A Mystery in Weaver Ants

A Mystery in Weaver Ants

Meet the ‘DINA the Queen weaver Ant’

Text: Maria Antony P, Kiruba Solomon Dhas & Thanigaivel 

Photographs: Maria Antony P

Hello readers, I am ‘Dina’ an emerald green or yellow colored queen Asian Weaver Ant ‘Oecophylla smaragdina’. I belong to an arboreal (tree living) and eusocial ant species found in Asian and Australian continents. Me and my family prefer to live in large colonies on trees such as Jamun (Syzygium cumini), Neem (Azadirachta indica), Citrus, Mango (Mangifera indica), Ixora, Morinda, etc. At present my colony is in a very big Jamun tree along the riparian forest in KMTR. My workers use queen larvae to produce silk, with the obtained silk they stitch the leaves of the trees to make our nest. We have four morphologically different members i. queen, ii. Major workers, iii. Minor workers and iv. Male. My major workers are large in size with strong mandibles. They defend and repair my colonies and also go for foraging.

They are the good biochemist and plant physiologist; they know how to choose and pick the suitable leaves to make our nest. They check the age and strength of the leaf which should not dry at least up to the period of six months. So that we can keep our young ones safely at home. Our workers are also great mechanical engineers and biophysist. They are brilliantly bending and uniting leafs in such a way it should not spoil the quality of the leaf and it should fulfil our purpose. As a biophysists they are choosing the nesting site based on availability of light and air movement. They are the most aggressive in my family. They can give you a painful bite and inject irritating sour tasted chemical into your skin. 

Unlike the workers me and my broods are highly palatable that is why we need a lot of protection. Our workers are not your enemies just they want to protect us, though their bite is painful it is harmless and the humans does not know the positive side of the bite. When comparing with the majors, the minors are smaller in size and they take care of me and my brood. They also tend scaly insects and butterfly caterpillars to produce honeydew for the growing larvae. Both the workers are yellowish orange in color. My black colored males are produced from the unfertilized eggs. I am the only fertile female in my new colony. Since there will be only one queen for each colony, we are called Monogyne ants. But When my colony matures, I may have many potential females called ‘callow’ in my nests. We take a variety of non-vegetarian foods which includes any invertebrates and dead animals. The common ecosystem services known to humans rendered by us are innumerable, including our services as pollinators, predators, prey, plant protector and most of them are still unknown by human beings. We are proud to be your earliest agricultural pest controlling agents.

Recently, my colony's major workers found a dead infant Nilgiri Langur (Semnopithecus johnii) a vulnerable arboreal primate, endemic to southern Western Ghats. They immediately started collecting leaves in and around and carried them to the carcass of the infant langur. A team of campers led by ACCC team came on a hike to the riparian forest where we are living. From the team few boys and adults also found the carcass of the infant langur. I heard the boys calling the adults Kiruba anna and Thanigaivel anna. They were very keen in observing the dead animal, they felt sorry for the poor animal. 

They didn’t miss to notice my workers pulling leaves towards the carcass. A boy commented, ‘hey look at those ants, they are pushing the bamboo leaves into the ears’, another called Thanigai anna and told, ‘some ants are covering the mouth and nostrils of the baby monkey’. Yeah, said Thanigai anna and he now sat near the carcass and after observation, he called the boys and pointed the carcass and said ‘look the ants are also covering the anal and genital regions’. I was wondering, what’s happening there, will they find what my workers are doing? Meanwhile, I heard Thanigai explained ‘boys, these ants are wisely covering the external opening (orifices) of the langur’. A boy asked, ‘anna, why do they cover the orifices, whether it’s to prevent the entry of atmospheric air? Thanigai answered, ‘no my dear boy, they are covering the orifices to prevent the emission of decaying foul smells thus preventing the flies from laying the eggs in orifices like eyes, nostrils, mouth, ear canal, nasolacrimal duct (tube connecting tear glands and nostril), anus, genitals, orifices of nipple, orifices of sweat glands and navel and other wounds, look here many leaves are stuffed into the mouth. Boys, have you noticed they are even stitching the visible wounds? Yes! anna, what if flies lay their eggs in the carcass? Boys, ‘the flies eggs hatch into maggots (larva of flies) and they will eat the carcass, in order to stop this and own the flesh for the ants, they are protecting their food from flies’. Oh, great Thanigai! I yelled, yes, after the death of a large vertebrate, they undergo three stages of decomposition, firstly autolysis, secondly bloating and thirdly putrefaction. In the first stage of autolysis, if we didn’t cover the orifices

 

the flies like blowflies, bluebottles, or greenbottles belonging to the family Calliphoridae and flesh flies of the family Sarcophagidae will lay their eggs in the opening, which hatches around 24 hours and goes under the skin to eat the full carcass. But you humans plug the nose and ears of a dead human, as you think it’s not to prevent the entry of atmospheric air inside, instead it is to prevent the escape of microbes and gases produced by microbes present inside the gut. After the death of any living thing, the dead body becomes a complex ecosystem full of competitions. I am proud of you guys; hardly few people have observed this mystery in our life. 

Thanigai and Kiruba along with some boys came next day morning to know the fate of the infant. For their surprise it was not there. They believed that some other carcass eating mammals took it. It’s true. Normally we are the first in noticing the dead carcasses and protecting it from instant decaying by preventing the entry of maggots. But mostly we are able to harvest some hairs or feathers or some bones. Rest will be snatched from us by some larger carnivores. We are not worrying for that, though we are unable to eat that huge meal we are serving as a facilitator to provide the meal to one who deserve it. Here I want to appreciate my major workers who are always aiming high, working hard, taking risk at the level of sacrificing their lives. Their altruistic nature enabling us to go through the natural selection. Still there are very interesting facts about us, that I will let you know in time. Good bye.