Sweet but not so simple: How sugar changes the temper of Asian weaver ants

by Myrmecological News Blog · Published 26 January 2026 · Updated 28 January 2026

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Have you ever wondered why some ants get aggressive over a drop of sugar, while others don’t react as much? In their fascinating study, “The enigma of sugar: changes in aggressiveness of weaver ants across habitats in response to sugar supplies”, Yixue Zhang and colleagues explore how the availability of carbohydrates influences the behavior of the Asian weaver ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) across tropical habitats in Xishuangbanna, China. By combining behavioral experiments with stable isotope analyses, the researchers found that sugar does not always increase aggression, sometimes it can even slow the ants down. The findings of this research challenge the traditional assumptions about the sweet connection between sugar, energy, and ant-activity, offering a nuanced view of how diet and environment shape social insect behavior.

A Photoblog contribution by Akihiro Nakamura

Edit by Purbayan Ghosh and Salvatore Brunetti

Fig. 1. Weaver ants (*Oecophylla smaragdina*) are renowned for their nest-building behavior, weaving leaves together in the canopy. Here, we search for colonies by looking for their characteristic leaf nests. (© Yidan Wang).

Fig. 2. Experimental setup for testing how added carbohydrates influence weaver ant behavior. Feeders consisted of cotton balls wrapped in gauze: (a) treatment feeders soaked in a saturated sucrose solution and (b) control feeders soaked in distilled water. (© Peiyun Li).

Fig. 3. Weaver ant workers aggressively defend their nests by spraying formic acid. During experiments, we wore raincoats to protect ourselves from potential skin burns. (© Vincent Okelo Wanga).

Fig. 4a and Fig. 4b Weaver ants travel down from the canopy in long trails in search of food. Once a feeder is located, workers quickly recruit in large numbers and swarm over the bait. (© Yixue Zhang).