Posted in Ants, Nature, Science, tagged Ants, Dorymyrmex, formicidae, Insects, Photography, social insects on March 4, 2010| 12 Comments »
Who's that odd ant out?
While in sunny Florida last summer (ah, sunshine! I vaguely remember what that looks like), I spent an hour peering into a nest of little Dorymyrmex elegans. These slender, graceful ants are among Florida’s more charming insects.
Every few minutes, though, the flow of elegant orange insects out of the nest was interrupted by a darker, more robust ant: Dorymyrmex reginicula. Who was this interloper?
Posted in Ants, tagged florida, formicidae, Nature, Photography on June 22, 2009| 11 Comments »
Pogonomyrmex badius
The Archbold Biological Station hosts 100+ species of ants. Here are a few of them.
Posted in Ants, Science, tagged Ants, behavior, formicidae, movie on March 22, 2009| 3 Comments »
From the recent documentary Ants: Nature’s Secret Power, a glimpse of how researchers study ant behavior in the lab:
Posted in Ants, Science, tagged formicidae, natural history on February 19, 2009| 14 Comments »
A query from the inbox:
Hi, my question is regarding the gender of the worker ants (and the ant queen). As we all know; they are female, however was this discovered many centuries ago or is this a recent discovery?
I plead ignorance. I know apiculturists had figured out the sex of worker bees in by the late 1700s, and that by the 1800s it was widely accepted that ant workers were also female. But that’s the extent of my knowledge.
So I’m punting to my diligent readers. Do any of you know who first observed that ant workers are female?
Posted in Ants, Science, tagged acoustic mimicry, behavior, ecology, formicidae, Insects on February 6, 2009| 5 Comments »
As if butterflies weren’t flamboyant enough already, it seems that some of them actively impersonate queens.
Queen ants, that is. A report by Francesca Barbero et al in today’s issue of Science documents a clever strategy employed by a European butterfly, the Mountain Alcon Blue Maculinea rebeli, to infiltrate nests of Myrmica schencki. The immature stages of the butterfly are parasites of ant colonies, and it seems the secret to their success is acoustic mimicry. The larvae and pupae squeak like queens, eliciting preferential treatment from the workers. Here’s the abstract:
Ants dominate terrestrial ecosystems through living in complex societies whose organization is maintained via sophisticated communication systems. The role of acoustics in information exchange may be underestimated. We show that Myrmica schencki queens generate distinctive sounds that elicit increased benevolent responses from workers, reinforcing their supreme social status. Although fiercely defended by workers, ant societies are infiltrated by specialist insects that exploit their resources. Sounds produced by pupae and larvae of the parasitic butterfly Maculinea rebeli mimic those of queen ants more closely than those of workers, enabling them to achieve high status within ant societies. We conclude that acoustical mimicry provides another route for infiltration for ~10,000 species of social parasites that cheat ant societies.
Sounds of the ants and the butterfly are posted at Science News. See also commetary by Discover and Not Exactly Rocket Science.
source: Barbero, F. and J.A. Thomas, S. Bonelli, E. Balletto, K. Schönrogge. 2009. Queen ants make distinctive sounds that are mimicked by a butterfly social parasite. Science 323(Feburary 6): 782-785.
Posted in Ants, Australia, fun, tagged Ants, formicidae, iridomyrmex, Nature on February 4, 2009| 4 Comments »
The blue-green iridescence on these Iridomyrmex purpureus workers shines from microscopic sculpturing on the ants' cuticle.
I’ve never taken to the Australian vernacular for one of their most conspicuous insects. The latin Iridomyrmex purpureus translates as “purple rainbow ant”, referring both to the base color of the body and to the attractive metallic refractions on the cuticle. But Aussies instead call this colorful species the “meat ant.” Crass by comparison.
On the other hand, it’d probably not do my reputation of masculine bravado much good were I to stroll into a dusty pub in the outback and announce my affection for “purple rainbow ants.” Crikey! Meat ants it is, then.
A few more pics: (more…)
Posted in Ants, Science, tagged formicidae, myrmecology on January 31, 2009| 1 Comment »
My earlier list of the most-studied ant species contained a few omissions. Here is a more inclusive list:
Ant species sorted by number of BIOSIS-listed publications, 1984-2008
| The Top 10 Species | Publications |
| Solenopsis invicta | 984 |
| Linepithema humile | 343 |
| Lasius niger | 250 |
| Formica rufa | 167 |
| Atta sexdens | 163 |
| Formica polyctena | 160 |
| Solenopsis geminata | 151 |
| Myrmica rubra | 142 |
| Monomorium pharaonis | 121 |
| Atta cephalotes | 112 |
Posted in Ants, Science, tagged Ants, ecology, formicidae, invasive species, pheidole, Photography on January 29, 2009| 4 Comments »
Pheidole moerens, major worker, Louisiana
Pheidole moerens is a small, barely noticeable insect that travels about with human commerce, arriving without announcement and slipping quietly into the leaf litter and potted plants about town. As introduced ants go, P. moerens is timid and innocuous- it’s certainly no fire ant. The species is now present in the southeastern United States, a few places along the west coast, and Hawaii. Conventional wisdom suggests that P. moerens originated in the Greater Antilles, but even though the ant was first described from Puerto Rico a century ago its exact origin remains uncertain.
The Greater Antilles were a major hub in the global trade of the colonial era, receiving slaves from Africa and shipping sugar north to the distilleries. A great number of pests had already been carried to the islands by the time European scientists started to fully describe the fauna, so it’s not unlikely that many animals considered native there may have merely used the archipelago as a way-station between their actual origin and their ultimate global distribution.
Now that scientists are equiped with the tools of molecular genetics, we have the ability to determine more precisely the historical routes of spread. It would not take too much work to pin down the origin of P. moerens. But this ant is just one species of many that are both globally trampy and not particularly troublesome. Elucidating its origin is thus more an academic than an applied matter, so Pheidole moerens will likely remain mysterious for some time yet.
Pheidole moerens, minor worker, Louisiana
photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D
ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f/13, flash diffused through tracing paper
Posted in Ants, Insect Links, Photography Links, Science, tagged Atta, formicidae, polymorphism on November 20, 2008| 2 Comments »
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
Posted in Ants, Insect Links, Photography Links, tagged Atta, formicidae on November 19, 2008| 4 Comments »
Myrmecos Blog 