Nepotism uncovered in ant colonies
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Worker ants: keeping it in the family
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 This nepotistic behavior indicates that ant workers are able not only to detect kin relationships, but also to pursue their selfish genetic interests if the costs to their colony are not prohibitive. 
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-- Liselotte Sundstrom, researcher
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LONDON (Reuters) -- Not all ants live up to their image as egalitarian hard workers -- some are even guilty of nepotism, Finnish researchers said on Wednesday.
Instead of putting the best interests of the colony ahead of their own, scientists at the University of Helsinki have discovered an ant species that ruthlessly favors its own relations in colonies descended from multiple queen ants.
"This nepotistic behavior indicates that ant workers are able not only to detect kin relationships, but also to pursue their selfish genetic interests if the costs to their colony are not prohibitive," said researcher Liselotte Sundstrom.
Known to cooperate
Until now there has been little evidence of nepotism in insects, apart from in the honeybee. Ants are social workers who are renowned for their cooperative behavior.
But in a report in the science journal Nature, Sundstrom and her colleagues uncovered nepotism while studying colonies of Formica fusca ants.
Worker ants in the species favored their own relatives when caring for eggs and larvae, which researchers said implied they capitalized on their ability to discriminate.
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