An insect bites off another insect's leg. Is this predatory behavior, aggression, defense, competition or something else? In the case of carpenter ants, it's for the good of the amputee and to the benefit of the colony.
Plants & Animals
Aug 11, 2024
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13
In many animals, including ants, the blood-brain barrier (BBB) ensures normal brain function by controlling the movement of various substances in and out of the brain. Researchers reporting in the journal Cell on September ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 7, 2023
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13
Oregon State University research has identified the oldest known specimen of a fungus parasitizing an ant, and the fossil also represents a new fungal genus and species.
Ecology
Jun 22, 2021
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27
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
Hordes of brain-munching undead terrorizing neighborhoods make for fun television and movies, but zombies could never be real... or could they?
Other
Nov 1, 2019
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285
If it's thoughts of zombies that keep you awake at night, you shouldn't be worried about zombie humans; it's the carpenter ants (Camponotus castaneus) that should concern you most. When infected by a specialised fungus (Ophiocordyceps ...
Ecology
Jul 18, 2019
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17
Zombie ants clamp on to aerial vegetation and hang for months spewing the spores of their parasitic fungi, but researchers noticed that they do not always clamp on to the same part of the plant. Now the researchers know that ...
Plants & Animals
May 29, 2018
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346
You've probably heard about poop pills, the latest way for humans to get benevolent bacteria into their guts. But it seems that a group of ants may have been the original poop pill pioneers—46 million years ago.
Plants & Animals
Mar 6, 2018
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211
Ants can be annoying little insects. In your home, they make army-like lines to any crumbs on your floor. In your home's frame, carpenter ants can do a job of eating away your walls. But what about outside? Do ants play a ...
Environment
Mar 22, 2017
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26
Why do social beings sometimes put their own common sense aside to follow the lead of others, even though by doing so they could be brought to death's door? Research on carpenter ants (Camponotus mus) led by Roxana Josens ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 25, 2016
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