Night1 of the Living Ants When an ant dies, other ants move the dead insect out of the nest. This behavior is interesting to scientists, who wonder how ants know for sureand so soon-that another ant is dead. But theres a twist to Choes discovery4. These ants are a little bit like zombies. Choe says that the living ants - not just the dead ones - have this death chemical. In other words, while an ant crawls around, perhaps in a picnic or home, its telling other ants that its dead5. Other scientists have tried to figure out how ants know when another ant is dead. If an ant is knocked unconscious, other ants leave it alone until it wakes up. That means ants know that unmoving ants can still be alive. To test his hypothesis, Choe and his team put different chemicals on Argentine ant pupae. When the scientists used the m dead chemical, other ants quickly hauled the treated pupae7 away. When the scientists used the Wait- Im not dead yet chemicals, other ants left the treated pupae alone. Choe believes this behavior shows that the not dead yet chemicals override the dead chemical when picked up by adult ants. And that when an ant dies, the not dead yet chemicals fade away. Other nearby ants then detect the remaining dead chemical and remove the body from the nest. Zombie n 还魂尸,僵尸 Pupa n.蛹 hypothesis n.假设 注释: |