Wildlife
Eusocial describes species with a very highly developed social structure. Ants and termites are all eusocial, as are some species of bee and wasp and a few very unusual mammals. Eusocial animals live in colonies in a strict caste system. The queen and her consort are the only members of the colony that breed and the majority of offspring become workers and soldiers who gather food, protect the colony and raise the young on the queen's behalf.
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Desert ants
Australia's deserts are populated by meat ants and bulldog ants.
Every morning in the Australian desert, meat ants head out to find last night's fatalities. After butchering the remains of a grasshopper, they will carry the body parts back to their bunker. Meat ants outnumber all other animals at floor level, and all other invertebrates are dead meat. By taking the body parts below ground, the ants give the mulga trees the nutrition they need to grow in the desert. There are over 1000 species of ant in Australia but bulldog ants are the fiercest. Each one is 4 centimetres of pure aggression, but they are not just out for themselves. Hunters from the colony will bring back insects and even small reptiles to feel the underground colony. They dig shafts that go 2 metres underground where the queen and her larvae live in the coolest and best protected chambers. Here, the queen produces a constant supply of larvae.
Last supper
Only the fertilised hornet queen will survive the silly season to hibernate in the UK winter.
Only the fertilised hornet queen will survive the silly season to hibernate in the UK winter.
Taking out litter
Infra-red footage of leaf cutter ants cleaning their nest at night.
Infra-red footage of leaf cutter ants cleaning their nest at night.
Underground society
Life in the tunnel colonies of highly organised naked mole rats.
Life in the tunnel colonies of highly organised naked mole rats.
Fast food
Anteaters leave a trail of destruction as they snack speedily on termites.
Anteaters leave a trail of destruction as they snack speedily on termites.
Eusociality (Greek eu: "good/real" + "social") is a term used for the highest level of social organization in a hierarchical classification. Eusociality is characterized by cooperative brood care, overlapping adult generations and division of labor by reproductive and (partially) non-reproductive groups. In analogy with some human societies, groups of specialized individuals are sometimes called castes. Several different levels of sociality have been categorized including presocial (solitary but social), subsocial, parasocial (including communal, quasisocial, and semisocial), and eusocial.
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Damaraland mole rat
Naked mole rat
Army ant
Black garden ant
Buff-tailed bumblebee
Bumblebees
Common wasp
European honey bee
Hairy wood ant
Hornet
Lasius ants
Leaf-cutter ants
Scottish wood ant
Wood ants
Yellow meadow ant