YEAR 2016-17
NECROPHORIC
BEHAVIOUR OF ANTS
SUMAN DEBNATH, Roll-21
M.SC SEMESTER -1, ZOOLOGY-SEMINER
SUMAN DEBNATH
BIDHANNAGAR COLLEGE
YEAR 2016
NECROPHORIC BEHAVIOUR OF ANTS
Contents
Certificate…………………………………………………
Acknowledgement……………………………………..
Introduction……………………………………………….
Ant carries The dead to the Grave
-yard……………………………………………………………
5. The reason behind the
Necrophoric Behaviour……………………………..
6. Types of Necrophoric Behaviour………………..
7. Some Pictures of necrophoric
behaviour observed in various
species of Ants……………………………………………
8. Death recognition and elicitation
Of necrophoric behaviour………………………….
9. Experimental set up to prove
Necrophoric behaviour………………………………
10. Perspective and future research………………
11. References ………………………………………………...
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NECROPHORIC BEHAVIOUR OF ANTS
Certificate
This is to certify that the candidate name SUMAN DEBNATH holding Roll no.
21 of session 2016-17 of BIDHANNAGAR COLLEGE (Affiliated to West
Bengal state University)
The candidate has completed the ‚Project for Zoology Seminar1(Necrophoric
behaviour of Ants)‛ Under my supervision for the Partial fulfillment of degree
of M.Sc in Zoology Examination Semester-I (2016-17)
The candidate was serious in his entire study period.
…………………………………………….
Dr. Ranajit Karmakar
[Head, Department of Zoology,
BIDHANNAGAR COLLEGE, Salt-lake]
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Authorization seal
NECROPHORIC BEHAVIOUR OF ANTS
Acknowledgement
I must gratefully acknowledge the moral support rendered by our
Dr. Ranajit Karmakar, Head of the department (Zoology), for giving me
the permission to work on the topic ‘Necrophoric Behaviour of Ants’ for
seminar of M.sc 1st semester.
I also express my deep sense of gratitude to Dr. Sourav
Chakroborty, for his proper guidance and valuable suggestion at all stages.
I am also grateful to all the other faculties of zoology department
of Bidhannagar College, for the help and moral support and above all I am
thankful to all my classmates of M.sc 1st semester for sharing their views
regarding my topic and also they have tried their best to guide me in a proper
way to complete this topic for seminar.
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NECROPHORIC BEHAVIOUR OF ANTS
Introduction

Ants are the most successful insect among the Animal
Kingdom.
 Hardly there is any land mass on earth surface which is
devoid of ants.
 The reason behind the success of ants throughout the world
is due to their highly organized behavior among its colony
members.

In spite of some common social behaviour, they have
numerous other unique and interesting behaviour, which
make their survivability more greater on this earth.
 Such peculiar behaviour often seen among ants are :
Herding , Group sacrifice , Raft building ,Agriculture,
Vampirism , Owning slave and Necrophoresis.
Necrophoresis :
In Greek (‘Necros’ refers to the dead and ‘phoresis’ means
transport)
Necrophoric Behaviour :
Among few social insects, such as bees, wasp, termites and
ants, one of the most conspicuous nest cleaning activities is the
stereotypic removal of the dead nest-mate from the nest.
(Wheeler 1926; Wilson et al. 1958)
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NECROPHORIC BEHAVIOUR OF ANTS
Ant carries the dead to the
grave-yard :
• When ant dies in an ant-nest or near ones, its body is quickly
picked up by living ants and removed from the colony.
• The phenomenon of Necrophoric behaviour resulted in
anthropomorphic descriptions by early naturalists, such as
“funerals” and “cemeteries” in honey bees and ants.
• Necrophoric behaviour is interchangeable with undertaking
behaviour in some literature. Here, we use undertaking
behaviour as a broad term that includes corpse removal from
the nest, burial (covering the dead with soil and/or other
materials) and avoidance (preventing contagion by intentionally
avoiding areas where the dead are located), a behaviour
sometimes considered as necrophobia.
• Mc.Cook’s(1879,1882) account of corpse disposal behaviour in
the Harvest ant (Pognomyrmexbarbatus), his observation
revealed that dead workers are transported out by the nest by
their sisters and deposited in a heap, outside the entrance of the
hive.
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NECROPHORIC BEHAVIOUR OF ANTS
The reason behind the Necrophoric
Behaviour :
o In social insects, Necrophoresis is a sequential array of
corpse-induced behavioral responses that target potential
health-related hazards to maintain colony fitness.
o To maintain healthy colonies, eusocial hymenopterans (bees,
wasps, ants) and isopterans (termites) have evolved
sophisticated mechanisms to counter the threat of epidemic
disease at both the individual and colony level, including
active immune responses and behavioral adaptations.
