O bruennus is known to engage in ritual aggression/combat with nest mates to divide labor and decide ones position relative to the brood. The displays involve antennal dueling, where two individuals will meet and rapidly flutter/shiver their antennae, this sometimes progresses into aggressive grooming, where one individual will crouch down and the dominant one will stand over it and groom it. I see these behaviors often in my ~1 year old colony. However I have recently begun to see this behavior evolve into a more pronounced event. 3-5 workers will surround another and grab her by the legs/antennae. They will then hold her for several minutes while they all shiver their antennae. The shivering leads me to believe it is a dominance interaction, but the one paper I have read about the subject does not mention this behavior and it's very conspicuous. I was wondering if anyone had any input. Attached is a video.
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