On this, the spookiest of days, it is always comforting to know that the ghouls, goblins and all the bumps in the night are not real. If only that were true.
Vlad the Impaler (The real Count Dracula) and all those sparkly losers in those fictional works. Thankfully these vampires aren’t real. Seriously, thank God we don’t have to deal with immortal moody teenagers covered in glitter. However, there are vampires! Vampire bats are pretty neat. Mosquitoes suck! But there are hordes of blood sucking creatures living among us. They are the vampire ants!
There are 144 living species in the subfamily Amblyoponinae. The are found in 9 genera, all of which exhibit larval haemolymph feeding. Commonly known as vampirism. This behaviour is found in several other taxa however Amblyoponinae appears to have the highest concentration. These are the Dracula or vampire ants. Where vampire bats and fictional vampires drink the blood of other animals and/or people, Vampire ants drink the haemolymph of their own young. Haemolymph being the ants’ equivalent of blood. From now on I am going to refer to haemolymph as blood because it isn’t as catchy or spooky. Also its longer to type. Just bare this in mind. Vampire ants are very rarely seen, remaining hidden where they hunt in the leaflitter or even underground. If you do see them I would avoid touching them! Is this because they’ll drink your blood?! Nah, they just have a very strong sting. Workers use this sting to paralyze their prey, which is usually a variety of small arthropods. They will then bring these prey items back to their nests which rarely consist of more than a few hundred individuals. The larvae will then feed on these prey items. In many cases, the prey isn’t dismembered meaning they are possibly still alive when they are eaten. Both spooky and very Velociraptor-like from Jurassic park! I mean. Try and get fresher food than that! Anyway. Now that the larvae are full of food they use the energy and resources to grow, move and produce nutritious blood.
This is where the fun begins. The adults in the colony will wound the larvae and drink their blood. Not what I would consider a tasty meal but to each their own. The wounds are non-fatal and heal rather quickly. Some species even have ‘taps’ on the larvae’s skin to allow for easier access to their blood. Weird. The larvae will develop as normal and grow into adult ants, feeding on their younger siblings/daughters if they are a Queen. Many of these species cannot transfer food to each other via trophallaxis. This means they can’t store food in their social stomachs so they must store food in another way: Their offspring. They are also unable to eat solid foods so liquids will do! The blood of their larvae is nutritious and is kept from decomposing or going mouldy. It is an elegant solution to a huge problem ants face. As humans, we may find it weird. However, it works so our conceptions are irrelevant. Much like bees and the laws of aviation.
These vampires may not feed on human blood. Instead, they feed on the blood of their children! A lovely reminder that fact can always be weirder than fiction. Happy Halloween to all that celebrate it. Be safe and stay spooky,
Alex.
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Glossary
Haemolymph: A fluid equivalent to blood in most invertebrates, occupying the haemocoel.
Trophallaxis: The mutual exchange of regurgitated liquids between adult social insects or between them and their larvae.
References
Hölldobler, B. and Wilson, E.O., 1990. The ants. Harvard University Press.
Ito, F. 2010. Notes on the biology of the Oriental amblyoponine ant Myopopone castanea: Queen‐worker dimorphism, worker polymorphism and larval hemolymph feeding by workers (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Entomological Science 13(2):199-204 (doi:10.1111/j.1479-8298.2010.00384.x)
Ito, F., Billen, J. 1998. Larval hemolymph feeding and oophagy: behavior of queen and workers in the primitive ponerine ant Prionopelta kraepelini (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Belgian Journal of Zoology 128, 201–209
Ito, F., Gobin, B. 2008. Colony composition and behavior of a queen and workers in the Oriental ectatommine ant Gnamptogenys cribrata (Emery) 1990 in West Java, Indonesia. Asian Myrmecology 2, 103–107
Alex's Ants 