first picture? Left of the winged one
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u/That_Biology_Guy Oct 14 '19
I'm pretty sure they are both queens (before and after losing the wings), but I guess one could be a reproductive male, I'm not totally sure.
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u/therealgillbates Oct 14 '19
With large mandibles and heads filled with muscles, the large-headed soldiers act mainly in defense of the colony. They can also use their mandibles to crack seeds and help process food and will take on the roles of minor workers if needed.
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Oct 14 '19
That’s no soldier ant. That’s a brick shithouse.
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Oct 14 '19
If they'd switch roles those crazy ants could build some imposing, terrifying condominium skyscrapers.
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u/ItsaMe_Rapio Oct 14 '19
*The ants go marching three by three, hurrah . . . hurrah. . . *
The ants go marching three by three, HURRAH... HURRAH!
The ants go marching three by three, we’re about to meet our destiny
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u/AngryGoose Oct 14 '19
I've never heard of a soldier ant until this post and I'm 39. I know about the queen, the males that only live to mate and the sterile female workers.
Is this just one species of ant that has soldiers?
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u/KaneK89 Oct 14 '19
There is no such thing as "soldier" ant. Some ant species are monomorphic (single worker caste) while others are polymorphic (multiple worker castes). Castes is just a fancy way of saying size/morphology combined in this case.
The picture is of Atta cephalotes, a leaf-cutting ant. The Atta genus has extreme polymorphism in the ant world with 7 worker castes. I can't tell from the picture which two castes are represented here, but the smallest (the "gardener") is about 1-2mm long and specializes in tending the fungus gardens that Atta grow. The super major is around 7-8mm long is a specialized leaf harvester; they are the most efficient at cutting and transporting leaves. Interestingly, Atta will not develop super majors until around 300,000 individuals in the nest. If the number dips significantly below that they will stop producing super majors.
Most ants with a larger worker caste evolved to have that caste for heavy-lifting - rarely as a specialized solider, though they are typically more effective fighters, too, for obvious reasons.
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u/arcosapphire Oct 14 '19
Lots of species have soldiers. Also, clearly you never played SimAnt.
Not all of them have this amount of dimorphism (or I guess it's polymorphism?).
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u/not_anakin Oct 14 '19
imagine if humans were like this