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Earth

Ants build a medieval ‘torture rack’ to catch grasshoppers

By Jake Buehler

24 April 2018

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Caught by hunters hidden in the floor

Markus Schmidt

Tropical ants build and set a trap that resembles a medieval torture rack. They use this ingenious setup to capture insect prey much larger than themselves, then rip the victim apart.

These ants have transformed the characteristic ant zeal for teamwork into something macabre. Azteca brevis ants build and set a trap not unlike a medieval torture device, which is used to cooperatively capture and rip apart insect prey.

Lead author first came across ants in Costa Rica’s in 1999. He…

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