According to foreign media reports, scientists recently discovered a new species of ant in the Philippines, which they have dubbed the "pirate ant" because of a black stripe across its eyes, resembling a pirate captain's eye patch.
Of course, it has a scientific name, "Cardiocondyla pirata," and belongs to the Cardiocondyla genus, which is widely distributed from Thailand across Indonesia and Malaysia. Sabine Frohschammer, a doctoral student at the University of Regensburg in Germany, stated: "When we were conducting research in the Philippines, we were searching everywhere for ants of the Cardiocondyla genus, because the males of this genus possess very unique morphological and behavioral characteristics."
Frohschammer and her colleagues found some known species of ants, and then, by a small stream shaded by trees, they noticed an ant they could not identify. Frohschammer said: "Due to the dim light in the rainforest and the ant's translucent body, it was almost invisible to the naked eye." She added: "It was only later, with the help of a flashlight and a magnifying glass, that we clearly saw the beautiful dark stripe on the ant's eyes, and we quickly gave it the nickname: 'pirate ant'."
However, as to why it has such a dark stripe only on its eyes when its entire body is otherwise devoid of stripes, the research team stated that they cannot currently provide a definitive explanation, especially since this phenomenon has never been seen in closely related ant species. Pirate ants live in the dark and have poor eyesight, relying mainly on chemical and tactile senses to communicate. Scientists believe that this characteristic should rule out the possibility that the dark band serves as a sexual attraction signal to display to the opposite sex, as their poor vision would make such a display meaningless.
Researchers are now more inclined to believe that this dark band is used to confuse their predators. For a predator, this black band, which almost splits the ant's head in two, might make it mistake the ant for something other than prey, such as two separate objects on the ground, thereby protecting the ant from attack.
