Blood-red ant. Close-up of a blood-red ant (Formica sanguinea) with its prey. This is one of the ant species that exploits other ant colonies by turni

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Blood-red ant. Close-up of a blood-red ant (Formica sanguinea) with its prey. This is one of the ant species that exploits other ant colonies by turning them into slaves. Once inseminated, the female blood-red ant invades a colony of Formica fusca and rears a collection of kidnapped pupae. When the adults emerge they treat the invader as their queen, feeding her and caring for her offspring. When the colony of blood-red ants is large enough it makes expeditions to raid other ant nests, stealing their pupae to raise as slaves.

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Size: 3894px × 2516px
Photo credit: © CLAUDE NURIDSANY & MARIE PERENNOU/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: animal, ant, blood, formica, insect, insecta, invertebrate, invertebrates, nature, red, sang, sanguinea, slave-making, wildlife, zoology