A publication by Biofaction’s Markus Schmidt about teamwork in insects and a unique hunting technique in tropical ants that resembles medieval torture racks, got wide media coverage.
★ New Scientist. Ants build a medieval ‘torture rack’ to catch grasshoppers
★ Pyhs.org. Ants found to use trapping technique to capture much larger prey
★ Daily Mail and Mail Online. Ants build and set terrifying traps that resemble ‘medieval torture racks’ to capture large prey and rip them to shreds
★ LongRoom. Ants found to use trapping technique to capture much larger prey.
★ Inverse. Extremely Metal Ant Species Uses Medieval Torture Rack on Its Enemies Unsuspecting victims are “spreadeagled” and “carved up.”
★ IFLScience. These Ants Have Created Their Own Torture Device For Their Victims.
★ Even in Dutch: bionieuws. Mieren gebruiken gang als hinderlaag
★ and Russian: NPlus1.ru. Древесные муравьи построили для охоты туннели-ловушки.
For the original publication, see: Schmidt M., Dejean A. 2018. A dolichoderine ant that constructs traps to collectively ambush prey: convergent evolution with a myrmicine genus. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society doi:10.1093/biolinnean/bly028