Has anybody taken a good look at their ants? I mean a real good look? Even though ants from the same nest, and within the same caste, generally look the same that is not always the case. Just as in the human race we have people who are unfortunately born with a disability of somekind, this also appears to not be uncommon in ants.
Take, for example, my "Diagon Alley Colony" (Tapinoma erraticum); I have noticed that 2 members of this nest have missing limbs. One unfortunate worker has 4 1/2 legs, another has five. Yes, I know that they may not have been born with these limbs missing, but at the same time, these ants have never come across other colonies, and therefore have not engaged in fighting.
One worker of my "Azkaban Colony" (Myrmica rubra) has an abdomen that has quite a large indentation in it, which does not appear to affect the ant in anyway.
I also had a Lasius niger nanitic whose antenna had deformed antenna, in that the ends were very fat and club-ended.
Has anybody else noticed any deformities in ants within their colonies?
(Myrm@antnest.co.uk)
(www.antnest.co.uk)
"If only ants were the size of horses"

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