Ants are known as hard workers, tirelessly attending to their assigned tasks—foraging for food, nurturing larvae, digging tunnels, tidying the nest. But in truth, some are total layabouts. Called workerless social parasites, ...
Evolution
Mar 3, 2023
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Broadly speaking, ants have two different feeding strategies. A large proportion of all species are "carnivorous," meaning that they are generalist predators feeding on other small animals or scavenging on their remains. ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 1, 2009
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(Phys.org) —A parasitic fungus that reproduces by manipulating the behavior of ants emits a cocktail of behavior-controlling chemicals when encountering the brain of its natural target host, but not when infecting other ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 25, 2014
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(Phys.org)—Their name is comical, but when crazy ants infest a neighborhood it's no laughing matter.
Plants & Animals
Nov 16, 2012
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Leafcutter ants, signature denizens of New World tropical forests, are unique in their ability to harvest fresh leaves to cultivate a nutrient-rich fungus as food.
Biotechnology
Feb 10, 2011
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When I was a teenager, I volunteered in the rainforest exhibit at an aquarium. A few times a week, we'd get a phone call from someone looking to donate a pet that they could no longer care for. Mostly turtles and frogs. The ...
Ecology
Mar 29, 2021
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Researchers plan and plot every considerable aspect of their work, but sometimes it's something unexpected and seemingly insignificant that leads to the real discovery. That was the case for Scott Powell, assistant professor ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 1, 2014
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A team of scientists conducting a recent biodiversity survey in the ancient church forests of Ethiopia made an unexpected discovery—a rather infamous ant species (Lepisiota canescens) displaying signs of supercolony formation. ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 22, 2016
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A team of researchers from Switzerland, France and New Zealand has found evidence suggesting that the bridgehead effect is a major driver for invasive species infections. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National ...
Powerful and deadly, the bite of a trap-jaw ant is renowned throughout the animal kingdom. Unlike normal gripping jaws, which rely on muscles to open and close, the trap-jaw latches itself open, storing energy like a stretched ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 2, 2021
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