🐜🩸 The Dracula Ant 🩸🐜

avatar
(Edited)

Since I can remember myself I always found ants fascinating. And I still love reading and learning about them from time to time.

They are just amazing little buggers don't you agree?

And today I learnt about a species that engages in a really disturbing practice..

Let's first start with a picture:

Adetomyrma_venatrix_casent0172771_profile_1.jpg
source

Meet Adetomyrma venatrix, a small blind ant from the Madagascar. Fyi, the specimen depicted above is a typical worker.

So, what's so unique and disturbing about these ants. Well, they are commonly known as Dracula ants, which gives us a hint... They drink blood, but the source of blood is..their own fucking younglings!

Yep, they often feast on the hemolymph of their own larvae and pupae!

So I guess The Cannibal Dracula would be a more fitting name 😄

Not all is bad though. It turns out that the younglings often survive this brutal behavior and live to grow into healthy adults...that carry on the cannibalistic behavior 😅😂

The whys behind this gruesome behavior are still a mystery but one of the proposed theories is that the hemolyph acts as a much needed supplement for egg production that their natural prey can't provide.

Adetomyrma_venatrix_casent0172771_head_1.jpg
Head of Adetomyrma venatrix worker source

Unfortunately, the species appears to be critically endangered due to habitat loss, so there is a strong chance we will never get any good answers on their grisly feeding practices.

Ok, I hope you enjoyed reading about yet another bizarre creature with me. Maybe I'll dedicate some of my future posts on some other really bizarre ants. Here's a link to Wikipedia if you'd like to read a bit more on the species.

Posted Using InLeo Alpha

inleo thealliance pimp discovery-it neoxian proofofbrain cent tribes blog hive-167922
0
0
0.000
28 comments
avatar

You received an upvote of 90% from Precious the Silver Mermaid!

Please remember to contribute great content to the #SilverGoldStackers tag to create another Precious Gem.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

That's just weird... Maybe they're critically endangered because they suck their young's blood?

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Nah just good ol human activity 😂

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar
(Edited)

I love ants, and I thought I knew a fair bit about them, but this species was news to me. Really interesting, and weird.

I've followed this guy on YouTube called Ants Canada for a few years, if you haven't heard of him check him out, you'll be in for a treat.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

!DHEDGE
!PIMP
!ALIVE

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

@trumpman! You Are Alive so I just staked 0.1 $ALIVE to your account on behalf of @ libertycrypto27. (4/10)

The tip has been paid for by the We Are Alive Tribe through the earnings on @alive.chat, feel free to swing by our daily chat any time you want, plus you can win Hive Power (2x 50 HP) and Alive Power (2x 500 AP) delegations (4 weeks), and Ecency Points (4x 50 EP), in our chat every day.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Congratulations @trumpman! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)

You have been a buzzy bee and published a post every day of the week.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Check out our last posts:

Happy Birthday to the Hive Blockchain
0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

It's a weird ant. I wonder if it's the fact that they cannibalize their own kind that their population can't grow. Now with the environment being damaged, they can't survive.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Nope, just good ol human activity 😆

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Bruh,,, check that stinger it has? They are small but still they do look.... nasty...

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

And they use it to sting their pupae lmao

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Yeahh I read that, nasty business... but they do survive the ordeal mostly I'd assume? Im sure some pupae must die? But that's how their chain works right.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

I love ants because being a social insect, they teach the lessons of hardwork, unity and organization. This dracula ant is not different and since it's a worker, then.... Hardwork is its nature.
A very interesting specie.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Earlier I didn't have much knowledge about this aunt, after your post, my knowledge has increased. There are some aunts which are very dangerous.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

mhmm! this is using what you have to get what you want being displayed by the Adetomyrma venatrix ant family.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

Nasty Sting, you failed to mention that. I hope they die out.

0
0
0.000
Reply
avatar

!PIMP !LUV !PIZZA

0
0
0.000
Reply