Ants are social creatures and so they are no strangers to social exploits.
Kidnapping!
Coups!
Slavery!
Hi-jacking!
Highway Robbery!
Protection Rackets!
Wars of Territory Conquest!
Wars of National Security!
Wars of resource extraction!
Wars of stealing your house!
You can find ants doing things that have the same shape of many human crimes. Is it projection to name what these ants do with our ideas of human crimes? Perhaps.
One thing I find enlightening about observing these "short cuts" as evolutionary strategies is the big ideas, the false idealism and justifications are gone. The material reasons are laid bare.
Some ants steal the young of their neighbors because producing and raising young ants takes energy and if you can get another colony to do that for you it's an advantage.
The other thing that is clear is that these strategies are locally powerful but can never dominate the game.
@futurebird well if they're social, odds are they have some tendencies you could also describe as ant'y social
;)
You see homgirl's mandibles? They are smooth and sickle like because that is the best shape for grabbing larvae (baby ants) and running away with them to raise them as your own. She struggles to feed herself. She struggles to forage for food. She's made for kidnapping.
I don't think she considers it at all.
@futurebird I think that’s exactly what makes the difference.
Thank you for showing me this fascinating creature! You have a wonderful gift for helping people understand the world of ants! 🐜
can you describe their 'protection rackets?'
I'm struggling to imagine an antalog* for: "that's an awfully nice aphid farm ya got there; it'd be a real shame if anything... happened to it."
*see what I did there?
myrmepropagandist
Ian Campbell 🏴
Jenny!
Petra van Cronenburg
Bill, organizer of stuff
Pierrette
Дими́трий
luca