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Talk about intimate communicating . Researchers have found that ants pass along chemic signals with their nest mates by sharing saliva .
The unwritten fluid of the Floridacarpenter ant(Camponotus floridanus ) check chemical substance that might help oneself homogenise the odor of ants in the colony and even impact the growth of their larvae , researchers account in a study published Nov. 29 in the journal eLife .
When carpenter ants (Camponotus floridanus) swap spit, they are doing more than share food. Turns out, they’re sending messages, too.
Previously , ants were think to charter in the spit - trade , or " trophallaxis , " mainly as a mode to partake food , study researcher Richard Benton , of the Center for Integrative Genomics at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland , said in a instruction .
" But trophallaxis occurs in other contexts , such as when an ant is reunited with a nest - spouse after isolation , " Benton enjoin . " We therefore want to see if the fluid exchanged by trophallaxis contain molecules that allow ants to go past other chemical messages to each other , and not just food . " [ See Photos of Crazy Ants in Florida ]
Collecting ant spit
To answer that question , the researchers had to find a way to collect ant spit . This was no easy project . Instances of trophallaxis happen quickly and are impossible to predict , making a wait - and - see approach impossible , the researchers wrote in eLife . First , the squad attempt to prompt trophallaxis by feeding an ant sugar result and temporarily keep apart it from its Friend , a stipulation that did prompt more ants to apportion spit . But that method was still low - takings , and was prone to potential confounding variable , the research worker wrote : The ant oral fluid might be altered by the scratch feeding or by the effects of closing off .
So the team add up up with another approach . They anesthetized ant temporarily with carbon dioxide and then squeezed them mildly to squirt out a bit of spit . They compared this fluid to the small sum of saliva they ’d collected by the sucrose method and to the ant gut contents and circulative fluid to be sure that what they were collecting was the same oral fluid swapped during trophallaxis .
Once they knew they had the right material , the researchers used mass spectrum analysis , a method that measures the hoi polloi of molecule inside a sample distribution , for distinguish the constituent of the fluid . They find far more than food for thought — the ant spit contained rafts of protein , 64 microRNAs ( minor segments of the molecule that helps translate genetic instructions into proteins and other building stoppage of the soundbox ) and long - chain hydrocarbons that may helpinstall a colony ’s signature tune scenton individual pismire , an important signal for recognition and social fundamental interaction . The cogitation could n’t yet testify , however , that trophallaxis immediately influences the pismire ' scents or immunology .
Special saliva
Many of the proteins in the oral fluid are digestion - pertain , but at least 10 are involved in the regulation of growth and maturation , the researcher report . Among these proteins were ace that make up puerile endocrine , a chemical substance of import for dirt ball ontogeny and behavior . Further analysis revealed that juvenile hormone was present in the ant oral fluid . [ exposure : 15 Insects and Spiders That May Share Your Home ]
This is crucial because trophallaxis is how ant nurses feed developing larva ; the presence of the increase endocrine in their saliva might play a character in larval growing . To test that idea , the researchers choose some adult ant and fed them either food affix with juvenile hormone or with an neutral substance . The ant were each given five to 10 larvae to grow . Those nurse ants supplement with adolescent hormone raised larvae that were big in adulthood than the larvae advance by the control mathematical group . They were also twice as probable as the control larvae to successfully fill out transfiguration to develop into adults .
" When the ant feed their larvae , they are n’t just feeding them food , they are sick quantitative ballotsfor their colony , administering different amounts of growth - kick upstairs constituent to influence the next generation , " study author Adria LeBoeuf , also of the University of Lausanne ’s Center for Integrative Genomics , sound out in the statement .
" Our findings hint that trophallaxis underlies a private communication television channel that ant use to direct the exploitation of their untested , similar tomilk in mammals , " LeBoeuf said .
Original article onLive Science .
