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AUTHORS		FAQ NAVIGATION
Who e-mail Handle Web site Phillip Pi y Ant The Ant Farm Randy Rencsok y Mr. Ant AntCam Andre Schmidt y Jinei Myrmecology James Trager y Dr. Ant		Prev Top Next Chapter Chapter Page Page

5.2 Why do ants fight even if they look the same?

Even same species of different colonies have a "different"
chemical odor (signature) ants are sensitive to this and
generally will attack to defend their colony and territory.
--Mr. Ant

However, some species are friendly to each other. The
relationship between colonies of Formica polyctena is friendly.
They have a so-called alliance of colonies. Between such
colonies, there are zones away from the home nest of different
behaviors.

For example: In the first zone, the ant from it was fed by the
workers from the other colony. In the second, the ant got caught,
transported, and included in the other colony. In the third zone,
the ant got killed. Super colonies, a bunch of different colonies
with friendly relationships could be very big.

CHERIX (1980) found a supercolony of 1200 nests from Formica
lugubris in Switzerland. There were four types of nests: capital
nests, secondary nests, seasonal nests, and fresh new build
nests (colonies). HIGASHI (1978) told that Formica yessensis
worker visited without being killed or even fought a nest of
another colony of yessensis. Some workers even visited the inside
of the colony and without getting fed. It also was not a
relationship between mother and daughter colonies, but between
old colonies. --Jinei