Mirror turtle ant
Mirror turtle ants (Cephalotes specularis) are a species of ant that mimic other, unrelated ants (Crematogaster ampla) in order to steal their food.[2]
| Mirror turtle ant | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Subfamily: | Myrmicinae |
| Genus: | Cephalotes |
| Species: | C. specularis |
| Binomial name | |
| Cephalotes specularis Brandão, Feitosa, Powell & Del-Claro, 2014[1] | |
Discovery
Assistant professor of biology Scott Powell at George Washington University discovered them while studying turtle ants in Brazil.[3] Powell has said that the mirror turtle ant represents a glimpse of the early stages of social parasitism, before the parasite has "lost much of its free-living biology".[4]
References
- BRANDÃO, CARLOS ROBERTO F.; FEITOSA, RODRIGO M.; POWELL, SCOTT; DEL-CLARO, KLEBER (2014). "Description of Cephalotes specularis n. sp. (Formicidae: Myrmicinae)— the mirror turtle ant". Zootaxa. 3796 (3): 568–578. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3796.3.9. PMID 24870693.
- Powell, Scott; Del-Claro, Kleber; Feitosa, Rodrigo M.; Brandão, Carlos Roberto F. (2014). "Mimicry and Eavesdropping Enable a New Form of Social Parasitism in Ants". The American Naturalist. 184 (4): 500–509. doi:10.1086/677927. PMID 25226185. S2CID 23582602.
- "Nature collides with James Bond: Newly discovered ant species hides in plain sight".
- Hays, Brooks (1 October 2014). "Mirror turtle ants thrive by going undercover". UPI. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
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