Social safety net for dull ants [video]
When leaf-cutter ants wear out their razor-sharp mandibles, they still can be productive members of their society, a new study shows. They change jobs, carrying the leaves their sharper sisters cut.
"Cutting leaves is hard work. Much of the cutting is done with a V-shaped blade between teeth on their mandibles that they use like a tailor who holds a pair of scissors in a fixed V shape to slice through cloth," says Robert Schofield, a scientist at the University of Oregon. "This blade starts out as sharp as the sharpest razor blade that humans have developed."
When it takes an ant about three times as much time and energy to cut out a leaf disc than it would have taken when her blades were sharp, behavior changes. The cutting ants rest their blades and join the delivery staff, carrying the discs cut from the leaves into their nest.
Full story at Futurity.
