Ants Punish Cheaters

"Ants get aggressive with cheats" from BBC News reports that ants crack down on cheats.

Worker ants who try to reproduce are attacked by other ants as this is only the job of the queen - and workers relinquish those rights to tend to the queen.

In ant society, workers normally give up reproducing to care for the queen's offspring, who are also their brothers and sisters.

The researchers found that chemicals produced by the sneaky ants gave away their fertility status.

The findings by a US-German team of researchers are published in the journal Current Biology.