After humans, ants are now the only species found performing life-saving surgery on others of their species!

For years, we’ve guffawed at the antics of the unhinged Florida man. Fed up with the ridicule, the region’s ants have taken it upon themselves to improve the reputation of the coastal state by simply doing what they do best: becoming life-saving surgeons!

In a fascinating turn of events, scientists have documented that Florida carpenter ants (Camponotus floridanus) engage in selective medical treatments, including wound cleaning and even amputation, to care for their injured nestmates.

Blending personal and the professional

However, the process of treatment might be a little more gross than we’re used to. As per the research, the ants prescribe two primary types of treatments: wound cleaning with mouthparts or a combination of cleaning followed by full amputation of the leg. The decision on which treatment to use depended on the injury's location.

While the treatment might be more personal than you would expect, you certainly cannot argue with the results.

"Femur injuries, where they always amputated the leg, had a success rate around 90% or 95%. And for the tibia, where they did not amputate, it still achieved about the survival rate of 75%," explains study author Erik Frank. In contrast, untreated infected wounds had much lower survival rates.

Why such selective surgery?

But why do ants choose to amputate the femur but not the tibia? The researchers hypothesised it might relate to the risk of infection. Micro-CT scans revealed that the femur, rich in muscle tissue, is crucial for circulating blood, or hemolymph, suggesting that femur injuries could lead to dangerous infections if not amputated.

However, tibia injuries, with less muscle tissue involved, required more time for careful cleaning to prevent rapid infection spread. Amputating the tibia was too slow to be effective, hence the preference for thorough cleaning.

Humans, and now ants!

"The fact that the ants are able to diagnose a wound, see if it's infected or sterile, and treat it accordingly over long periods of time by other individuals — the only medical system that can rival that would be the human one," Frank remarks.

The researchers are now exploring if other Camponotus species exhibit similar behaviours and how these ants manage such precise medical care. Understanding the innate cooperation and potential for pain perception in ants could offer deeper insights into the complexity of insect societies.

However, this is not to say that this discovery is entirely out of the blue either. In 2023, it was found that Megaponera analis, another ant species, uses antimicrobial compounds from a special gland to treat injuries. However, Florida carpenter ants lack this gland, relying solely on mechanical means for their medical care.

The findings of this research have been published in Current Biology and can be accessed here.