The suicidal ant C. Explodens blows itself up when attacked, spraying victims with toxic glue that binds them together forever more.

They say the only animal to commit suicide is Homo sapiens, since that whole thing about lemmings casting themselves off cliffs en masse is hooey. But it turns out there are multiple species of ants who live peacefully in Southeast Asian treetops, unless something threatens their colony. Then they blow themselves up.

Until recently, science had failed to distinguish between several of these species. Now a new study headed by Dr. Alice Laciny of the Vienna Natural Museum has not only contributed to that, but identified a particularly dedicated member of the tribe in the forest canopies of Borneo, Thailand and Malaysia.

In fact these ants were described as early as 1798, though early entomologists didn’t realize they would commit explosive suicide when provoked. Their kamikaze bent has been known for a century after being discovered in the middle of World War I. "The exploding behavior was first observed in 1916 by German entomologist Hugo Viehmeyer (apparently a war was not enough to distract him from his research)," Laciny tells Haaretz.

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