Ants That Illegally Procreate Are Revealed By Their Guilty Smell

Worker ants that get too big for their britches and attempt to reproduce in a colony ruled by a queen are attacked by fellow colony members, according to a new study. By ant colony conventions, worker ants are supposed to give up procreating themselves in favor of taking care of the queen's eggs. Researchers found that the occasional cheating worker ant gives off a distinct "fertility pheromone" that notifies other ants and incurs their wrath. Entomologist Les Greenberg said, "