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Ants that seem to defy biology – They lay eggs that hatch into another species

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426 points sampo | 1 comments | 19 Sep 25 12:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.212s | source
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suriya-ganesh ◴[19 Sep 25 15:45 UTC] No.45302912[source]▶
This is wild. But eusocial insect have a lot of bizarre eccentricities in sex determinism. less than 1% of the colony can actually reproduce, every other being is there for the betterment of the 1%. The workers will mutilate, sacrifice and kill themselves just for the queen to have 0.1% better survivability.

It is helpful to think of the whole colony as a singular organism as opposed to individuals, because our understanding of individual starts breaking down at these levels

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hearsathought ◴[19 Sep 25 16:09 UTC] No.45303285[source]▶
> It is helpful to think of the whole colony as a singular organism as opposed to individuals, because our understanding of individual starts breaking down at these levels

Can't the organisms be viewed as individuals with a shared common goal.

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1. lo_zamoyski ◴[19 Sep 25 16:15 UTC] No.45303348[source]▶
Indeed. They are individual organisms, not one large organism. Talk of "superorganisms" seems to presuppose that each individual must seek his own survival and reproduction, but that's untrue. From the point of view of the species and its propagation and survival, it is not a question of individuals. That's just one strategy that may characterize the reproductive behavior of some species, but not others.