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Topic: Army ant


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Ant

In the News (Tue 7 Oct 08)

  
  Army ant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
When the ants enter the statary phase, the queen's body swells massively and she lays as many as 250,000 eggs in less than a week.
There are ant-mimicking staphylinid beetles, shaped like the ants they follow, that run with the swarm preying on stragglers or other insects injured or flushed by army-ant activity; and there are insects that spend their entire lives hidden in Eciton colonies mimicking ant larvae.
Brady, S. Evolution of the army ant syndrome: the origin and long-term evolutionary stasis of a complex of behavioral and reproductive adaptations.
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Army_ant   (1058 words)

  
 Army ants defy evolution   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
Army ants, nature's ultimate coalition task force, strike their prey en masse in a blind, voracious column and pay no attention to the conventional wisdom of evolutionary biologists.
Army ants have evolved only once and that was in the mid-Cretaceous period," said Sean Brady, a Cornell postdoctoral researcher in entomology, whose study was conducted while he was a doctoral candidate at the University of California-Davis.
They have what scientists call the "army ant syndrome," comprising three characteristics: the ants are nomadic, they forage for prey without advance scouting and their wingless queens can produce up to 4 million eggs in a month.
www.news.cornell.edu /http://www.news.corne/Chronicle/03/9.18.03/army_ants.html   (591 words)

  
 Dorylinae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Their presence is also beneficial to certain human communities, such as the Maasai, as they perform a pest prevention service in farming communities, consuming the majority of other crop-pests, from insects to large rats.
Male driver ants, sometimes known as "sausage flies" (a term also applied to males of New World Army ants) due to their bloated, sausage-like abdomens, are the largest known ant "morphs" in existence, and were originally believed to be members of a different species.
When a colony of driver ants encounters a male, they tear its wings off and carry it back to the nest to be mated with the queen.
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Driver_ant   (362 words)

  
 California Wild Winter 2005 - Feature   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
Ants are rulers of their tiny, hidden world, a world near our feet that most of us ignore-unless you are a kid or have a house infested with the ubiquitous Argentine ants.
Reports of army ants killing horses, or needing flamethrowers to control their rampage, as in the story of "Leiningen vs. the Ants," are exaggerations, but they are based on a modicum of truth.
Although army ants have a reputation of devouring everything in their path, the larvae of the beetles proved to be immune from attack.
www.calacademy.org /calwild/2005winter/stories/ants.html   (2480 words)

  
 Infinite World -- Army Ant Modeling
Energetics of trail-running, load carriage, and emigration in the column-raiding army ant eciton hamatum.
Franks, N.R. Social insects in the aftermath of swarm raids of the army ant eciton burchelli [ethology, escape and foraging behaviors], in The biology of social insects: Proceedings, ninth congress, international union for the study of social insects, boulder, colorado, august 1982, H.E. Evans, Editor.
The influence of swarm raiding army ants on the patchiness and diversity of a tropical leaf litter ant community, in Tropical rain forest: Ecology and management.
www.infiniteworld.org /ant/model   (1613 words)

  
 BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Ant history revealed
But the new research means that army ants join animals such as sharks and crocodiles that have remained relatively unchanged for many tens of millions of years.
Army ants are unlike the ants found at family picnics.
Because army ants are found almost everywhere, scientists postulated that they evolved many times after the break-up and dispersal of the supercontinent Gondwana just over 100 million years ago.
news.bbc.co.uk /1/hi/sci/tech/3014011.stm   (355 words)

  
 ScienceWeek
Army ants are characterized by a unique combination of mass-raiding and recurrent migrations.
In the tropics, army ants are an important factor contributing to the maintenance of biodiversity.
As numerous workers are needed to conduct these mass-raids, army ants have large colonies which reproduce by fission: this is a rather unusual form of colony reproduction in which a mature colony splits, with parts of the colony and brood walking off and following either their old queen or a sister queen.
scienceweek.com /2003/sb031107-1.htm   (1130 words)

