There are few animals more ordered than ants. These industrious insects put us to shame in terms of their organisational abilities, establishing colonies comprising millions of individuals that work tirelessly towards a single, shared goal.
As a group, ants are known for their many bizarre behaviours. They can build pizza-sized rafts capable of floating downriver for several weeks, moveable shelters constructed from nothing but the bodies of living individuals, and even fungus farms large enough to feed entire colonies.
These aren’t the only mind-blowing things ants are capable of. Some species have also been observed cleaning and treating the wounds of their injured comrades after raids on termite nests or battles with rival colonies. Most ants don’t engage in these seemingly empathetic behaviours, but there are at least two examples of species that do.
African Matabele ants: the paramedics of the insect world
Named after the Matabele tribe of Zimbabwe, African Matabele ants (Megaponera analis) are widely distributed across Sub-Saharan Africa and are one of many species known to subsist on an entirely termite-based diet.
While they’re not exactly giants by insect standards, at 25mm in length Matabele ants are some of the largest ants in the world. They’re amongst the fiercest too, known for the column-like raiding formations they assume when attacking termite mounds.
In 2017, myrmecologist Erik T. Frank observed healthy Matabele ants carrying their wounded comrades home after a raid. The ants’ sense of camaraderie didn’t just stop there either.
After being dragged back to their nests, wounded ants were tended to by their nestmates, who’d take turns gently holding damaged limbs in their mandibles and front legs while ‘licking’ wounds for several minutes.
As part of his groundbreaking 2017 study, Frank discovered the saliva of these Matabele ants had antimicrobial properties. A later study, also led by Frank, found that by applying this life-saving saliva, Matable ants were able to reduce the mortality of infected individuals by up to 90%.
Like battlefield medics, Matabele ants were also found to triage their patients. Those who lost five of their six legs in a melee were mostly left to die, while those who injured just one or two legs were prioritised by otherwise healthy ants.
There are several examples of other animals treating their own wounds, as well as a few anecdotes of animals treating the wounds of others, but the discoveries made by Frank and his team were the first to properly document non-human animals engaging in such sophisticated behaviours.
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Florida carpenter ants: invertebrate surgeons adept in the art of amputation
Not long after conducting his work on Matabele ants, Frank observed instances of wound-treating behaviour in another species of ant - Florida carpenter ants (Camponotus floridanus).
These ants live thousands of miles away in Florida, southeast US, but just like Matabele ants they also tend to their injured comrades.
Instead of carrying injured individuals home and slathering them in antimicrobial saliva, these carpenter ants perform amputations. Frank noticed injured ants were willing participants in such procedures, actively presenting their injured legs to other ants that would then proceed to bite them off.
There’s a method to this procedure too. Those that injured their legs above the femur had their whole legs lopped off, while those with lower-leg injuries had their wounds groomed, likely in an effort to remove pathogens that could cause potentially fatal infections.
After conducting a series of experiments, Frank and his team found that ants with injuries above their femurs - if left untreated - only survived 40% of the time. In contrast, those that had their legs amputated had a survival rate of more than 90%!
A similar success rate was observed in those treated for lower-leg injuries, surviving at rates of roughly 75%.
Unlike Matabele ants, as well as many other species, Florida carpenter ants don’t possess the gland that produces antimicrobial saliva. Frank suspects this is why they may have evolved a different approach to caring for injured individuals. There’s even some suggestions that other, closely-related carpenter ants may also perform amputations.
