Ants: when a foreign queen drives workers to matricide

Far from the usual image of the hard-working, supportive ant, a Japanese study published in Current Biology reveals a puzzling practice: matricide. Researchers have observed how a foreign queen manages to infiltrate a colony and, through a complex stratagem, incites the workers to turn against their own mother. This manipulation leads to the elimination of the resident queen, allowing the intruder to take her place. A fascinating behavior that sheds light on the hidden face of ants' social life.