Fun fact: During the Kickstarter days of EoTU, Formica Sanguinea were instead Polyergus Lucidus, but they were scrapped because the Sanguinea were the parasites of Formica Fusca.
Oh, nice!! Yeah, I am more familiar with Polyergus ants than Formica sanguinea, so it was nice to have an ant I am less familiar with being the "ant-agonists" of the level. As an aside, I love the fact that the Polyergus ants are known as Amazon Ants.
Bit of a weird question, would the slave driver (or similar) ants exhibit altruism to help there preys colony develop and not get wiped out (kind of like a primitive version of animal husbandry)?
That is a great question, President. I don't believe they would have any seemingly-altruistic behaviour like you describe. If they encounter a colony that is just starting out and they happen to overexploit the colony (and they die out), oh well - another colony will be around shortly. And I think that is what this mission is illustrating - the risk to a new colony from factors like the slavemaker ants. But once you are large enough, such factors are simply nuisances rather than real threats.
We see this more in other ant species. There is a fungus growing ant species that is basically raised like bees (or more accurately aphids cause ants) for a larger ant species. The larger species can’t cultivate fungus, but they can feed on the fungus. The fungus growers benefit cause they are protected from army ants with a species of army ant being specialised in hunting them, the larger ant species violently defends both the colonies from intrusion from these army ants. However like in aphids, the larger ants will sometimes eat larvae and will clip the wings of alates to prevent them from spreading out too far
@victory8928 Well now, that was a very interesting read that sent me down a new rabbit-/ant-hole! I believe you are referring to Megalomyrmex (e.g. M. adamsae)? Interesting that they seem to also be classified as social parasites, which is a fascinating form of parasitism. Thanks for the very interesting reply: this gives me something more to talk about during next Friday's video (which happens to be the Leafcutter-Army Ants mission.
Great question! Most of the slavemaking ants (including the Formica sanguinea slavers we have here) are not particularly host-specific, and will go for more than one species. This makes sense, as you are completely screwed if you only target one species but that species disappears from an area. But they generally target species species within a Genus or Family, so I don't think any slavemaking ants target fire ants (way too aggressive to raid successfully), but a few would target various Formica species. If you target more than one species, you are more likely to establish and survive in an area, as there are many different colonies to choose from, and wherever you establish there is very likely a colony you can raid. I hope that makes sense?
Fun fact: During the Kickstarter days of EoTU, Formica Sanguinea were instead Polyergus Lucidus, but they were scrapped because the Sanguinea were the parasites of Formica Fusca.
Oh, nice!! Yeah, I am more familiar with Polyergus ants than Formica sanguinea, so it was nice to have an ant I am less familiar with being the "ant-agonists" of the level. As an aside, I love the fact that the Polyergus ants are known as Amazon Ants.
Yey another episode
These episodes are so much fun to make!😁
Bit of a weird question, would the slave driver (or similar) ants exhibit altruism to help there preys colony develop and not get wiped out (kind of like a primitive version of animal husbandry)?
That is a great question, President. I don't believe they would have any seemingly-altruistic behaviour like you describe. If they encounter a colony that is just starting out and they happen to overexploit the colony (and they die out), oh well - another colony will be around shortly. And I think that is what this mission is illustrating - the risk to a new colony from factors like the slavemaker ants. But once you are large enough, such factors are simply nuisances rather than real threats.
We see this more in other ant species. There is a fungus growing ant species that is basically raised like bees (or more accurately aphids cause ants) for a larger ant species. The larger species can’t cultivate fungus, but they can feed on the fungus.
The fungus growers benefit cause they are protected from army ants with a species of army ant being specialised in hunting them, the larger ant species violently defends both the colonies from intrusion from these army ants. However like in aphids, the larger ants will sometimes eat larvae and will clip the wings of alates to prevent them from spreading out too far
@victory8928 Well now, that was a very interesting read that sent me down a new rabbit-/ant-hole! I believe you are referring to Megalomyrmex (e.g. M. adamsae)? Interesting that they seem to also be classified as social parasites, which is a fascinating form of parasitism. Thanks for the very interesting reply: this gives me something more to talk about during next Friday's video (which happens to be the Leafcutter-Army Ants mission.
Do slaver ants go for other ant species like fire ants or wood ants
Great question! Most of the slavemaking ants (including the Formica sanguinea slavers we have here) are not particularly host-specific, and will go for more than one species. This makes sense, as you are completely screwed if you only target one species but that species disappears from an area. But they generally target species species within a Genus or Family, so I don't think any slavemaking ants target fire ants (way too aggressive to raid successfully), but a few would target various Formica species. If you target more than one species, you are more likely to establish and survive in an area, as there are many different colonies to choose from, and wherever you establish there is very likely a colony you can raid. I hope that makes sense?
@@AnEcologistPlays it does actually thank you and yeah fire ants are way more aggressive than leaf cutters and black ants woouldnt mess with them
Halo
Ola, Kaiser! How are you doing?😁
south african yippe
Oh yes, representing the southern tip of Africa.😎