Ants discovered healing trees
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Ants have been spotted healing trees in Panama, Central America - and it's a behaviour that has never been spotted before.
When holes were drilled into Cecropia tree trunks, scientists discovered that ants began emerging from their homes to patch up the damage, leaving the tree completely healed within 24 hours.
Azteca ants and Cecropia trees are both native to Panama and are said to have a very close bond, with ants using the trees as their homes.
The tree acts as a little apartment for the ants, and the passages within the tree allow the ants to move around easily.
In return, the ants pay rent by defending the tree's leaves from animals who would eat them. As we now know, they also do a bit of patch up work every now and again.
Here is a photo of a Cecropia tree. Ants live in these trees, healing them when they are wounded.
The experiment was done by a scientist called William Wcislo, from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
He found that the ants used plants fibres and tree sap to clean up any holes in the trees.
Wcislo said that while there are many examples of insects and other animals repairing their homes if damaged, only a few of these use other living species as their homes.
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