The nests of Florida ants called Formica archboldi are adorned with the carcasses of their enemies — namely, the heads of other species known as trap-jaw ants. How Formica archboldi acquire these gruesome home accessories has perplexed scientists since the 1950s. But now, thanks to high-speed and time lapse videos, we have a better picture of this bizarre behavior.
The study has been long in the making for Adrian Smith, the head of the Evolutionary Biology & Behavior Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and a professor at North Carolina State University. Like these ants, Smith, too, is from Florida — and he was drawn in by the Formica ants fondness for that abattoir ambiance. “We knew that little tidbit of natural...
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