Ant sperm gain speed by swimming in teams

A species of ant has evolved sperm that bundle together to increase their swimming speed. Researchers from Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium observed the behaviour in the desert ant,

_Cataglyphis savignyi_. Since queen ants mate multiple times, a male’s sperm must compete with those of other males in order to reach the spermatheca, the female organ for sperm storage.

Bundles of 50-100 sperm are on average 51% faster than lone sperm cells, suggesting that this “team swimming” evolved to give males a competitive fertilisation advantage. Read more at

Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)