Putting two and two together, the students realised the antshad learned to secrete the stuff when under duress, and whateverthe stuff was, it was killing off Argentine ants. Gaschromatography and mass spectrometry revealed that the goopcontained a type of hydrocarbon that's used in pheromones toidentify friends. But which substance gives the secretion itslethal Madden 17 Coins, poisonous kick is still not known.
To test the lethality of the secretion, students dropped 20winter and Argentine ants into Petri dishes for gladiatorialdeathmatches. Sometimes it would be a grossly unfair competitionwith more aggressive Argentine ants than winter ones.
"It turns out the winter ants use the secretion only whenthey are really overwhelmed, so it is probably energetically veryexpensive for the winter ant to manufacture and use this stuff,"said Stanford biology professor Deborah Gordon.
The biologists found out that just one tiny drop of the goopis enough to kill off an aggressive Argentine ant, and the poisonhad an astounding 79 percent kill rate.
To test the lethality of the secretion, students dropped 20winter and Argentine ants into Petri dishes for gladiatorialdeathmatches. Sometimes it would be a grossly unfair competitionwith more aggressive Argentine ants than winter ones.
"It turns out the winter ants use the secretion only whenthey are really overwhelmed, so it is probably energetically veryexpensive for the winter ant to manufacture and use this stuff,"said Stanford biology professor Deborah Gordon.
The biologists found out that just one tiny drop of the goopis enough to kill off an aggressive Argentine ant, and the poisonhad an astounding 79 percent kill rate.
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