Without 46 million year-old bacteria, turtle ants would need more bite and less armor

You've probably heard about poop pills, the latest way for humans to get benevolent bacteria into their guts. But it seems that a group of ants may have been the original poop pill pioneers—46 million years ago.

A new collaborative study, published in Nature Communications, determined that turtle ants (Cephalotes) are able to supplement their low-nitrogen diets by passing helpful bacteria from older ants to younger ones through anal secretions. Once this is done, the now-internalized microbes (tiny bacteria) naturally produce the nitrogen necessary for turtle ants to survive.

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Credit: Jon Sanders.

A cephalotes ant tending a membracid on a plant.

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Giant Turtle ants(Cephalotes atratus) encounter a column of Red army ants.

 

Large workers of turtle ants have dish-like heads that help them protect their colony by acting as living doorways.