Honeypot ant
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Honeypot ants, also called honey ants, are ants which have specialized workers—repletes, plerergates or rotunds—that consume large amounts of food to the point that their abdomens swell enormously. Th
Myrmecocystus honeypot ants, showing the repletes or plerergates, their abdomens swollen to store honey, above ordinary workers
Honeypot ants compared to a human hand. The dark dorsal sclerites are widely separated by the stretched arthrodial membrane of the inflated abdomen of each replete.
Digging for honey ants
Trophallaxis
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Trophallaxis is the direct transfer of fluid and food between individuals, typically through mouth-to-mouth or anus-to-mouth feeding. Along with nutrients, trophallaxis can involve the transfer of mol
Honeypot ant
…enormously. This phenomenon of extreme inflation of the trunk is called physogastry. Other ants then extract nourishment from them, through the process of trophallaxis. They function as living larders. Honeypot ants belong to any of several genera, including Myrmecocystus and Camponotus. They were first documented in…
Trophallaxis in Asian-Australian weaver ant O. smaragdina, Thailand
Trophallaxis in carpenter ants Camponotus sp.
Food sharing between parent and chick chinstrap penguins Pygoscelis antarctica.
Starling Feeding Offspring