For the first time Stanford biologists have been able to identify specific parent ants and their own children in wild ant colonies making it possible to study reproduction trends.
And in a remarkable display of longevity an original queen ant was found to be producing new ants several decades after mating sending out daughter queens throughout her 20-to 30-year lifespan.
Most animals produce offspring for a while and then they enter a life stage where they don't said Gordon.
These queen ants are mating once storing that sperm in a special sac keeping it alive
An ant queen produces genetically identical worker ants that live in the same colony and also produces sons and daughter queens.
The daughter queens after mating establish new colonies of their own. Deborah Gordon a biology professor at Stanford and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment has been studying a particular population of harvester ant colonies in southeastern Arizona for 28 years meticulously recording
when a new colony rises or an older one falls. Gordon's group took the DNA fingerprint of each colony by analyzing a section of microsatellite
By pairing the genetic analysis with the long-term observations Gordon was able to determine the original queen and colony and the order in which the daughter queens and subsequent generations established new colonies.
and many of the daughter queens are not successful. The entire population--the study group consisted of about 300 colonies--relies on just a few queens to make most of the offspring year after year We don't know
whether all harvester ant populations always behave this way or whether these trends hold true for all 11000 ant species
because nobody has identified colony offspring before Gordon said. This gives us new insight on how ant populations change over time.
In general ants play an important role in agriculture around the world with some helping to disperse seeds
while others eat herbivorous insects. Understanding how populations of ant colonies reproduce and expand and the rate at
If you're trying to understand how a population grows--say you are trying to keep a population of lions going--the first thing you need to know is how many lionesses you have
Across a range of forested ecosystems we are observing widespread mortality events due to stressors such as changing climate drought insects
Wildlife biologists say pinyon-juniper woodlands are popular with scores of bird and mammal species ranging from black-chinned hummingbirds to black bears.
A 2007 study by researchers at the University of Northern Arizona estimated that 150 Clark's nutcrackers cached roughly 5 million pinyon pine nuts in a single season benefiting not only the birds themselves but also the pines
whose nuts were distributed more widely for possible germination. For the new study Redmond revisited nine pinyon pine study sites scattered throughout New mexico
Vandermeer and colleague Ivette Perfecto of the U-M School of Natural resources and Environment study the complex web of interactions between resident organisms there including various insects fungi birds and bats.
and a greater reliance on pesticides and fungicides to keep pests in check. Vandermeer suspects that the shift to sun coffee may be contributing to the severity of the latest coffee rust outbreak.
which attacks insects and also helps keep coffee rust fungus in check. Both the widespread use of pesticides and fungicides and the low level of biodiversity found at sun-coffee plantations have contributed likely to the decline of white halo fungus in recent years Vandermeer said.
Alvarez contended that confined animal feeding operations (CAFOS) are potential sources of environmental contamination by antibiotics
and E coli which carries resistant genes directly from animals through their feces into the environment.
whether in a person an animal or in the environment the weak microbes will die
#Asian needle ants displacing other aggressive invadersresearchers from North carolina State university have found that one of the most aggressive invasive ant species in the United states--The argentine ant--appears to have met its match in the Asian needle ant.
Specifically the researchers have found that the Asian needle ant is successfully displacing Argentine ants in an urban environment indicating that the Asian needle ant--with its venomous sting--may be the next invasive species to see a population boom.
Its aggressive territorial behavior and ability to create huge supercolonies--consisting of thousands of queens
and millions of workers--have enabled The argentine ant to spread across the United States displacing native species
No other ant species had been seen successfully pushing back--until now. In 2008 while watching a supercolony of Argentine ants in an urban environment former NC State Ph d. student Dr. Eleanor Spicer Rice noticed that Asian needle ants (Pachycondyla chinensis) were living
and working in the area. This was surprising because Argentine ants normally do not tolerate any other ant species in their territory
so Spicer Rice decided to investigate further. Over the next four years Spicer Rice found that Argentine ants appeared to ignore Asian needle ants
and the Asian needle ants took advantage of the situation to displace a significant portion of The argentine ant population.
