Parasitic Ant Queens Trick Workers to Overthrow Their Queen

In the complex and often dramatic world of ants, a new form of "regicide" has been uncovered. Researchers have discovered that some parasitic ant queens can sneak into a colony and manipulate the worker ants to turn against and kill their own queen. This previously undocumented behavior was first observed by an ant enthusiast in Japan, who captured the shocking events on camera.

The discovery was made by Taku Shimada, an ant enthusiast who has spent years studying and raising the insects. A few years ago, Shimada found a parasitic ant queen of the Lasius orientalis species in a mountainous region of Japan. He brought the queen back to his home and set up a camera to observe what would happen when he introduced her to another ant colony.