Ant sperm gain speed by swimming in teams

Ant sperm gain speed by swimming in teams


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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)