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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

These Ants Suit Up in a Protective 'Biomineral Armor' Never Seen Before in Insects [sciencealert.com]

Leaf-cutter ant colonies like Acromyrmex echinatior [wikipedia.org] can contain millions of ants, split into four castes that all have different roles to maintain a garden of fungus that the ants eat.

These farming ants might make a top-tier team of gardeners, but that doesn't mean they don't get into the occasional scrap, and living in such large groups usually also means facing an increased risk of pathogens.

For these reasons, a little protection never goes astray, and although scientists aren't entirely sure why, it seems these little guys needed protection enough to evolve their own natural body armour.

A team led by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison analysed this 'whitish granular coating' on A. echinatior and came to the conclusion that the coating is a self-made biomineral body armour - the first known example in the insect world.

Also at Science News [sciencenews.org].

Biomineral armor in leaf-cutter ants [nature.com] (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19566-3) (DX [doi.org])

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