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Posts Tagged ‘Atta’

Sunday Night Movie: The Atta City

Posted in Ants, fun, tagged , , , on January 25, 2009| 1 Comment »

Tonight’s selection was suggested for your viewing pleasure by Jack Longino.

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Big Sister, Little Sister

Posted in Ants, Insect Links, Photography Links, Science, tagged , , on November 20, 2008| 2 Comments »

cephalotes41

Atta cephalotes

Leafcutting ants of the genus Atta have perhaps the most complex caste systems of all the social insects.  Mature colonies contain millions of workers of varying shapes and sizes.  Here are two sisters from opposing ends of the spectrum.

photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D
ISO 100, f/13, 1/250 sec, flash diffused through tracing paper

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Lonely

Posted in Ants, Insect Links, Photography Links, tagged , on November 19, 2008| 4 Comments »

cephalotes43s

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Breaking News: The Atta Phylogeny

Posted in Ants, Insect Links, Science, Taxonomy, tagged , , , , on November 13, 2008| 3 Comments »

cephalotes3b

Atta cephalotes carrying leaves, Ecuador

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution this morning has the first detailed molecular phylogeny of the leafcutting ant genus Atta.  Maurício Bacci et al sequenced several mitochondrial genes and the nuclear gene EF-1a from 13 of the 15 described species-level taxa, using them to infer the evolutionary history of the genus.

This is an important paper.  (more…)

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