"All worker ants are sterile females, so it's the cranky old ladies who are the ones fighting to the death," Cassill said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/psychefireantsplaydeadLOL OMG :rofl:
Psyche! Fire Ants Play Dead
Opossums do it, some snakes do it and even big bison do it. Now a new study now shows fire ants do it, too.
When threatened by danger, the young insects will play dead to fake out an attacker.
"No one has ever reported this before, and it was a big shock to me," said Deby Cassill, an evolutionary biologist at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. "Ants from an attacking colony will come up to inspect them, and they'll be curled up just like a dead ant. Then moments later they uncurl and walk away."
Cassill and her students also noticed that as the ants age - some live six months to a year - they grow out of the curious behavior. Middle-aged ants tend to flee, while the eldest are aggressive and attack furiously.
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