In 2008 Argentine ants had populations in 99 percent of the sites within the study area
while only 9 percent of the sites were home to Asian needle ant populations. By 2011 Argentine ants were found in only 67 percent of the sites
--while the Asian needle ants had expanded to occupy 32 percent of the sites. The two ant species shared 15 percent of the sites in common.
This is the first time we've seen another ant species take territory from Argentine ants says Spicer Rice lead author of a paper on the research.
The researchers think that the Asian needle ant's ability to tolerate cooler temperatures may play a significant role in its ability to push out Argentine ants.
During cold weather both ant species become fairly dormant and cease reproducing limiting their activity and driving their populations down.
However the Asian needle ants become active again much earlier--beginning to reproduce and build new nests in Argentine ant territory as early as March
while The argentine ants remain inactive until late April or early May. The Asian needle ants essentially get a head start Spicer Rice says.
If the Asian needle ant is effective at displacing a dominant species --and it is--then it could be the next major invasive ant species says Dr. Jules Silverman a professor of entomology at NC State
and co-author of the paper. The Asian needle ant is moving into forests and urban environments at the same time Spicer Rice says.
And because it is active at cooler temperatures it could move into a very broad range of territory.
The Asian needle ant has already been found in areas ranging from Alabama to New york city to Oregon.
The rise of the Asian needle ant is bad news. Asian needle ants have venomous stings
which can cause allergic reactions in some humans. Asian needle ants also appear to be driving out native ant populations in forests--including native species that play important roles in ecosystem processes such as dispersing seeds.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by North carolina State university. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal References s
#Excavation set to shed new light on Londons Victorian pastfrom a clay smoking pipe to Neolithic flint a 19th century garden has been revealing some of its secrets to an archaeological team from London's Kingston University.
Western diets that are based in animal and grain products are highly acidic and can lead to metabolic acidosis when too much acid builds up in the body.
#Most comprehensive tree of life shows placental mammal diversity exploded after age of dinosaursan international team of scientists including University of Florida researchers has generated the most comprehensive tree of life to date on placental mammals
which are those bearing live young including bats rodents whales and humans. Appearing February 7 in the journal Science the study details how researchers used both genetic and physical traits to reconstruct the common ancestor of placental mammals the creature that gave rise to many mammals alive today.
The data show that contrary to a commonly held theory the group diversified after the extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
The research may help scientists better understand how mammals survived past climate change and how they may be impacted by future environmental conditions.
and fossil primates including lemurs monkeys and humans as well as their closest living relatives flying lemurs and tree shrews.
and fossil mammals before asking questions about'how'and'why'said co-author Jonathan Bloch associate curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural history on the UF campus. This gives us a new perspective of how major change can influence the history
of life like the extinction of the dinosaurs--this was a major event in Earth's history that potentially then results in setting the framework for the entire ordinal diversification of mammals including our own very distant ancestors.
Visual reconstruction of the placental ancestor--a small insect-eating animal--was made possible with the help of a powerful cloud-based and publicly accessible database called Morphobank.
Researchers recorded observational traits for 86 placental mammal species including 40 fossil species. The resulting database contains more than 12000 images that correspond to more than 4500 traits detailing characteristics like the presence or absence
or not shared with other groups of mammals. This study is a great backbone for future work.
and one fossil species from the clade Euarchonta which includes primates tree shrews and flying lemurs. I think this database is amazing
The evolutionary history of placental mammals has been interpreted in very different ways depending on the data analyzed. One leading analysis based on genomic data alone predicted that a number of placental mammal lineages existed in the Late Cretaceous
and survived the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction. It has been suggested that primates diverged from other mammals well before the extinction of the dinosaurs
but our work using direct evidence from the fossil record tells a different story Bloch said.
The team reconstructed the anatomy of the placental common ancestor by mapping traits most strongly supported by the data to determine it had horned a two uterus a brain with a convoluted cerebral cortex and a placenta in
and animal studies that a protein lures zinc into key cells that are first-responders against infection.
Knoell's lab previously showed that zinc-deficient mice developed overwhelming inflammation in response to sepsis compared to mice on a normal diet.
Zinc supplementation improved outcomes in the zinc-deficient mice. Until now the beneficial effects of zinc in combating infection have not been understood fully at the molecular level.
