News tagged with social insects

Related topics: ants , wasps

Worm seeks worm: Researchers find chemical cues driving aggregation in nematodes

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have long seen evidence of social behavior among many species of animals, both on the earth and in the sea. Dolphins frolic together, lions live in packs, and hornets construct ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jan 12, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Organism diversity: Fast-evolving genes control developmental differences in social insects

Genes essential to producing the developmental differences displayed by social insects evolve more rapidly than genes governing other aspects of organismal function, a new study has found.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Sep 19, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Next generation of algorithms inspired by problem-solving ants

(PhysOrg.com) -- An ant colony is the last place you'd expect to find a maths whiz, but University of Sydney researchers have shown that the humble ant is capable of solving difficult mathematical problems.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 10, 2010 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (27) | comments 11 | with audio podcast

Ants die alone, protecting their nest mates from infection

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists studying ants have discovered that when they are seriously ill they voluntarily go away from the nest to die, which reduces the chances of them passing their infection to nest mates.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 16, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (18) | comments 1 | with audio podcast report

What is the meaning of 'one'? Evolutionary biologists argue for new meaning of 'organismality'

Rice University evolutionary biologists David Queller and Joan Strassmann argue in a new paper that high cooperation and low conflict between components, from the genetic level on up, give a living thing its "organismality," ...

Biology / Evolution

created Nov 09, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 6

Scientists discover first ever record of insect pollination from 100 million years ago

Amber from Cretaceous deposits (110-105 my) in Northern Spain has revealed the first ever record of insect pollination. Scientists have discovered in two pieces of amber several specimens of tiny insects covered ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 14, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Meet the beetles: Social networks provide clues to natural selection

Think of them as a group of guys, hanging out together, but not spending much time with the ladies, nor getting much "action." Except these "guys" are forked fungus beetles.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jan 30, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists discover first-ever bee 'soldier'

(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Sussex scientists working with researchers in Brazil have identified the first example of a 'soldier' bee.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jan 09, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (9) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

How unrelated wasps succeed by helping others breed

(PhysOrg.com) -- Why do some animals help to rear the young of an unrelated individual without any apparent benefit to themselves?

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Aug 12, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Monogamous queens help bees cooperate

(PhysOrg.com) -- New research published today in Nature Communications online journal suggests that monogamy and close genetic relationships work together to enhance the cooperative social structure of ins ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jul 20, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Can bees color maps better than ants?

In mathematics, you need at most only four different colors to produce a map in which no two adjacent regions have the same color. Utah and Arizona are considered adjacent, but Utah and New Mexico, which only share a point, ...

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Mar 10, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Studying ants to find out how colony size affects patterns of behavior, energy use

(PhysOrg.com) -- How does size affect the organization and physiology of superorganisms such as bacterial communities, insect colonies or human cities? James Waters and Tate Holbrook, graduate students in ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jan 26, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Rhythmic vibrations guide caste development in social wasps

(PhysOrg.com) -- Future queen or tireless toiler? A paper wasp's destiny may lie in the antennal drumbeats of its caretaker.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jan 24, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

When their tools get dull, leaf-cutters switch jobs (w/ Video)

When their razor-sharp mandibles wear out, leaf-cutter ants change jobs, remaining productive while letting their more efficient sisters take over cutting, say researchers from two Oregon universities.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 09, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers Find 'Key Ingredient' That Regulates Termite Caste System

(PhysOrg.com) -- A North Carolina State University entomologist has for the first time shown which specific chemicals are used by some termite queens to prevent other termites in the colony from becoming mommies like themselves.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jul 08, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast