A female myrmicine ant (Temnothorax americanus) Clarence Holmes Wildlife/Alamy
To most ants, smell and taste are everything. But some parasitic ant species have lost the genes that drive these senses – a sensory shake-up that may be due to the way they outsource some tasks to host species.
Interpreting subtle chemical cues through smell and taste help ants hold their societies together. This “chemoreception” is involved in everything from group foraging to recognising nest mates.
But not all species of ant live or interact with each other in the same way. Some ants are social parasites that raid the nests of…
