Why is this Male Ant Pulling His Own Wings Off? | Natural World: Ant Attack | BBC Earth

in the royal chamber the queen has yet to restart her normal duties before her journey she stopped egg production in order to slim down and make traveling easier now like a virgin queen she produces a special scent that attracts winged male ants who fly in from other nests the male is also enormous on a similar scale to the queen the scents she produces are irresistible a few molecules will grab a male's attention he searches for a way into the nest but a guard patrol has found him and at first the other ants see him as food he's actually in mortal danger the army smothers him as if he were prey but their intentions falter he also produces sense to demonstrate his fitness to be consort if he passes muster he'll be accepted if he doesn't he'll be for the chop they try to clip his wings so he'll fit through the nest entrance but he co-operates using spikes at the end of his abdomen he pulls one off himself nothing is wasted even a wing has some nutritional value the rest of the workers take him into the nest he has their support at least for the time being he's on probation until he actually mates with the queen he could still be attacked another wing is removed [Music] he'll soon be presentable for his audience with the queen it's day five in the new territory there's no nuptial flight instead the queen's new consort is guided directly to the royal chamber he's not the first consort to the queen and he probably won't be the last driver and queens are for ants unusually promiscuous he'll be one of many suitors she'll entertain during her lifetime his job done he retires from the royal chamber and dies a short but productive life for he'll father several million new ants with hungry mouths [Music] you

Channel: BBC Earth

Views: 5,449,762

Keywords: bbc documentary, bbc, bbcearth, bbc earth, ant documentary, bbc ants, Ant Attack, Natural World: Ant Attack, Andrew Sachs, driver ants, safari ants, siafu ants, ant colony, natural world, ants documentary, driver ants documentary, ants mating, queen ant mate, ant queen

Id: dOcseh8Vno0

Length: 3min 26sec (206 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 12 2019