Wasps Drop Ants Away From Food

Posted by NG Kids in News Bites on April 8, 2011
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The common wasp is an invasive species in New Zealand. These wasps compete for food with an ant species called Prolasius advenus, which is a native species. Scientists performing an experiment with the insects noticed the wasps doing something unique: picking up ants crawling on food, flying a short distance away, and then dropping the ants. The scientists noticed that while the two species competed for a food source, the ants could be aggressive towards the much larger wasps, trying to bite them or spraying them with formic acid. The researchers think that the wasps might drop the ants, rather than killing them, to touch as little of the formic acid as possible.

Read more about this experiment and watch a video on National Geographic News.

Read about trap-jaw ants on National Geographic Kids.

Get the facts on New Zealand on National Geographic Kids.

Photograph by Julien Grangier, Victoria University of Wellington

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Categories: Animals

Comments

  1. halomasterman988
    April 8, 2011, 6:17 pm

    wasps are scary.

  2. dolphinlover
    April 8, 2011, 6:28 pm

    Woah!!!!!!!!!! Thats so cool!!!

  3. ljh90249689
    April 27, 2011, 7:45 am

    Hello? My name is yujin.
    I am korean.
    This story about wasps VS ants.
    It is very interesting.
    Hope you read~!!!^^

  4. Eura
    April 28, 2011, 5:46 am

    Hi, Yujin.
    I guess you’re the one I met last Wednesday. Aren’t you? Finally you made it! I’m so glad to read your comment here.
    This story about wasps was interesting to me, too.
    That’s why we’ve read a book “Giant Jam Sandwich” together. It was surprising to me that ants are very small living things but they have a fatal weapon against wasps and make wasps feel scared.
    I like to recommend a funny story book about wasps to everybody who just read this article above.

    Real fun!

  5. FreeSpirit456
    November 11, 2011, 9:08 pm

    Wasps really are scary! And they can be mean! I got stung by one when I didn’t do ANYTHING to it at all!

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