New research has revealed that ants apply amputation to treat nestmates injured in the thigh bone within their colonies. In a study conducted at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, scientists observed the behavior of ants housed in a climate-controlled chamber.
It was observed that ants with injuries to their thigh bones had their legs amputated by other ants in the nest through biting.
In experiments in which 24 ants were injured in the thigh bone, none of the ants with injuries to their knee bones were reported to have undergone amputation, but it was stated that 21 of the 24 ants injured in the thigh bone were subjected to amputation by other ants in the nest. It was observed that three ants, who were injured in the thigh bone and were not amputated, died, and 21 ants, who had "treatment applied," survived.
In the research, it was determined that amputation was applied by nestmates in 76% of cases in instances of ants' thigh bone injuries, while it was seen that no amputation had been applied in cases of injuries that occurred in the knee bone.
The research, in which it was found that ants could distinguish the type of injury and adapt their treatments accordingly, was also highlighted as the first example of amputation being applied to infected individuals other than humans in another living species.
The results of the research were published in the journal Current Biology.
Current Biology is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal encompassing a wide array of biological disciplines, with a particular focus on molecular biology, cell biology, genetics, neurobiology, ecology and evolutionary biology.
