Noah rode out his flood in an ark. Winnie-the-Pooh had an upside-down umbrella. Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta), meanwhile, form floating rafts made up of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of individual insects.
Plants & Animals
Mar 2, 2022
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152
A team of researchers at the University of Colorado has found that fire ants can create 'appendages' on the rafts they make out of their own bodies when they find themselves in water. In their paper published in the Journal ...
A team of researchers at Canada's Simon Fraser University has found that several species of spiders avoid areas where fire ants have recently congregated. In their paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, ...
The aptly named gopher tortoise is a keystone species of the southeastern United States, digging burrows that can extend more than 30 feet and serve as a habitat for more than 350 other species. Unfortunately, one of them ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 12, 2021
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5
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
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1081
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
Fire ants are on the move, and aided by climate change, they're heading north.
Ecology
Jun 18, 2020
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24
Fire ants build living rafts to survive floods and rainy seasons. Georgia Tech scientists are studying if a fire ant colony's ability to respond to changes in their environment during a flood is an instinctual behavior and ...
General Physics
Nov 26, 2019
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230
Native to South America, imported fire ants have now spread to parts of North America and elsewhere around the world. These invasive pests have painful stings that, in some cases, can cause serious medical problems, such ...
Other
Oct 16, 2019
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9