In this work Knoell and colleagues sought to zero in on zinc's role in preventing the inflammation that had led to such poor outcomes in the zinc-deficient mice.
We want a robust inflammatory response which is part of our natural programming to defend us against a bug.
When researchers allowed this protein to function unchecked in mice with zinc deficiency the animals developed excessive inflammation in response to sepsis--confirmation that IKKB was zinc's target to turn off the inflammatory pathway.
and the early Paleogene when mammals began to diversify. Lee and colleagues found that the planet's greenhouse-icehouse oscillations are a natural consequence of plate tectonics.
They serve as a major defense mechanism against viruses in plants and invertebrates. RNA silencing has also been implicated in antibacterial plant defense.
A similar motif is found in effectors of animal parasites such as the malaria pathogen Plasmodium suggesting an evolutionarily conserved means for delivering effectors that affect host immunity.
#11,000 elephants slaughtered in national park once home to Africa s largest forest elephant populationthe Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced February 6 that a national park once home to Africa's largest forest elephant
The shocking figures come from Gabon's Minkebe Park where recent surveys of areas within the park revealed that two thirds of its elephants have vanished since 2004.
Gabon contains over half of Africa's forest elephants with a population estimated at over 40000.
) The survey was funded by ANPN the CITES MIKE (Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants) Program and the United states Fish and Wildlife Service.
This sad news from Gabon confirms that without a global commitment great elephant populations will soon become a thing of the past said WCS President and CEO Cristiã¡
We believe that elephants can still be saved --but only if nations greatly increase their efforts to stop poaching
Until recently Gabon's elephant herds were believed to be impacted less by poaching than in other parts of Africa where according to the Born Free Foundation an estimated 31800 individuals were lost to poaching last year.
However Gabon's National park Agency reported an uptick of poaching in recent years including the 2011 slaughter of 27 elephants in a protected area just outside of the capitol.
Park authorities estimated that 50-100 elephants were being killed daily as a result of increases in demand for ivory from the Far east and resulting price hike.
Over the last three years we have deployed 400 additional parks staff 120 soldiers and 30 gendarmes in our fight to stop illegal killing of elephants for the black market ivory trade.
Despite our efforts we continue to lose elephants every day. If we do not turn the situation around quickly the future of the elephant in Africa is doomed.
These new results illustrate starkly just how dramatic the situation has become. Our actions over the coming decade will determine
if we are to save the elephant. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Wildlife Conservation Society.
Their research confirms that having lots of species in an area helps ecosystems avoid irreversible collapse after human disturbances such as climate change or pest invasion.
Astonishing ten new species of semiaquatic freshwater earthworms revealedthe semiaquatic earthworms in the genus Glyphidrilus are somewhat unfamiliar species that live between the terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems of rivers streams canals
The animals orient themselves vertically with their bodies in the wet soil along the banks
and tails placed on the soil surface. Among the interesting characteristics of these worms is rounded a body tip
while the end is shaped square. When twisted the posterior end which is normally above the soil surface forms U-shaped channels.
This is probably an evolutionary adjustments that ensures oxygen transport to the deeper surface of the worms
Among the natural habitats of these worms are the rice fields in Thailand which serve as a reservoir and breeding ground for the animals.
The worms turn out to play an important role in the development of rice farming being a facilitator in the decomposition of organic matter to be a natural fertilizer as well as improving the soil properties for better rice root system.
The species also assist the release of essential minerals in some chemical fertilizers though not in pesticides
which prove to be lethal to the worms. The increased use of pesticides in agriculture puts these species in danger.
The author Dr. Somsak Panha from the Animal Systematics Research Unit Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok Thailand comments:
The worms will survive in areas using chemical fertilizers but not those using chemical pesticides.
However the worms did well in areas of organic farming and so are likely to be sensitive to modern agrochemical contamination of the environment.
#Benefits of Bt corn go beyond rootworm resistanceengineered to produce the bacterial toxin Bt Bt corn resists attack by corn rootworm a pest that feeds on roots
when you had insects chewing on the roots explains Below. With the Bt corn though you can protect the root system
#Pest uses plant hairs for protection: Trichomes save insect from beetle predationeveryone needs to eat.