  
 Current Research   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
Army Ants are one of the most sophisticated of all social insects, with single colonies reaching populations in the millions.
Army Ants have the ability to conduct daily raids, clearing a single patch of area of all life within hours.
Army Ant workers form highly cooperative raiding columns with individual traffic lanes of outbound and inbound ants moving to and from the nest.
pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca /~sueng/Research/CurrentResearch.html   (1439 words)

  
 Insecta Inspecta World - Leafcutting Ants   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
Ants may very well compete with members of their own species, regardless of color.
The true relatives of the ant are bees and wasps.
The leaves the Leafcutting Ant carries to its nest are 30 times their weight, a feat equivalent to a human carrying a bulldozer.
www.insecta-inspecta.com /ants/leafcutter   (903 words)

  
 Ants
Larger ants, called soldiers, are produced for defense and usually have large strong jaws used to protect the colony.
Ants will transport aphids from plant to plant and take the eggs into their colony for the winter.
Carpenter ants are fl or reddish fl with large jaws and are among the largest ants.
www.ivyhall.district96.k12.il.us /4th/kkhp/1insects/ant.html   (633 words)

  
 BBC - Science & Nature - Articles - Ants can't hurt you, can they?
Instead, they have much sharper mandibles to slice away at their victims, something the army ants are unable to do, and because of these differences, the range of prey items varies between the two families.
A tethered cow is occasionally discovered, smothered in ants, asphyxiated and bleeding internally from where the insects swarmed in through its ears, mouth and nose.
The ant grapples at the floor with hooked feet hampering the scorpion's escape, and, undetectable to my human senses, releases a recruitment chemical from a pair of special glands.
www.bbc.co.uk /nature/animals/features/268feature1.shtml   (512 words)

  
 Infinite World -- Army Ant -- Video
Often there is a stick or piece of grass near by that bridges the army ant trail.
In this clip, the army ants form a tight line, blocking the leafcutters and protecting the foraging column from them.
Army ants and leafcutters are both very vicious ants - a battle between them would quickly lead to the death of both ants.
www.dandelion.org /ant/vid3.htm   (211 words)

  
 Rob Dunn, Essays
Army ants, particularly the species that raid above ground, are dramatic, abundant, and hard to miss.
A typical army ant species lives in nests underground that are built out of the living bodies of its workers.
Most groups of beetles that live with army ants have evolved one of two body types that enable them to survive among the ants: a flattened, horseshoe-crab-like shape--the better to hunker down when the ants attack them--or the form of the ants themselves, to more easily avoid detection by the ants' probing antennae.
www4.ncsu.edu /~rrdunn/Essays.html   (1411 words)

  
 Wildlife News: Army Ants Have Defied Evolution For 100 Million Years
Using fossil data and the tools of a genetics detective, a Cornell University entomologist has discovered that these ants come from the same point of origin, because since the reign of the dinosaurs, about 100 million years ago, army ants in essence have not changed a bit.
Brady's paper, "Evolution of army ant syndrome: the unique origin and long-term evolutionary stasis of a novel complex of behavioral and reproductive adaptation," will be published on the Web by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) Online Early Edition between May 5 and May 9 before being printed in PNAS.
Periodically millions of army ants would march together through his camp, he says, like a flowing river of red.
www.wildlifenews.co.uk /articles2003/may/may1003k.htm   (601 words)

  
 California Academy of Sciences - Natural History Museum - Ants: Hidden Worlds Revealed   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
Leaf Cutter ants, which cultivate gardens of fungus in order to ensure a steady food supply, make their home in the tropical rainforests of South America, while meat eating Army ants migrate through parts of Africa and the Americas in search of prey.
Disturbed Carpenter ant workers are known to rock furiously back and forth so their mandibles in front and their hindmost body part pound against the nest in rapid bursts — up to 7 strikes within 50 millisecond intervals.
The term "honeypot ant" actually describes a strategy evolved separately by a number of unrelated species in which one caste has the unique ability to store nutritious fluid for an extended period in distended abdomens — an adaptation to the constraints of the dry season.
www.calacademy.org /naturalhistory/ants.html   (3083 words)

