It might seem surprising that a colony of ants would tolerate the type of guests that gobble both their grub and their babies. But new research shows there’s likely a useful tradeoff to calmly accepting these parasite ants into the fold: They have weaponry that’s effective against their host ants and a more menacing intruder ant. The study by Rachelle Adams, assistant professor in the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, appears online in the journal Animal Behaviour.

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