2024-07-07 18:27:38
The researchers found that C. floridanus identify limb wounds in other ants of their species and treat them by cleaning or amputating the limbs.
The team published its findings žurnale „Current Biology“.
“When we talk about amputation, this is literally the only case in the animal kingdom where an individual performs a complex and systematic amputation on another member of its own species,” says the study’s lead author, Erik Frank, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Würzburg in Germany.
in 2023 The team led by E. Frank found that a species of African ants Megaponera analyst can treat infected wounds of their species’ roaches with an antimicrobial substance produced in their glands. C. floridanus doesn’t have analogous glands, so the team wanted to find out how the species deals with the wounds of its colony members.
Specifically, the researchers looked at treatment methods for two types of leg wounds: wounds on the thigh and wounds on the calf.
In their experiments, they observed that ants treated their nest members’ thigh wounds by cleaning the wound with their mouths and amputating the leg by biting through it, while they treated calf wounds by cleaning alone.
After the surgeries, the survival rate of the ants improved significantly. For thigh injuries, amputations improved ant survival rates from less than 40 percent. to 90-95 percent, and for lower leg injuries survival after wound debridement improved from 15 percent. up to 75 percent
After studying the micro-computed tomography scans of the ants, the researchers speculate that damage to the thigh muscles, which pump blood, slows blood flow. This would mean that the contaminated blood takes longer to enter the body, giving the ants enough time to amputate the limb.
The legs of ants have relatively little muscle tissue, so infections can spread more quickly. This means that amputation would take too long for the ants to stop the spread of harmful bacteria, so instead they focus on cleaning the wound.
“Ants are able to identify a wound, see if it’s infected or sterile, and treat it accordingly – the only medical system that can compete with that would be the human one,” says E. Frank.
Ants’ ability to selectively recognize and heal wounds is innate, researchers say.
The researchers are now continuing their research with other ant species that do not have special antimicrobial glands – to find out if other ants are also capable of performing the surgeries, according to Live Science.
2024-07-07 18:27:38