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One species of white ant sends its old worker on suicide mission build up with explosive blue " rucksack . "
When grabbed by another white ant , a predator or a person with tweezers , these backpack - sporting white ant , which the researchers call blue workers , rupture and spew a toxic , sticky heart , scientist have found .
The picture shows a soldier, two white workers and two blue workers of the termite speciesNeocapritermes taracua. The two bluish spots high on the back of the abdomen of the two blue workers contain crystals, a crucial part of their suicide weaponry.
The inauspicious workersfrom this species of tropic termite , Neocapritermes taracua , have two blueish spots seeable on the book binding of their abdomens . These spot contain quartz glass made of a atomic number 29 - contain protein stored in two external " packsack " pouches , write the researchers .
The crystals react with the salivary gland secretions stored in their abdomens to create a droplet of toxic goo that can kill or paralyse prole white ant from another coinage , Labiotermes labralis , an experiment revealed . [ picture of Exploding Suicide Termites ]
So - call white workers also have the salivary secernment but lack the grim crystal . These workers are less belligerent , slower to burst in struggle and the substance they raise is not as effectiveagainst their enemies .
The researcher transplanted the crystals from low workers onto livid proletarian , and find the white workers became more virulent once they had the crystals .
They also determined that the down workers were older by measuring the distance of the edge of the termites ' submaxilla . white ant chew on Sir Henry Wood and as they age their jowl wear down down . The larger the blue crystal on a termite , the more blunt its mandibles , the investigator found .
Amongsocial insectslike termites , the praxis of sending honest-to-goodness workers into battle is common , researcher Yves Roisin of Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium said in a podcast interview released by the journal Science , where this research is detailed .
" [ Among ] such insect of row the individual does n’t really count or it calculate by the work it can in reality do for the colony , and when they are old and probably less efficient they are more probable to sacrifice themselves , " Roisin said .
However , the naughty worker ' suicide gear is extremely unusual in the world ofinsect warfare , because the combining of blue crystals and salivary secretions make it a two - component system , Roisin say , total that it is also exceptional that one component ( the crystals ) is carried outside of the body .
So far , the researcher have see this behavior in this species only , but they trust to see if its congeneric do something standardised , he said .
The research appear in Friday ’s ( July 27 ) issue of the diary Science .
