Sitting in a small park in south-western Shanghai yesterday eating an orange, one or two ants happened to be walking around my feet. They were of medium size, about 7-8 mm long and black. One of them happened to keep walking around my foot, and I didn't want to step on it so I just tried to make it disinterested in my foot, but eventually it got too close and I closed down on it.
Several minutes later, the other ant of the same type happened upon the body of the dead ant. I was wondering what its reaction would be to a dead comrade, and I saw some interesting things. The second ant seemed a little agitated as it walked around the dead ant's body; it seemed to be using its feelers to inspect the body, and it also violently drove away smaller, brown ants of a different species that tried to approach the body. It looked like it was defending the dead ant's body from the smaller ants.
Then this second ant started to climb on top of the dead ant, starting at the head and then going down to the abdomen. I couldn't really see what it was doing except that it was progressing down the length of the body. Then I saw the second ant busily doing something with its head and face at the intersection of the thorax and abdomen (second and third parts of an insect). About a minute later, I saw the second ant pick up the large, whitish abdomen of the dead ant and it quickly carried it away under the leaves.
At that point I left, so I'm not sure whether it returned for the head and thorax of the dead ant.
Anyone have any idea why the live ant would so meticulously disassemble its fallen comrade?
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