Archive · 3 Dec 2025
Queen Ant Tricks Colony into Killing Mother
Scientists found out that a special kind of ant, called Lasius orientalis, can trick other ant colonies.
The queen ant sneaks into another colony by changing her smell to match theirs.
Once inside, she makes the other ants kill their own mother queen and then accept her as their new leader.
This clever trick helps the invading queen take over the colony.
The discovery was made by an ant lover named Taku Shimada, who saw this happening in a container with different kinds of ants.
This amazing behavior was then studied and written about in a science magazine called Current Biology.
A queen ant of the species Lasius orientalis can infiltrate and parasitize other ant colonies.
The queen uses chemical trickery to mimic the scent of the host colony's workers.
This allows her to evade detection and enter the nest undetected.
Once inside, she manipulates the colony into killing their own mother queen.
The host colony then accepts the parasitic queen as their new leader.
- Who
- Scientists and ant hobbyist Taku Shimada
- What
- A queen ant using chemical trickery to make a colony kill their mother and accept her as the new queen
- When
- Observed in 2021, published recently in Current Biology
- Where
- In a container with Lasius flavus workers, mimicking wild behavior
- Why
- To infiltrate and parasitize other ant colonies
- Species Involved
- Lasius orientalis and Lasius flavus
- Discovery Year
- 2021
- Researcher
- Taku Shimada (ant hobbyist)
- Publication
- Current Biology
- Behavior Observed
- Chemical trickery to infiltrate and replace the queen