Slavemaker Ants: Misunderstood Farmers?

A test of what once seemed too obvious to test—whether ant colonies suffer after being raided by slavemaker ants—suggests that some of the raiding insects have been getting unfair press.

One of more than 20 species called slavemakers, Protomognathus americanus ants are so tiny that a colony lives in an acorn. They plunder larvae and pupae from even smaller species’ colonies and then raise the young captives to work in their own acorns.