Scientists have unleashed terror against picnickers around the world... by creating monstrous "super-soldier" ants in laboratory experiments!
In a plot line directly out of a 1950s B sci-fi film, scientists say t
hey can now create the super-soldiers at will by dabbing normal ant larvae with a specific hormone. The larvae then develop into the so-called super-soldiers rather than normal soldier or worker ants.
The super-soldier ants use their massive, over-sized heads and deadly pincers to block the entrance to their nest to protect the colony from being invaded by enemy ants from nearby colonies. The super-soldier ants occur naturally in the wild, but are actually extremely rare.
Scientists proved that ordinary ants of the species Pheidole morrisi contain all the genetic codes needed to turn them into super-soldiers in the wild, but only under very specific conditions, which can now be re-created in the lab.
The research on the experiment has now been published in this month's edition of the Journal of Science.
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| Photo: The Daily Mail |