  
 Ant Killer,Ants,Ant control,Fire ants killer,Insecticides, Pesticides
Army Ants have also learned to live on trees and underground to have less risk of being stepped and that’s why there are so many of them.
Army ant colonies are like most other colonies; they have one wingless queen, millions of blind female workers, and millions of male soldiers.
Ants don’t really have a mating pattern but the queen spends most of her time mating and laying eggs.
www.antbuster.com /ants-articles/army-ants.asp   (814 words)

  
 Army Ants: No Evolutionary Picnic :: Astrobiology Magazine ::
Army ants have evolved only once and that was in the mid-Cretaceous period," says Sean Brady, a Cornell postdoctoral researcher in entomology, whose study was conducted while he was doctoral candidate at the University of California-Davis.
Brady's paper, "Evolution of army ant syndrome: the unique origin and long-term evolutionary stasis of a novel complex of behavioral and reproductive adaptation," was published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) Online Early Edition.
The metaphor of ant colonies is a model for rapid dispersion and minimal risks of failure.
www.astrobio.net /news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=464   (822 words)

  
 LiveScience.com - Attack Ants Feed on Worms and Snakes
Army ants have been spotted attacking and eating a huge worm and even a snake, suggesting to researchers that their cooperative hunting strategy initially evolved just for such a surprising purpose.
The ants are brick red in color and are considered medium or large-sized compared to most common ant species found in the United States.
Based on the observation of the ants feeding on the snake, the researchers said the species is the only known New World army ant to remove and consume vertebrate flesh.
www.livescience.com /animalworld/051215_army_ants.html   (565 words)

  
 ScienceDaily: Ability To Capture Large Prey May Be Origin Of Army Ants' Cooperative Behavior
The ants are brick red in color and their size would be considered medium or large when compared to most common ant species found in United States.
The researchers said the species is apparently unique among New World army ants in removing and consuming vertebrate flesh, based on the observation of the ants feeding on the dead snake.
Army Ants Have Defied Evolution For 100 Million Years (May 9, 2003) -- Army ants, nature's ultimate coalition task force, strike their prey en masse in a blind, voracious column and pay no attention to the conventional wisdom of evolutionary...
www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2005/12/051215083631.htm   (1862 words)

  
 ScienceDaily: Army Ants Have Defied Evolution For 100 Million Years
Ancient Ants Arose 140-168 Million Years Ago; Insects Needed Flowering Plants To Flourish (April 7, 2006) -- Ants are considerably older than previously believed, having originated 140 to 168 million years ago, according to new research on the cover of this week's issue of the journal...
Fire ant -- Fire ants are stinging ants of the genus Solenopsis.
Ant -- Ants are one of the most successful groups of insects in the animal kingdom and are of particular interest because they are a social insect and form highly organized colonies or nests, often...
www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2003/05/030507081357.htm   (1850 words)

  
 How to Deal with Army Ants: Murdoc Online   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
The army ant problem, like the mountain lion problem I've mentioned in the past, is a little dependent upon the context of the encounter.
If you simply "deal" with one group of army ants and leave the thirty-seven army ant mounds you've seen in the open field behind your property alone, you're probably going to be "dealing" with the problem again in short order.
Army ant colonies are known to harbor interlopers as well.
www.murdoconline.net /archives/001436.html   (1424 words)

  
 [No title]   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
Known as "Huns and Tartars" of the insect world, army ants are commonly found in Africa, Asia, and South and Central America.
Black and hairy with sickle-shaped jaws, and usually 8 to 12 millimeters, the army ants are a star feature of the Academy's ongoing exhibit, "Ants: Hidden Worlds Revealed" that also showcases colonies of five other ant species — harvester ants, carpenter ants, honeypot ants, Argentine ants and leafcutter ants.
The original batch of 1.2 million army ants brought from Trinidad in April died after they were eaten by beetles, which had hitched a ride in a crate of live crickets.
www.insidebayarea.com /portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?article=2604929   (530 words)

