417:. Some females copulate immediately after the nuptial flight, others mate on the ground near the dulotic nest without taking to the air, and a few mate during the course of a slave raid. The female alates lose their wings within a few minutes of mating, and unless involved in a raid, then hide in the undergrowth near their nests. Others set out alone, probably following the trail of a previous slave raid, and are greeted with hostility at any potential target nest they encounter. The majority join a slave raid within a few days of mating, but only some of these attempt to infiltrate the target colony, others returning home with the raiders. Some winged females also accompany the raiders, and a few of these have been observed returning home carrying a
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generous supply of honey. Within two days, half of these ants were dead, presumably of starvation. He then introduced one slave ant into the box. It very soon "established order, formed a chamber in the earth, gathered together the larvae, extricated several young ants that were ready to quit the condition of pupae, and preserved the life of the remaining
Amazons."
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which subdues the attacked ants and makes them less aggressive. She seeks out the colony's queen and kills her by biting her with her piercing mandibles. With their queen gone, the behaviour of the resident ants changes and their attacks lessen in ferocity and alternate with periods of grooming the
424:
A newly mated female is unable to found a new colony unaided because she is not able to feed herself or care for her first brood. Instead, she enters the nest of another species of ants. She may join a column of raiding ants and use the panic and confusion surrounding their attack on the target
290:
is native to parts of Europe including Spain, France, the
Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia. Its range also extends into Asia as far east as the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and western China. Its habitat is typically open, sparse
388:
workers perform no work apart from nest raiding. So reliant are they on their slaves that without their help, they are incapable of feeding themselves or rearing the young. Huber experimentally put 30 of the slave-making ants in a box with some of their larvae, some pupae, a little soil, and a
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involving both males and females often occur, but males usually depart from any particular nest first and this prevents inbreeding. Observations on the ground show that the female makes certain movements of her
363:
workers usually outnumber the Amazon ant population by at least five to one and in general, the behaviour of the mixed colony resembles that of a large colony of the host species.
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colony always originated as a colony of the slave species (the hosts), and the worker population is maintained by the raiding sorties of the Amazon ants. In the dulotic nest, the
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workers in western and southwestern Europe are dark red, while eastern specimens are more orange-red. Darker ants often have a purplish or brownish tinge to their
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emerge from the colonies in summer. Some colonies produce alates of both sexes, and in these the males emerge and fly off some days before the females do.
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are closely related, they are even more closely related to their respective host species and the enslaving behaviour has evolved independently.
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new arrival. Within a few hours, the usurping queen is accepted and is surrounded by submissive workers that groom her and feed her.
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needs to make its way into one of these "host" nests, kill the host queen, and be accepted by the host workers in her place.
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and in general, the species chosen is the one most abundant in the locality or that can be raided with the least mortality.
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grassland, wherever its host species are to be found. The host species vary in different parts of the range and include
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and carries home pupae and larvae, and these are reared to provide future workers for the colony. A newly mated female
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of their gasters are more hairy. The total length of this ant is 4.7 to 7 mm (0.19 to 0.28 in).
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Goropashnaya, Anna V.; Fedorov, Vadim B.; Seifert, Bernhard; Pamilo, Pekka (2012).
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of another species to undertake these tasks. To replenish these servant ants, it
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Mori, A.; Grasso, D. A.; Visicchio, R.; Le Moli, F. (2000). "Colony founding in
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just before mating, and this is thought to release a sexually attractive
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native to southern Europe and parts of Asia, commonly referred to as the
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species (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) based on mitochondrial cytochrome
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and carries their brood back to the dulotic nest (from Greek ΎοῊλοÏ
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Mori, Alessandra; D'ettorre, Patrizia; Le Moli, Francesco (1994).
