Queen Atta texana ants dwarf workers, almost as if they are different species (Image: Alex Wild)
THEY fight, punish, reward and coerce their friends. They are promiscuous, selfish, altruistic, deceptive and manipulative. They are farmers, predators and scavengers. They dispense law and order. Eusocial insects – bees, wasps, ants and termites – are the soap opera stars of the non-human animal kingdom.
Much of that behaviour centres around an extreme division of labour, with individuals becoming queens, workers and sometimes soldiers. Once it starts, this process is usually irreversible – much as embryonic stem cells have no alternative but to become part…
