Ants trapped for years in an old bunker; survival by cannibalism and eventual escape

By

Rutkowski, Tomasz
Maák, István Elek
Vepsäläinen, Kari‏
Trigos-Peral, Gema
Stephen, Wojciech
Wojtaszyn, Grzegorz
Czechowski, Wojciech

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2019

Original Publication

Journal of Hymenoptera research

Volume

72

Pages

177--184

Subjects

Adaptability , Formica polyctena , marginal habitats , scarce food resources , wood ants

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Washington, D.C International Society of Hymenopterists

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.72.38972

 

Abstract

Successful evacuation of a peculiar ‘colony’ of the wood ant Formica polyctena Först., for years trapped within an old bunker previously used for storing nuclear weapons (see Czechowski et al. 2016), is reported. Using an experimentally installed boardwalk, the imprisoned ants managed to get through the ventilation pipe to their maternal nest on the top of the bunker. In our previous report, we left open the question of how the ‘colony’ could survive seemingly without food. Here we show that the ‘colony’ in the bunker survived and grew thanks to an influx of workers from the source nest above the bunker and mass consumption of corpses of the imprisoned nestmates.