Scientists document a rare form of social parasitism in which invading queens weaponize chemistry and worker ants to dethrone their queen mother.

For some would-be ant queens, the easiest way to take over a colony is to dupe its worker ants into committing regicide. The scientist E.O. Wilson once wrote that ants are the most warlike of all ...

In a forest floor coup that sounds almost fictional, a newly described parasitic ant has evolved a way to make loyal workers turn on their own mother and clear the throne for an invader. The discovery ...

A sneaky, stealthy parasite queen can turn an ant colony against itself. Newly-mated queens of two parasitic ant species have been found to sneak into an ant colony, creep towards the resident ant ...

Matthew Sparks receives funding from a PhD studentship through an EPSRC UKRI Doctoral Training Partnership between Swansea University and Rentokil Initial under the name 'Characterisation and ...