An ant colony is large place to live , even if — or maybe specially if — you’re not an ant . It is , Italian zoologist Andrea Di Giulio says , “ a to a great extent guarded , nigh impenetrable fort rich with bountiful resources . ” It provides shelter , food free for the pickings , and its own highly - motivated , circular - the - clock security force . And there ’s the rub : If you ’re not an ant , you ’re likely not run low to get past the chucker-out and into the nest — and even if you do , fortune are you ’ll soon be discovered , attacked , and , Di Giulio say , “ disassemble . ”
Yet , the aptly - nominate ant nest beetles live their whole lives safe and intelligent inside ant colony . What ’s more , they have gratis run of the place . They can go into any part of the nest they desire , eat the ants ’ food , interact with the queen and even kill and eat the ant without ever raising an eyebrow . Not even the ants that the beetles attack agitate back or give any sign that something is wrong with the organisation . This is because , Di Giulio and his enquiry teamfound , the beetle are little polyglots and can mimic the ants ’ dissimilar communication methods .
wad of other animals — fromfrogsto silverfish to butterflies — have found ways to slip into ant nest and live the high life there . Most of them do this by hack their hosts ’ chemic communicating system , and coat themselves in the same compounds that the ants employ to recognize and place each other . The beetles use this type of chemical substance disguise , too , but that ’s not the only motortruck up their sleeves . It turns out they can also mimic the ants ’ “ spoken language . ”
In accession to chemical substance signals , pismire communicate with phone by scraping specialised part of their venter against each other to produce low - frequency “ chirps . ” puzzle out with ant nest beetles and theirPheidole pallidulaant hosts in Morocco , Di Giulio and his team come up that all three castes — the queens , worker and soldiers — of this ant specie bring forth their own distinguishable sounds , and the beetle can reproduce all of them . The intruder not only fake the ants ’ chemical substance IDs , but can also “ talk ” the unlike “ speech communication ” they use .
This advanced masque let the beetle move freely around the nest to exhaust and mingle with other beetles while frivol away ants from dissimilar castes they might dislodge into . By mimic the tabby ’s sounds , they also get special perks . When the researchers work recording of the mallet ’ queenly chirps to worker ants , they moved into same “ guard ” positions they used with the true fagot and touched the speaker unit with their antennae . The team thinks that personate royalty might upgrade the beetle to the same societal condition in the dependency , getting them access to VIP surface area of the nest , special care from the workers and protection from any other trespasser or predatory animal that might endeavor to get into the colony .
