1161
Ant smell (mander.xyz)
submitted 5 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
471 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 30 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/61/2/85/1756864

https://www.livescience.com/why-ants-smell-weird

However, the sense of smell in humans is far less developed, and there has been recent controversy over what, exactly, the odorous house ant smells like. This species belongs to a large group of ants whose members are thought to smell like blue cheese (Forney and Markovetz 1971) [link is direct 3.0 mb .pdf download from elsevier], yet numerous online sources report their odor as “rancid butter,” “cleaning solution,” or, most commonly, “rotten coconuts.”

Specifically, the house ~~hippo~~ ant.

*The actual factual paper was actually literally published in 2015, no cap.

[-] Deebster@programming.dev 17 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

At the same time, Penick had people rate what they thought the ant smelled like. Most people said blue cheese, but some thought it smelled like rotted coconut. So Penick rotted a coconut in his backyard and found a mold growing on it that, sure enough, is the same mold (Penicillium roqueforti) that's used to produce blue cheese. Another mystery, solved.

So American house ants, rotten coconuts and blue cheese all smell the same. Life is weird.

[-] RavenFellBlade@startrek.website 7 points 5 months ago

Uh oh. They smell like blue cheese? That means they smell delicious!

[-] PhatInferno@midwest.social 4 points 5 months ago

Thats what i was thinking, i love bluecheese!

[-] RavenFellBlade@startrek.website 2 points 5 months ago

Especially Blue Stilton. By far my favorite cheese!

[-] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 months ago

Uhh... Wait. I may be able to smell them. Those descriptions are making me realize some things.

this post was submitted on 28 May 2024
1161 points (98.1% liked)

Science Memes

10940 readers
1893 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Sal@mander.xyz
fossilesque@mander.xyz
SciBot@mander.xyz