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Anonymous
I just found some really interesting stuff while doing my research about the ant thread, thought i'd share with /an/:

Some species of ants deliberately HERD these things called "mealybugs", and eat the honeydew they produce. The females (potentially new queens) also physically CARRY these bug with them to a new colony. These mealybugs pretty much cannot exist on their own because their sensory organs are almost none-existent.

More from Wikipedia:
>> Anonymous
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>>228009
oops, wrong picture. This is the one i intended to use
>> Anonymous
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In myrmecology and forest ecology, a devil's garden is a large stand of trees in the Amazon rainforest consisting almost exclusively of a single species, Duroia hirsuta. Devil's gardens are immediately recognizable because the dominance of a single tree species is dramatically different from the biodiversity of the forest as a whole.

According to Deborah Gordon devil's gardens got their name because locals believed that an evil forest spirit "Chuyathaqi" lived in them.

The ant Myrmelachista schumanni creates devil's gardens by systematically poisoning all plants in the vicinity except D. hirsuta, the tree in which it nests. The ant poisons the plants by injecting formic acid into the base of the leaf. By killing these other plants, the ant creates many nest sites; a devil's garden may persist for 800 years.[1] Although the ants fend off herbivores, the size of the garden is restricted by leaf destruction increasing as it expands, as the ants are unable to defend the trees beyond a certain point.[2][3]
>> Anonymous
Wingless and legless females of the Malaysian phorid fly Vestigipoda myrmolarvoidea live in the nests of ants of the genus Aenictus and are cared for by the ants.[59]
>> Anonymous
Many species of birds show a peculiar behaviour called anting that is as yet not fully understood. Here birds may rest on ant nests or pick and drop ants onto their wings and feathers, presumably to rid themselves of ectoparasites.
>> Anonymous
A fungus, Cordyceps, infects ants, causing them to climb up plants and sink their mandibles into the plant tissue. The fungus kills and engulfs the ant and produces its fruiting body. It appears that the fungus alters the behavior of the ant and uses the ant to help disperse its spores.[60]