  
 Science News
A novel analysis shows how individual ants' behavior keeps the traffic flowing as 200,000 virtually blind army ants use a single trail to swarm out to a raid and return home with the booty.
Couzin began his army ant analysis by formulating a mathematical model to describe an individual rushing along a chemically marked trail until it detects a possible obstacle and chooses whether to turn aside.
Plugging measurements of ant movement into the computer model, the researchers found that ants have optimized their tendency to turn aside when encountering a possible obstacle, such as another ant.
www.phschool.com /science/science_news/articles/ant_traffic.html   (534 words)

  
 Army Ants Obey Traffic Plan to Avoid Jams, Study Says   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
During these raids, up to 200,000 near-blind ants stream out of their nest and form multiple freeway-like trails that are up to 20 meters (65 feet) wide and 100 meters (330 feet) long.
Army ants are also unique in constructing bivouac-like nests entirely from their own bodies.
Intrigued at the ants' ability to form separate traffic lanes within the foraging freeways, Couzin and his colleague, Nigel R. Franks at Bristol University's Centre for Behavioural Biology in England, designed a computer model to mimic the individual interactions and movements of ants and shed light on their foraging behavior.
news.nationalgeographic.com /news/2003/02/0224_030224_anttraffic.html   (770 words)

  
 USATODAY.com - A slow boat to Pluto, Ants with hundreds of tiny eyes   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
A: Ants (except for the army ant) have two compound eyes (aqua in the figure), which are made up of many smaller eyelets (called ommatidia).
Army ants do not have compound eyes — instead two single eyes — but they do not function.
The ants are blind and use their antennae to smell and touch.
www.usatoday.com /tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2005-11-28-pluto-light-ant-eyes_x.htm   (857 words)

  
 Cornell News: Army ants defy evolution
Army ants, as voracious as ever, have defied evolution for 100 million years, Cornell entomologist finds
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Army ants, nature's ultimate coalition task force, strike their prey en masse in a blind, voracious column and pay no attention to the conventional wisdom of evolutionary biologists.
Using fossil data and the tools of a genetics detective, a Cornell University entomologist has discovered that these ants come from the same ancestor, because since the reign of the dinosaurs, about 100 million years ago, army ants in essence have not changed a bit.
www.news.cornell.edu /releases/May03/ArmyAntBrady.bpf.html   (667 words)

  
 Army ants: a collective intelligence?
Put a hundred army ants on a flat surface and they will walk around in never decreasing circles until they die from exhaustion.
But a colony of a million army ants is a sophisticated "super-organism." The colony carries out its legendary raids and can even keep nest temperatures constant to within a degree.
This is exactly what happens when army ants pass information from individual to individual through the 'writing' and 'reading' of symbols, often in the form of chemical messengers or trail pheromones, which act as stimuli for changing behavior patterns."
www.science-frontiers.com /sf066/sf066b07.htm   (459 words)

  
 Army ant behavior studied   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-09)
The nearly 16-inch-long worm was being pursued by a column of hundreds of army ants that quickly paralyzed or killed it.
That sighting, and another involving the same ant species, led O'Donnell and colleagues to offer a new theory on the origin of cooperative hunting behavior in army ants, which are among the most socially complex animals known.
O'Donnell says mass cooperative food foraging, a key element in the behavior of army ants, may have begun as a way to subdue large prey.
www.softcom.net /webnews/wed/bh/Uus-armyants.RcpY_FDF.html   (200 words)

  
 ABC News: Study: Army Ant's Bloody Rampage Is in its Genes
The "army ant syndrome," essentially how they live their lives, hasn't changed much in all that time.
Evolutionary biologists had assumed that army ants developed their peculiar lifestyle in different areas of the globe after the continents separated, but Brady's research shows that's not the case.
He reached his conclusions after studying the DNA from dozens of army ant species, and combined that with the fossil record to reconstruct the evolutionary history of army ants.
abcnews.go.com /Technology/story?id=97591&page=1   (396 words)

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