But it's a dog-eat-dog world and with the exception of the top predators everyone also gets eaten.
To cope with this vicious reality a tiny insect that eats plants has learned to employ the plant's hairs for physical protection from its beetle predator.
The pest is called the cycad aulacaspis scale and its invasion into numerous countries in recent years has caused immeasurable loss of biodiversity.
Cycads belong to an ancient lineage of plants that date to the dinosaur era and the pest requires a cycad plant for food.
The insect's recent invasion to the island of Guam has endangered the island's endemic cycad species. Local biologists introduced a voracious beetle predator to the island to eat the scale insects
but the plant damage by the pest has persisted. We began looking into the reasons that the beetle was failing to control the pest
and discovered that the pest could crawl between the plant's trichomes to reach its feeding sites said UOG Professor Thomas Marler.
Trichomes are what biologists call the hairs that can be found on many plant leaves and stems.
Unfortunately the much larger beetle predator could not make the same journey through the trichomes to feed on the scale insects that were feeding on the plant beneath the trichomes.
Plant hairs serve several functions and one of those functions is to protect the plant from insects.
The glitch in this situation was that the insect that was excluded by the plant hairs was our beneficial insect that eats the scale pest
and the insect that could just walk straight through the hairs was the very pest we wished to control said Marler.
Insects that eat plants have adopted numerous strategies to avoid getting eaten. One of those strategies is to co-opt one of the tactics that plants effectively use to avoid getting eaten.
For example plants produce a plethora of chemicals that taste bad or serve as a poison to herbivores.
These chemicals are effective in deterring the feeding of most general insect herbivores. A well-studied practice by some specialist insects is their predilection to consume these plant poisons sequester those poisons into parts of their body then exploit the poisons for their own protection.
Here we find another example of how an herbivore insect can be confronted with a plant's behavior that helps reduce the likelihood of being eaten then take advantage of that behavior by using it for the same purpose said Marler.
This particular plant-pest-predator relationship has drawn the attention of biologists in the Western Pacific Tropical Research center at the University of Guam
because this pest is threatening cycad populations in other countries. Lessons learned on Guam may benefit cycad conservationists in those other countries.
Marler's research appears in the November issue of the journal Plant Signaling and Behavior.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Guam. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#Grooming helps insects keep their senses sharpenedlike a self-absorbed teenager insects spend a lot of time grooming.
In a study that delves into the mechanisms behind this common function North carolina State university researchers show that insect grooming--specifically antennal cleaning--removes both environmental pollutants
and chemicals produced by the insects themselves. The findings published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences show that grooming helps insects maintain acute olfactory senses that are responsible for a host of functions including finding food sensing danger and even
locating a suitable mate. The findings could also explain why certain types of insecticides work more effectively than others.
Insects groom themselves incessantly so NC State entomologist Coby Schal and postdoctoral researchers Katalin Boroczky and Ayako Wada-Katsumata wanted to explore the functions of this behavior.
They devised a simple set of experiments to figure out what sort of material insects were cleaning off their antennae where this material was coming from
The researchers compared cleaned antennae of American cockroaches with antennae that were prevented experimentally from being cleaned. They found that grooming cleaned microscopic pores on the antennae that serve as conduits through
Cockroaches clean their antennae by using forelegs to place the antennae in their mouths; they then methodically clean every segment of the antenna from base to tip.
and nonvolatile chemicals accumulated on the ungroomed antennae of cockroaches but most surprising was the accumulation of a great deal of cuticular hydrocarbons--fatty candlewax-like substances secreted by the roaches to protect them against water loss.
It is intuitive that insects remove foreign substances from their antennae but it's not necessarily intuitive that they groom to remove their'own'substances Schal says.
The researchers also tested groomed and ungroomed cockroach antennae to gauge how well roaches picked up the scent of a known sex pheromone compound as well as other odorants.
Clean antennae responded to these signals much more readily than ungroomed antennae. The researchers then put carpenter ants houseflies and German cockroaches to many of the same tests.
