Trans-generational immunization in the acrobat ant .

Trans-generational immunization is defined as the transmission of an enhanced resistance to a pathogen from parents to offspring. By using the host-parasite system of the ant and the entomopathogenic fungus , we describe this phenomenon for the first time in ants. We exposed four groups of hibernating queens to different treatments (i) a non-lethal dose of live conidiospores in Triton, (ii) a dose of heat-killed conidiospores in Triton, (iii) a control Triton solution, and (iv) a naive control.