#The most widespread ant and its new relative: A revision of the genus Paratrechinalong considered to be one of the most species-rich ant genera latest research has stripped the ant genus Paratrechina down to a single species-Paratrechina longicornis.
This particular ant is one of the most widely distributed found in nearly every tropical and subtropical location on the planet due to accidental human transport
The remarkable ability of this ant to survive even in extremely human changed environment also makes it a well-known pest in tropical climates commonly called crazy ant due to its erratic movements.
The red fire ant for example has a gene that worker offspring can recognize and workers with this gene kill all queens that don't have it.
Slave-making ants he said have lost the ability to care for their young and themselves. To survive they raid the nests of other ants and steal the pupae.
Once the pupae emerge they imprint on the colony odor and work as if they were members of that colony.
Ants more closely related to bees than to most waspsants and bees are surprisingly more genetically related to each other than they are to social wasps such as yellow jackets
Scientists previously thought that ants and bees were related more distantly with ants being closer to certain parasitoid wasps.
Ants bees and stinging wasps all belong to the aculeate (stinging) Hymenoptera clade--the insect group in which social behavior is developed most extensively said senior author
and ant specialist Phil Ward professor of entomology at UC Davis. Despite great interest in the ecology and behavior of these insects their evolutionary relationships have never been clarified fully.
In particular it has been uncertain how ants--the world's most successful social insects--are related to bees
and health of honeybees noted that the study showed that ants and bees are related more closely than previously thought.
--and genomic (DNA) data from a number of species of ants bees and wasps including bradynobaenid wasps a cuckoo wasp a spider wasp a scoliid wasp a mud dauber wasp a tiphiid wasp
Of particular interest was the finding that ants are a sister group to the Apoidea a major group within Hymenoptera that includes bees
Our discovery that ants and apoids are sister taxa helps to explain difficulty in the placement of Cariridris the authors wrote in the paper
The lab's new research has given us compounds that serve as repellents making possible safe alternatives to DEET for a variety of applications including control of mosquitoes flies and possibly lice bed bugs ants cockroaches grain pests and agricultural pests.
Leafcutter ants for example carry bacteria that help prevent other fungi from contaminating their fungal gardens.
This is the unique adaption that has not been discovered in cockroaches termites ants or other insects.
#Mini-monsters of the forest floora University of Utah biologist has identified 33 new species of predatory ants in Central america and the Caribbean and named about a third of the tiny but monstrous-looking insects
These new ant species are the stuff of nightmares when viewed under a microscope says entomologist Jack Longino a professor of biology.
and refers to the club-shaped hairs on many Eurhopalothrix (pronounced you-row-pal-oh-thrix) species. In another upcoming study accepted for publication in the same journal Longino identified 19 new ant species from the genus
and described differences from 15 other previously known species. The genus name means eight swellings for the ants'eight-segmented antennas.
The new ant species are less than one-twelfth to one-twenty-fifth of an inch long--much smaller than a rice grain
or common half-inch-long household ants --and live in the rotting wood and dead leaves that litter the forest floors in Central america.
But the ants are known to coat themselves with a thin layer of clay believed to serve as camouflage.
Ants are everywhere Longino says. They are one of the big elements of ecosystems like birds and trees.
So far there are about 15000 known species of ants worldwide based largely on difference in body structure and perhaps as many as 30000.
But as geneticists analyze more and more ants new genetic differences are becoming apparent and so there could be 100000 ant species Longino said.
The adult ants eat only liquids not solid food. So they bring their prey back to the nest where it is eaten by ant larvae
Most modern ants no longer are predators some of which use venoms to sting their prey but instead are scavengers like those that pick up crumbs off kitchen floors
and spray formic acid to fight off other ants. Sifting for Antslongino collected about 90 percent of the ants in his new studies during the past 30 years working on a series of projects to inventory insects spiders
and other arthropods in Costa rica Mexico Nicaragua Guatemala and Honduras. Many of the species also are in the Caribbean and South america.
The new ant species are not agricultural pests. To collect insects Longino and his students use sifting devices that look somewhat like a pair of tennis rackets with canvas bags beneath them.
The tiny ants end up in the collection bags with what looks like potting soil. This mixture then is placed in mesh bags suspended over funnels that in turn are above plastic bags containing alcohol to kill
and preserve the ants that pass through the mesh bags. The ants then are brought home for analysis. Taxonomy
or classification of living things is in frequent flux. Longino says he thinks of species as hypotheses not definite never-changing labels.
and perhaps redefine classifications for ants in four or five ant genuses or genera. Some species are likely to end up in a different genus after such research is done he says.
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Bacteriology colonies of leaf-cutter ants cultivate thriving communities of fungi
and shelter for the ants for researchers they are potential models for better biofuel production.
and is converted to energy for the ants says Frank Aylward a bacteriology graduate student and researcher with the Great lakes Bioenergy Research center.
