Ravoux's slavemaker ant
| Ravoux's slavemaker ant | |
|---|---|
 | |
| M. ravouxi worker from Italy | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Subfamily: | Myrmicinae |
| Tribe: | Formicoxenini |
| Genus: | Myrmoxenus |
| Species: | M. ravouxi |
| Binomial name | |
| Myrmoxenus ravouxi (André, 1896) | |
Ravoux's slavemaker ant (Myrmoxenus ravouxi) is a species of slave-making ant endemic to Europe. The species are helotistic, that is, they oppress another species of ant in order to sustain their colony.[1] The queen will fake death to entice ants from another colony to drag her back to their nest, where she awakens and kills the nest's original queen. She will then cover herself in the dead queen's pheromones, and will begin producing eggs. The slavemaker ants then overrun the colony and then find a new colony to take over.
See also
References
- Role of early experience in ant enslavement: a comparative analysis of a host and a non-host species, Rumsaïs Blatrix and Claire Sermage, Front Zool. 2005; 2: 13. Published online 2005 August 2. doi:10.1186/1742-9994-2-13.
- Social Insects Specialist Group 1996. Epimyrma ravouxi. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 2007-07-31.
External links
Media related to Myrmoxenus ravouxi at Wikimedia Commons
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