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NECROPHORIC BEHAVIOUR OF ANTS
Different types of Necrophoric
behaviour in Ants :
•The behavioral patterns of ants are extremely diverse. Ants transport
corpses to certain sites is depending on the species.
• Carrying dead nest-mates outside and discarding them on Refuse piles
have been observed in :
• Myrmicine ants: Pogonomyrmexbadiusand S. saevissima, Bull ants:
Myrmeciavindex, Red imported fire ant : S. invicta, Army ants: Eciton,
Argentine ants: L. humile, common red ant: Myrmicarubra.
• Corpse removal to Special refuse chambers has also been reported in
several other ant species such as:
•The desert leaf-cutter ant Acromyrmex versicolor and another species
Temnothorax lichtensteini.
• Cannibalism of dead individuals was observed in:
• The Myrmicine ants of genera: Pheidoleand Solenopsis, The weaver
ants: Oecophylla, the red wood ant: Formica rufa.
• Perform burial behaviors using soil and nest material in response to
corpses such as in T. lichtensteini
• Another prophylactic strategy noticeable in ants is that moribund
individuals leave their nests to die alone, as reported in: Temnothorax
unifasciatus
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NECROPHORIC BEHAVIOUR OF ANTS
Some Pictures of necrophoric behaviour
observed in various species of Ants:
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NECROPHORIC BEHAVIOUR OF ANTS
Death recognition and elicitation of
necrophoric behaviour :
• Once individuals die in the active area of a social colony, colony members
need to distinguish the dead from the living before taking any action. Death
recognition depends on diverse cues, including chemical, tactile (e.g., shape
and texture), and possibly visual input. Recognition of the dead has been
widely shown to be achieved through chemical cues, explained by two
primary hypotheses, “fatty acid death cue” and “chemical vital sign”.
Considering the death recognition Two hypotheses are there :“fatty acids death
cue” and “chemical vital sign”.
1) Fatty acids death cue:
-Pioneering studies on the nature of necrophoric stimuli conducted by
Wilson and his colleagues in two ant species, Pogonomyrmexbadiusand S.
saevissima, suggested that fatty acids, particularly oleic acid accumulating in
dead bodies, trigger undertaking responses. This conclusion was confirmed
later in other ant species. The idea of a “fatty acid death cue” eliciting
necrophoric responses has been widely accepted for decades.
2) Chemical vital sign:
-Chemical vital sign hypothesis” was first demonstrated by Choe et al. In
the Argentine ant Linepithemahumile(Mayr). Reductions in the quantity of
two cuticular chemicals, dolichodial and iridomyrmecin on live workers, plays
a more important role in inducing undertaking responses.. The “chemical vital
sign” hypothesis suggests an adaptive response toward freshly dead/killed
individuals in insect societies. Instead of waiting for the release of “fatty acid
death cue”, social insects living in dense populated colonies rely on the
“chemical vital sign” to recognize dead individuals and elicit appropriate
necrophoric responses before the decomposition of corpses.
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NECROPHORIC BEHAVIOUR OF ANTS
Experimental set-ups to prove the
necrophoric behaviour in Ants:
Fig. Dead Ants spotted outside the artificial ant hive.
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NECROPHORIC BEHAVIOUR OF ANTS
Perspectives and future
research:
• There is renewed interest in necrophoric behaviour,
especially defining behavioral responses and sensory cues.
• Task allocation during the necrophoric process is poorly
understood.
• The role of reserve labor in many species of ants are yet
to be investigated.
• The genetic underpinnings of undertaking responses
remain an unsolved mystery and warrant further
investigation. Given that necrophoric behavior is one of
the characteristics shared among eusocial groups,
comparative studies in diverse eusocial lineages using
integrative approaches involving behavioral observation,
chemical ecology, genomic and functional genomic
analyses will shed light on the proximate mechanisms of
eusociality.
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NECROPHORIC BEHAVIOUR OF ANTS
References
• Book–
“The Ant” by E. O. Wilson and Bert Hölldobler
• eBooks –
“Ant colony optimization” by Marco Dorigo and Thomas Stützle
• Research Article –
1) Necrophoresis in two Indian ant species,
Camponotuscompressus (Fabricius) and Diacamma vagans (Smith)
(Insecta:Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
2) Necrophoric Behavior in the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile
(Mayr) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
• Websites –
• International journal of Biological science –corpse management in social insect:
Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3619097/
• Wikipedia-Necrophoresis:
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necrophoresis
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