Ants use their own acid to disinfect themselves and their stomachs. A team from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the University of Bayreuth has found that formic acid kills harmful bacteria in the animal's ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 3, 2020
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11
Imagine millions of leafcutter ants on parade through a tropical forest. Driven by a craving mysterious to humans, they suddenly stream up a towering tree trunk. How do they know exactly which species of leaves to cut for ...
Evolution
Oct 26, 2020
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158
Ants are one of the most successful groups of animals on the planet, occupying anywhere from temperate soil to tropical rainforests, desert dunes and kitchen counters. They're social insects and their team-working abilities ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 19, 2020
1
236
A unique study conducted by University of Georgia entomologists led to the discovery of a distinctive supergene in fire ant colonies that determines whether young queen ants will leave their birth colony to start their own ...
Ecology
Oct 16, 2020
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173
Researchers have observed black imported fire ants using sand to draw liquid food out of containers, when faced with the risk of drowning. This is the first time this sophisticated tool use has been reported in animals. These ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 8, 2020
1
1081
Newly mated queens of the red fire ant select nest sites with a relatively low pathogen risk by detecting odors produced by soil bacteria that inhibit the growth of ant-infecting fungi, according to a study published September ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 10, 2020
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132
Researchers from McGill University have revealed the steps by which two very distinct organisms—bacteria and carpenter ants—have come to depend on one another for survival to become a single complex life form. The study, ...
Evolution
Sep 2, 2020
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1628
Scientists from Queen Mary University of London have found that harmful mutations accumulating in the fire ant social chromosome are causing its breakdown.
Plants & Animals
Aug 25, 2020
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135
A team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania has found that some Indian jumping ant workers can transition to a queen-like state if their queen dies. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the ...
In findings published Aug. 6 in the journal Current Biology, researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of Rennes in France have unveiled a stunning 99-million-year-old ...
Archaeology
Aug 6, 2020
0
756
