←back to thread

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

(www.smithsonianmag.com)
429 points sampo | 1 comments | 19 Sep 25 12:25 UTC | HN request time: 0.25s | source
Show context
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

replies(2): >>45303285 #>>45303907 #
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.

replies(5): >>45303348 #>>45303701 #>>45306298 #>>45307603 #>>45308937 #
1. suriya-ganesh ◴[19 Sep 25 20:40 UTC] No.45306298[source]▶
Maybe.

The workers are involuntary but willing participants, in a grand scheme where the queens and males get to create new generations. But this is possible only if we anthropomorphise a lot.

because at the level of ants/bees I'm not even sure what "individual" even means.

But genetically they originate from the same individual, live for the betterment of the whole, and have very minor say in what happens to themselves or their genes. Much similar to cells in a human being does.