Exploding Ants

Note: Readers be careful, this is a gruesome topic so feel free to stop reading as soon as possible if this article feels too gruesome for you. Before reading think about this first, humans are the only creatures that have powerful weapons, is that correct? Not really, from archer fishes to swordfishes there is almost nothing that humans have that nature doesn't. Alright, but what about explosions, surely that is something we have an advantage with. Nope, nature is one step ahead with it's imploding species. Very few organisms have this ability as it kills them so those few organisms are ants and termites who are built to sacrifice themselves without hesitation. The ants and termites that implode are highly dangerous to enemies as when surrounded, they burst with yellow goo splattering the enemies, killing the imploder and killing or stunning the enemy. But if this is such an effective weapon and ants are selfless, why don't all species of ants have this ability? Why do they have it at all? Note: This article will not contain all the information about exploding ants, there will always be much more to learn that I have not researched.

What Are Exploding Ants

There are 15 different species of exploding ants though the most referred to ants are in a group called Colobopsis cylindrica which consists of two exploding ant species, Colobopsis explodens and Colobopsis saundersi. Hence the name, they can explode but not like a fire explosion, a chemical one where where after exploding any yellow goo will kill or stun enemies on contact. The fancy word for this is autothysis. But it actually isn't only used for killing, it's actually also used for cleaning killing dangerous mold. If you're wondering what the difference is between the 2 species of exploding ants, there is actually barely any. Some differences are just things like Colobopsis explodens ants have only bright yellow goo but Colobopsis saundersi has goo that varies from a cream color to pale yellow depending on season. Only minors of these ants can explode as they require less time and resource to grow so the colony won't have much work wasted when the minors explode. But now, how do these colonies even begin? Note: The information in this article is based on Colobopsis explodens.

Nuptial Flights

Just like almost every ant species on this planet, all ant colonies start with a nuptial flight. And also like most ants, they need perfect weather, low winds, warm but not too hot temperature, and humid landscape. Security is tight during nuptial flights as every ant is checked by one of the 6 minors when exiting or coming into the nest. Unlike most ants though, these ants nest in the trees and may create multiple nests each in a separate tree. These ants also are polygynous meaning each colony allows multiple queens at a time. Once the queens find a tree they will drill a perfectly rounded hole and start laying eggs there. But now, how will the colony succeed when the first workers are prone to explode to almost any disturbance?

Multiplying Bombs

This is where the real challenge begins, exploding ants like Colobopsis explodens will explode immediately when disturbed like a human poking it. The thing is that the first workers are minors so if they all explode, no ants will be left to take care of the queen. So how do they avoid exploding? Well, they don't. Even though these ants will explode on slight disturbances they are very calm. They will simply raise their abdomens as a warning sign and explode if the danger ignores it like enemy ants. But since the colony is small there won't be battles anytime soon. These ants also don't hunt like a lot of ants but they don't grow fungus either like people thought they did. They simple get nutrients from grinding layers of epiphytes like moss usually for an hour and suspended yeast, dead insects, fruit, and fish if available. After growing under cover for a while the colony becomes enormous and has to start building more nests in different trees. But this means that they are more noticeable to other ants and the queens can't keep using their heads to block the entrances. So they create majors. Now majors have a unique head shape specifically designed to plug holes. Their heads are flattened as shown below to keep enemies from biting their way through.

The problem is that the flat head shape flattens the mandibles too so majors can't really do anything but block the entrance. This is also why they are so rarely seen out of their nest. Ok, the colony is thriving and expanding through the leafy canopy. But there is no way a colony can grow so big without going to war with another ant species that happens to live in the canopy, weaver ants.

A Blast To Victory

Weaver ants are ruthless when it comes to battle. They are also larger than exploding ants. So as you can guess exploding ants would rather avoid a battle with these ants since it means a lot of death on the exploding ant side. So how do they avoid the battle, well if you have a large colony, you have workers all over the place. This is important as weaver ants don't randomly invade an ant nest. They always send out scouts to locate a good place to attack. Meaning that if a minor finds a scout they'll quickly try to ward the scout away. If that doesn't work the minor will simply explode toxic goo on the scout. Now if a weaver ant scout manages to discover the exploding ant colony and successfully sneak away to recruit more weaver ants, a full on war will start. But luckily the exploding ants have a plan. First they'll try to ward off the invading weaver ants by raising their abdomen. If that doesn't work they will engage in a battle where groups of minors grapple onto the weaver ants and explode at once. Any victims of the explosion and any weaver ants near the explosion zone are stopped in their tracks. You see, since the goo is also sticky, it catches onto the joints of the weaver ants keeping the legs from moving. If the weaver ants reach the gates, which they most likely will, exploding ant minors will position themselves at the entrance trying to ward off the weaver ants and explode in the narrow entrance to create a toxic barrier. Of course the majors will also block the entrance behind the barrier incase the weaver ants still try to break through. At the end most of the battles end up with the colony blocking all entrances and retreating into the nest which by them, is how they win. Now that they won the battle, they can keep expanding the colony. But there are things they cannot evade, mold growing in their nest and the weather. How can a colony who rely on only imploding solve problems they cannot control?

Explosions Can't Fix Everything

All ant colonies have a crises where they leave food for too long and mold starts to grow. And like all these colonies, exploding ants have a way to get rid of these mold. Sometimes when mold spreads and get way too out of hand, the exploding ants, well, explode. It might seem silly but actually exploding ant goo has a lot of cleaning microbes in them that on contact with harmful bacteria and mold, kills the mold and bacteria. It's a simple solution that only requires one ant for a good amount of area but there is some dangers that exploding cannot fix, the weather. First is flooding. They don't really need to worry about this because these ants living up to around 60 feet above the ground in the trees. So naturally there is no way enough water from the rain can rise and flood their nests. Of course they also don't need to worry about drought or heat as rain forests constantly has rain and a cool, humid landscape. The main worry though is lightning. If it hits one of the tall trees the ants live in the nest would be destroyed. But again they have multiple queens and nests in multiple trees. So if one tree gets struck down the colony still is surviving in other trees and any ants surviving the strike will simply move to one of those trees. Finally the storm is over, but is the colony finished with it's problems.

A New Day, Some More Bombs

After surviving all this chaos and blasting their way to victory, the ants live on and continue to grow. Undoubtedly these ants will have to survive through these problems over and over again. But the colony has a powerful weapon, used it once, and is not afraid to use it again. The ants not only keep these current queens, they'll also constantly invite new exploding ant queens. Compared to what we know of other ants, we know very little about exploding ants. There is much more to discover about them and more species of exploding ants to find. But don't leave just yet, this paragraph didn't just come out of thin air, visit these wonderful sites and videos that helped me write this article.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colobopsis_explodens

https://antwiki.org/wiki/Colobopsis_explodens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCqhhQZ6Im4

https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/22661/ https://explodingants.com/index_php/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colobopsis_saundersi

https://www.animalsaroundtheglobe.com/this-ant-can-explode-to-defend-its-nest-7-326804/