In a move that proves scientists have learnt nothing from watching B-grade horror movies, a group of genetic specialists from Canada have created freakish monster ants with giant heads and jaws.
The ants were created by dabbing normal ant larvae with a special hormone, after which the larvae develop into 'super-soldiers' rather than normal soldier or worker ants.
The scientists believe the monster ants could be a genetic throwback to an ancestor that lived millions of years ago and claim that the experiments show that ordinary ants of the species Pheidole morrisi contain all the genetic 'tools' needed to turn them into 'super-soldiers,' since all they need is a hormonal push for the development to occur.
Dr Rajendhran Rajakumar, from McGill University, Canada, and colleagues wrote: 'We uncovered an ancestral development potential to produce a novel 'super-soldier' subcaste that has been retained throughout a hyperdiverse ant genus that evolved 35 to 60 million years ago.'
These 'super-soldier' ants do occur in the wild, but only rarely. In the deserts of America and Mexico, they exist to protect their colony from raids by using their enormous heads to block the nest entrance and attack any enemy ants who venture too close.
(Image source: Alex Wild/alexanderwild.com).