Black garden ants modify nest structure to mitigate spread of fungal infections

A small team of biologists from the University of Bristol has discovered that black garden ants alter the physical structure of their nests to limit the spread of infections. The group has written a paper describing the experiments they conducted with black garden ants and fungal infections in their lab and published it on the website bioRxiv preprint server.

Previous research has shown that some animals change their behavior to avoid spreading infections, whether viral, bacterial or fungal. Among them, only humans change their environment to protect themselves more. For example, they may close off parts of their homes or establish quarantine zones in hospital areas.

In this new study, the research team discovered a case of an insect modifying its nest to prevent the spread of an infectious fungus.

To learn more about how insects, like ants, try to prevent the spread of infection among members of a nest, the research team went into the field and collected enough black garden ants to set up 20 colonies in their lab, each in its own glass enclosure.

After giving the ants just one day to acclimate to their new environment, the researchers added 20 more ants to each colony, half of which were infected with a fungus known to spread among ants.

The research team then set up cameras to record the ants’ behavior and micro-CT scanners to study the nature of the nesting tunnels the ants dug underground.

The team found that in infected ant colonies, new tunnels were dug more quickly than in uninfected colonies. After six days, the spacing between tunnels was also greater in the infected nest.

Ants from exposed colonies also placed their queen, food, and brooding area in a less central location. Finally, infected ants tended to spend most of their time above ground rather than underground with their nest mates.

The researchers then used disease transmission simulations to speed up the process of disease spread and found that the techniques used by the ants actually reduced the fungal load in the colony, helping the nest survive.

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