Ant breeding brain shrinks

The brains of Indian jumping ants become smaller when they begin to lay eggs, but if they stop reproducing, their brains will return to their original size.

Scientists have discovered that the brain capacity of ants drops sharply after they have the ability to reproduce, but as their fertility declines, their brain capacity will rise again.

Phenotypic plasticity allows organisms to respond to changing environments throughout their lives, but these changes are rarely reversible.

Ants may be small, but they have superhuman abilities, such as being able to lift objects that are many times heavier than themselves.

Clint Penic of Kennesaw State University in Georgia, USA, and colleagues studied the brain plasticity of the breeding workers of the Indian spring ants.

After the queen dies, the female worker ants of the Indian jumping ants will fight for several weeks to establish a new leadership.

To determine whether some of these changes are reversible, scientists suppressed the fertility of these jumping ants.

Researchers say this is the first time that reversible changes have been observed in the brains of insects.

Related paper information: org/10.