Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
A recent study by Marcela Cosarinsky and Flavio Roces examines turret-building by the chaco leafcutter ant: …workers do not simply pile clay over sands or sands over clay after replacement of the available materials, and evince some complexity in construction behavior. The micromorphological analysis of the final wall demonstrated that the imported materials were distributed and combined tending [...]
Here’s a one-off shot I snapped this afternoon when I had a few minutes. Our lab colony of leafcutter ants is fed oranges, among other things, making for a colorful substrate. photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 7D ISO 100, f/13, 1/200 sec, diffuse flash.
We interrupt Army Ant Week to announce that a paper describing the Atta cephalotes leafcutter ant genome has just been published. I’ll report more on this research next week, once we take leave of the army ants. source: Suen G, Teiling C, Li L, Holt C, Abouheif E, et al. (2011) The Genome Sequence of [...]
Yellow is all the rage this season among Ecuador’s leafcutters: Note the must-have mini-ant accessory. photo details: Canon EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens on a Canon EOS 7D ISO 200, 1/200 sec, f/14, diffuse remote flash taken at the Jatun Sacha forest in Napo, Ecuador
…they just change jobs. A study by Schofield et al out this week in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology measures the efficiency of leafcutter ant mandibles as they wear with age, noting that individuals with the most worn jaws are less than half as effective at cutting. Instead, these older ants spend more time transporting the [...]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozkBd2p2piU] Tonight’s selection was suggested for your viewing pleasure by Jack Longino.
Leafcutting ants of the genus Atta have perhaps the most complex caste systems of all the social insects. Mature colonies contain millions of workers of varying shapes and sizes. Here are two sisters from opposing ends of the spectrum. photo details: Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D ISO 100, f/13, [...]
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution this morning has the first detailed molecular phylogeny of the leafcutting ant genus Atta. Maurício Bacci et al sequenced several mitochondrial genes and the nuclear gene EF-1a from 13 of the 15 described species-level taxa, using them to infer the evolutionary history of the genus. This is an important paper.
A personal weblog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
Myrmecos- derived from the ancient greek word for "ant"- hosts Alex's musings about these and other little creatures that share our planet.
Questions? Comments? Email alwild [at] myrmecos.net
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