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"Exploding" Termite Species Discovered

Posted by samzenpus on from the needs-of-the-many dept.

ananyo writes "A species of termite found in the rainforests of French Guiana takes altruism seriously: aged workers grow sacks of toxic blue liquid that they explode onto their enemies in an act of suicidal self-sacrifice to help their colonies. The 'explosive backpacks' of Neocapritermes taracua grow throughout the lifetimes of the worker termites, filling with blue crystals secreted by a pair of glands on the insects' abdomens. Older workers carry the largest and most toxic backpacks. Those individuals also, not coincidentally, are the least able to forage and tend for the colony: their mandibles become dull and worn as the termites age, because they cannot be sharpened by moulting (abstract)."

5 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. We can learn from the termites how to fix Society by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    These altruistic termites may not "understand" what they are doing in a conscious sense, but we could learn from them to fix our Society. They function not only as individuals but part of a greater whole. We don't need to explode to serve the greater good, however--we just need to do pool resources a bit more effectively. Sacrifice some resources if not to burst like toxic sacs.

    So, as a society, why haven't we yet LEGALLY justified confiscating Bill Gates' money? Why is he allowed to keep his untold billions in unimaginable wealth when we have people DYING of fire ants in the southern US, people with non-custom pacemakers, the poor with curvilinear CRTs, and cell phone plans still being sold for phones > 0.375" thick? The fact that we haven't yet confiscated Bill Gates' money for the greater SOCIAL GOOD is a SIN and we are all CONDEMNED to HELL for it!

  2. Exploding ants by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: -1, Troll

    Exploding ants aren't a new discoveries

    Here's a clip from youtube

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq3K9bE6PxY

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  3. Re:We can learn from the termites how to fix Socie by SJHillman · · Score: -1, Troll

    HINT: If we start confiscating wealth, then nobody will bother accumulating it in the first place. Your plan will work great for all of 6 months and then the entire world will be in the shitter rather than just large parts of it.

  4. Re:And this news because? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    So now even termites are converting to Islam?

  5. Re:We can learn from the termites how to fix Socie by UnknownSoldier · · Score: -1, Troll

    > Social Security isn't a Ponzi scheme,
    Bullshit.

    "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

    Being *forced* to pay for other people's mismanagement of their health and wealth is NOT sustainable.

    By 2036, the program's actuaries predict, Social Security will have exhausted its reserves and will only be able to pay 77% of promised benefits.

    by 2033, 21 years from now, the so-called "Social Security trust fund" will be empty. ... Is a Ponzi scheme - which is basically theft by deception - lawful just because the government runs it? The Supreme Court has said yes.

    http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/09/08/is-social-security-a-ponzi-scheme/
    http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/04/26/social-security-iisi-ponzi-scheme/

    > it's an intergenerational contract that works for everyone provided that it survives.
    So how did people survive for the few hundred years *before* Social Insecurity was created in 1935?

    How has India managed to survive without Security Insecurity for the ~4,000 years prior to 1952?
    www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v16n5/v16n5p11.pdf