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Ants Carrying Chips
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Cooperation and competition
Not all ants have the same kind of societies. The Australian bulldog ants are among the biggest and most basal of ants. Like virtually all ants they are eusocial, but their social behaviour is poorly developed compared to other species. Each individual hunts alone, using its large eyes instead of its chemical senses to find prey.
Some species (such as Tetramorium caespitum) attack and take over neighbouring ant colonies. Others are less expansionist but just as aggressive; they invade colonies to steal eggs or larvae, which they either eat or raise as workers/slaves. Extreme specialists among these slave-raiding ants, such as the Amazon ants, are incapable of feeding themselves and need captured workers to survive. Captured workers of the enslaved species Temnothorax have evolved a counter strategy, destroying just the female pupae of the slave-making Protomognathus americanus, but sparing the males (who don't take part in slave-raiding as adults).
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