Although they groom a bit differently than cockroaches--flies and ants seem to rub their legs over their antennae to remove particulates with ants then ingesting the material off their legs--the tests showed that these insects also accumulated more cuticular hydrocarbons
when antennae went ungroomed. The evidence is strong: Grooming is necessary to keep these foreign and native substances at a particular level Schal says.
Leaving antennae dirty essentially blinds insects to their environment. Schal adds that there could be pest-control implications to the findings.
An insecticide mist or dust that settles on a cockroach's antennae for instance should be ingested by the roach rather quickly due to constant grooming.
That method of insecticide delivery could be more effective than relying on residual insecticides to penetrate the thick cuticle for instance.
Finally Schal says the study can also be used as a caution to other researchers who use insects in experiments.
Gluing shut an insect's mouth to prevent it from feeding for example also prevents the insect from grooming its antennae Experimental results could be skewed
as a result of this sensory deprivation Schal suggests. Dale Batchelor a researcher in NC State's Analytical Instrumentation Facility co-authored the paper as did Marianna Zhukovskaya at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The research was supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture the U s. Department of agriculture the National Science Foundation and the Blanton J. Whitmire Endowment at NC State.
Microorganisms in the rumen--the largest chamber in the cow's stomach--modify most of the ingested fats and turn them into saturated fats.
During lettuce and broccoli production Brennan ensured all systems received the same fertilizer and irrigation inputs and pest management.
#Worlds oldest-known wild bird hatches another chicka Laysan albatross known as Wisdom--believed to be at least 62 years old--has hatched a chick on Midway Atoll National Wildlife
and Wildlife Service superintendent for the Papahä naumokuä kea Marine National monument (Monument) which includes Midway Atoll NWR.
Staff and volunteers stationed on Midway are responsible for monitoring the health of the beautiful seabirds that arrive every year by the hundreds of thousands to nest.
Upon the seabirds'arrival field staff monitor them and gather information for one of the longest and oldest continuous survey data sets for tropical seabirds in the world.
Wisdom has worn out five bird bands since she was banded first by U s. Geological Survey scientist Chandler Robbins in 1956.
Robbins estimated Wisdom to be at least 5 years old at the time since this is the earliest age at which these birds breed.
Typically they breed at 8 or 9 years of age after a very involved courtship lasting over several years
Bruce Peterjohn chief of the North american Bird Banding Program at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research center in Laurel MD said Wisdom has raised likely at least 30 to 35 chicks during her breeding life though the number
Albatross lay only one egg a year but it takes much of a year to incubate
As Wisdom rewrites the record books she provides new insights into the remarkable biology of seabirds Peterjohn said.
It is beyond words to describe the amazing accomplishments of this wonderful bird and how she demonstrates the value of bird banding to better understand the world around us.
If she were human she would be eligible for Medicare in a couple years yet she is still regularly raising young
Sue Schulmeister manager of the Midway Atoll NWR said Wisdom is one is one of those incredible seabirds that has provided the world valuable information about the longevity of these beautiful creatures
This information helps us measure the health of our oceans that sustain albatross. Almost as amazing as being a parent at 62 is the number of miles this bird has logged likely--about 50000 miles a year as an adult
--which means that Wisdom has flown at least 2 to 3 million miles since she was banded first.
About Albatrossalbatross are legendary birds for many reasons--in Samuel Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner a sailor has to wear an albatross around his neck as punishment for killing the bird.
According to seafaring legends albatross are the souls of lost sailors and should not be killed. However as reported by James Cook sailors regularly killed
and ate albatross. Albatross are remarkable fliers who travel thousands of miles on wind currents without ever flapping their wings.
They do this by angling their 6-foot wings to adjust for wind currents and varying air speeds above the water.
Nineteen of 21 species of albatross are threatened with extinction according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Present threats to the birds include lead poisoning of chicks on Midway from lead paint used in previous decades;
longline fishing where the birds are hooked inadvertently and drowned though conservation groups have banded with fishermen
The birds ingest large amounts of marine debris--by some estimates 5 tons of plastic are fed unknowingly to albatross chicks each year by their parents.
In addition albatross are threatened by invasive species such as rats and wild cats which prey on chicks nesting adults and eggs.
Albatross evolved on islands where land mammals were absent so have no defenses against them.
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