Colonies of the Leptothorax hosts of the slavemakers Protomognathus americanus and Leptothorax duloticus defend tiny geographical territories against neighbouring colonies. If a territorial fight ends with one colony over-running the nest of another, the victorious colony kidnaps brood from the vanquished colony's nest. Sometimes this leads to slavery within colonies of these normally free-living host species.
This photo shows a colony of the black species Leptothorax longispinosus that contains reddish L. ambiguus slaves as a result of a territorial raid that occurred in the laboratory. The winged ants are males.
When a Leptothorax forager returns to her nest, she shares food with her nestmates. Here a Leptothorax longispinosus forager (left) regurgitates food to another worker.
