Ant queens cannibalise their sick offspring - then ‘recycle’ them | University of Oxford
www.ox.ac.uk
Instead of nurturing their sick young, ant queens eat their infected offspring at the first sign of illness then ‘recycle’ them into producing new eggs, a new study led by the University of Oxford has shown. The findings have been published in Current Biology.
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The original was posted on /r/science by /u/Wagamaga on 2024-09-24 09:12:39+00:00.

Original Title: Instead of nurturing their sick young, ant queens eat their infected offspring at the first sign of illness then ‘recycle’ them into producing new eggs. The queens who cannibalised their infected larvae went on to lay 55% more eggs than non-cannibalising control queens