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Researchers reveal that ants have social media like humans. PHOTO/ IST
LONDON – Recently a scientist revealed that ants have social media or social networks like humans. Even the ant’s Social Media system is more sophisticated than a human bikini.
Adria LeBoeuf, assistant professor and leader of the Social Fluids Laboratory at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland revealed that if humans instead of exchanging information through posts and comments, they spit fluid into each other’s mouths.
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said most insects have a foregut, a midgut, and a hindgut. “However, for social insects, the foregut has become a kind of ‘social belly,'” said LeBoeuf, lead author of the new study describing the findings. The findings were published Nov. 2 in the journal eLife.
He added that the contents of the midgut and hindgut are digested, while the contents of the foregut are meant to be shared,
Trophallaxis, or the act of spewing food into the mouth of another organism, is very common in highly social species such as ants.
During trophalaxis, nutrients and proteins are passed from one individual’s social stomach to another, and through this series of exchanges, the ant creates a “social circulatory system” that connects each member of the colony.
Wood ants (Camponotus) continuously provide these nutrients to one another in this way. “If you look at one colony, in one minute you might see 20 trophalaxis events,” LeBoeuf told Live Science.
“About five years ago, we published a paper characterizing the fact that when ants perform trophallaxis, they don’t just share external food,” said LeBoeuf, referring to a 2016 report in the journal eLife.
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