A serious leg injury or infection might require an amputation. Ants (C. floridanus) know that too. They have been observed to amputate injured legs of their nestmates by targeted bites close to the joint. Moreover, they differentiated between injuries: Is the femur (third element of the leg) injured, animals almost always amputate within a few hours. The tibia (second element of the leg) has a larger hemolymph system. Therefore, infections spread much quicker and amputations often come too late. Therefore, ants treat these wounds by licking. Biologists observed that isolated ants with infected leg wounds usually die within 48 hours. Among nestmates almost all animals survive such an injury. Since ants have six legs, they can easily cope with the loss of one.