A group of researchers studying the habits of leaf-cutting ants discovered that these insects as they age and deteriorate its jaws, remove the toughest job.
That is, the ants also retire.
Scientists at the University of Oregon, United States, found that when older ants cut leaves no longer assume tasks related to transportation, which for the researchers show that individuals can play an important role even when its attributes physical start to decline.
The specimens studied are the "farmers" in the world of insects.
Each member of the factory of ants is able to cut and carry loads equivalent to 50 times the size and weight of your own body.
ants then form a miniature procession carrying the harvest home, where the leaves are used as a surface for growing mushrooms that feed the colony.
But when the jaws are deteriorating because of age, this stunning work of computer slows down.
The researchers found that older ants have difficulty holding and cutting blades. Social insects
However, a closer look revealed that those ants whose jaws were completely worn change jobs in the assembly, leaving the task cut leaves their younger colleagues, while they assumed drag the blade in long road back to the nest.
"The deterioration of his jaw was so great that cutting ant would have to use more than twice the energy and time in cutting leaves a copy that had just emerged from the chrysalis, when young and has jaws totally perfect and sharp, "the BBC explains Professor Robert Schofield, one of the scientists who conducted the study.
"So the ants with the most damaged jaws and those that were completely worn out, ten percent of the total, carried on Instead of cutting ".
" This shows the advantage of being a social insect against a solitary insect, an ant because I could not use more with their mandibles and lonely would have died out, "says Schofield.
Research suggests that in these highly organized societies, individuals can adapt and remain useful even when their physical attributes begin to decline. (BBC)
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