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630:"Mating and postâmating behaviour of the European amazon ant,
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colony to infiltrate the nest. She emits a secretion from the
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345:, it raids the nests of other species of ant in the subgenus
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This species is known as the slave-making ant because, like
327:. The main host species in the eastern part of the range is
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has shown that although the two slave-making ant genera
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Trager, James C. (2013). "Global revision of the genus
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265:, ants of this species are similar to the Mexican
380:Pierre Huber, the son of the Swiss entomologist
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429:on her abdomen (named after its discoverer,
560:"Phylogenetic relationships of Palaearctic
384:, studied the behaviour of these ants. The
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230:, unable to feed itself or look after the
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1062:Taxa named by Pierre André Latreille
1014:7844EE00-44A6-0206-DFBD-26744DE721E5
910:1df66bec-62fa-462e-837a-1c7b45bb7966
698:: the role of the Dufour's gland".
400:Winged males and females known as
14:
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44:
462:Polyergus (rufescens) rufescens
271:, but have narrower heads and
1:
670:"What I saw in an ant's nest"
593:10.1371/journal.pone.0041697
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634:(Hymenoptera, Formicidae)"
1057:Insects described in 1798
674:A Book of Natural History
651:10.1080/11250009409355886
508:10.11646/zootaxa.3722.4.5
240:raids nearby ant colonies
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41:Scientific classification
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396:Column of marching ants
676:. FreeFictionBooks.org
529:Bolton, Barry (2013).
458:Bolton, Barry (2013).
431:LĂ©on Jean Marie Dufour
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1047:Hymenoptera of Europe
712:10.1007/s000400050002
638:Bolletino di Zoologia
533:Polyergus umbratus_cf
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355:, "slave"). A mature
905:Fauna Europaea (new)
747:at Wikimedia Commons
433:), which includes a
1042:Hymenoptera of Asia
808:Polyergus rufescens
778:Polyergus rufescens
753:Polyergus rufescens
744:Polyergus rufescens
696:Polyergus rufescens
632:Polyergus rufescens
584:2012PLoSO...741697G
217:European Amazon ant
204:Polyergus rufescens
160:Polyergus rufescens
25:Polyergus rufescens
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365:Molecular analysis
191:Polyergus testacea
1052:Slave-making ants
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996:Open Tree of Life
770:Taxon identifiers
741:Media related to
342:Formica sanguinea
268:Polyergus topoffi
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194:(Fabricius, 1804)
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185:Formica rufescens
142:P. rufescens
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644:(3): 203â206.
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283:Distribution
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931:iNaturalist
802:Wikispecies
706:(1): 7â10.
374:Rossomyrmex
250:Description
223:. It is an
114:Subfamily:
98:Hymenoptera
1037:Formicinae
1031:Categories
680:2013-11-12
568:sequences"
544:2013-11-12
531:"Species:
473:2013-11-12
460:"Species:
442:References
324:F. cinerea
318:F. gagates
225:obligatory
219:or as the
118:Formicinae
108:Formicidae
78:Arthropoda
755:stealing
751:Video of
492:Polyergus
435:pheromone
415:pheromone
411:mandibles
369:Polyergus
357:Polyergus
335:Behaviour
168:Latreille
136:Species:
129:Polyergus
64:Kingdom:
58:Eukaryota
949:11144724
816:BioLib:
787:Wikidata
720:40235051
612:22911845
572:PLOS ONE
516:26171540
329:F. clara
312:F. clara
300:F. fusca
277:tergites
273:petioles
177:Synonyms
104:Family:
74:Phylum:
68:Animalia
54:Domain:
923:1326343
793:Q456474
757:Formica
603:3402446
580:Bibcode
562:Formica
496:Zootaxa
361:Formica
259:gasters
209:species
170:, 1798)
124:Genus:
94:Order:
88:Insecta
84:Class:
1001:637432
962:577487
936:300597
871:POLRRU
858:460288
718:
610:
600:
539:AntWeb
514:
468:AntWeb
419:cocoon
402:alates
353:doulos
321:, and
232:colony
1009:Plazi
975:72785
944:IRMNG
897:81221
884:88167
879:EUNIS
845:4L73B
832:33160
819:69735
759:pupae
716:S2CID
207:is a
988:1891
970:NCBI
957:ITIS
918:GBIF
866:EPPO
827:BOLD
608:PMID
512:PMID
500:3722
371:and
236:ants
853:EoL
840:CoL
708:doi
646:doi
598:PMC
588:doi
504:doi
494:".
211:of
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