Home Science The making of soldier ants

The making of soldier ants

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Scientists have found the answer to a question that perplexed Charles Darwin. It seems that the ant colony itself generates soldiers and regulates the balance between soldiers and ‘minor’ workers thanks to a seemingly unimportant rudimentary ‘organ’ which appears only briefly during the final stages of larval development. And only in some of the ants — the ones that will become soldiers.