Necrophoresis is a sanitation behavior found in social insects – such as ants, bees, wasps, and termites – in which they carry away the dead bodies of members of their colony from the nest or hive area. The term was introduced in 1958 by E.O. Wilson and his colleagues.[1] The behaviour was however known from before with Pliny making the claim that ants were the only animals other than humans to bury their dead.[2]
- ^ Wilson, E.O.; Durlach, N.I.; Roth, L.M. (December 1958). "Chemical Releasers of Necrophoric Behavior in Ants". Psyche: A Journal of Entomology. 65 (4): 108–114. doi:10.1155/1958/69391. ISSN 0033-2615.
- ^ Bostock, John; Riley, H.T., eds. (1855). The Natural History of Pliny. Vol. 3. London: Henry G. Bohn. p. 38.