Some yellow crazy ant workers are considered the most responsible in their colony. It's because the group of ants lays eggs to provide food for the colony's larvae.
ScienceDaily reported that a group of ants called the yellow crazy ant workers not only work for the colony and the queen's food but were also assigned to other tasks. Scientists from Kyoto University revealed their discovery on the yellow crazy ant workers and how they uniquely provide foods for the colony's larvae.
In an extremely uncommon way, the yellow crazy ant workers lay eggs to provide the source for the colony's larvae. According to Phys.org, the yellow crazy ant workers belongs to the world's most ecosystem as a devastating ant species. They are also the group of ants which are closely studied so their survival has been known excluding how the larvae are fed.
A research team described the yellow crazy ants or "physogastric" workers as ant groups with enlarged abdomens. These ants produced two kinds of eggs: one kind of egg is for reproduction while the other kind is for the nutrition of the incoming larvae called the trophic eggs. The trophic eggs are those that are not for the role of growing up into new ants but to serve as a major food source for the growing larvae.
Furthermore, the scientists have observed that some amount of the trophic eggs are fed to the queen and other castes in the ant colony. The eggs of the yellow crazy ant workers serve as a supplement to the diets of their diets.
Corresponding author Chin-Cheng "Scotty" Young said, "This behavior of the yellow crazy ant workers may indicate some adaptive advantages for this kind of invasive species. With the discovery, we can now develop ways to suppress the ant's colony if we want to, through cutting the yellow crazy ant workers' reproductive potential."