In addition to sequencing the genome of Leucoagaricus gongylophorous the fungus cultivated by leaf-cutting ants the researchers looked at the genomes of entire living garden communities.
which comes in the form of long cellulose molecules packed inside the leaf clippings the ants deliver.
Enzymes such as those of the leaf-cutting ants'fungus specialize in breaking down leaves but understanding how they work in the context of the ant community could help researchers create similar methods for processing cellulosic biofuel feedstocks such as corn stalks and grasses.
however that both the beauty and the challenge of the leaf-cutter ant garden lie in its complexity.
in addition to ants including certain species of termites and beetles which also act as gardeners in fungal communities.
and the United states used historical and contemporary records of species'presence held by organizations including the European Invertebrate Survey Butterfly Conservation the Bees Wasps and Ants Recording Society the INBO Research Institute
The fact that moths ants and fruit flies are known now to self-medicate has profound implications for the ecology and evolution of animal hosts and their parasites according to Mark Hunter a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and at the School
Wood ants incorporate an antimicrobial resin from conifer trees into their nests preventing microbial growth in the colony.
#Ants rise with temperaturewarm nights might be more important than hot days in determining how species respond to climate change.
The study shows that the lowest---not the highest--temperatures are critical in determining the migration of warmth-loving ants Aphaenogaster rudis to higher elevations.
As they migrate A. rudis--a reddish ant with light-colored legs--displace Aphaenogaster picea a dark ant with dark legs.
Aphaenogaster ants are the dominant woodland seed dispersers in eastern forests. So it's possible that the displacement of A. picea may affect the spread of seeds produced by early spring ephemerals said Warren. By comparing data collected in 1974 to current data Warren
To obtain that evidence Warren's team collected a total of 755 ants from 191 colonies.
In the lab researchers subjected the ants to thermal tolerance tests. Loss of righting response was used to indicate intolerance to low and high temperatures.
All through high school I studied bees and ants he said and when I came to college the Illinois Natural history Survey hired
Longstanding analyses based on the fossil record holds ants and wasps in a clade known as Vespoidea with bees as a sister group.
and ants and suggest that wasps are part of a separate clade from ants and bees though further genome sequences and comparative data will help to resolve this controversy The dataset offers a first chance to analyse subfamily relationships across large numbers of genes
and ants shared an aculeate wasp-like ancestor that ants are wingless wasps and that bees are lost wasps that predacious behaviours.'
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.
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.
or whether these trends hold true for all 11000 ant species because nobody has identified colony offspring before Gordon said.
In general ants play an important role in agriculture around the world with some helping to disperse seeds
#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.
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.
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
and an assortment of ants said Carrel. What was surprising was that the salamanders collected on trees did not have anything one would associate with a plant-feeding insect like aphids.
and lemurs to ants use various parts of their bodies to avoid hard landings on the ground.
and ants Burivalova and her colleagues found further diversity losses with logging. Surprisingly they found that the number of bird species can actually increase in selectively logged areas likely
Previous studies primarily in ants have found that some social insects work much harder than others in the same colony Robinson said.
#Invasion of yellow crazy ant in a Seychelles UNESCO palm forest: Threats and solutionsthe yellow crazy ant Anoplolepis gracilipes is ranked amongst the top 100 worst global invasive species
and dangers of the introduction of the yellow crazy ant to the uniqueendemic ecosystem of the mature palm forest of the Vallã e de Mai a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Seychelles.
Impacts of invasive ants can include direct effects such as displaced local species and indirect effects on key ecological functions such as frugivory pollination and seed dispersal.
Although the impacts and ecology of A. gracilipes have been documented well in degraded habitats in the Seychelles little is known about this ant's invasion potential in endemic palm forest ecosystems.
Chemical control poses a considerable risk to non-target species such as endemic ants. The study therefore advises promoting
Ant diversity indicates restored grasslandswhen it comes to restoring grasslands ecologists may have another way to evaluate their progress--ants.
When it comes to native grasslands ants are ecosystem engineers. Ecological role of antsants play many ecological roles Winkler explained.
Ants move more soil than earthworms plus they are food for lots of reptiles and birds.
Through this technique the ants consume the sugar-rich honey dew the aphids secrete much as humans use cow's milk.
When the ants are need in of protein they simply eat the aphids. Ants also distribute organic matter by moving dead insects into the colonies
and their dead nest mates away from the colonies Winkler added. Comparing restored undisturbed grasslandswinkler compared tracts of restored grasslands to undisturbed ones at three sites in eastern South dakota--Sioux Prairie in Minnehaha County Oak Lake Field Station
Originally from Des moines Iowa she began working with ants as an undergraduate at Iowa State university focusing on how burning
and how many of the ants are out foraging Winkler pointed out. She suspects that management techniques may also have played a role.
The younger restorations areas tend to have ants that are generalists who can go anywhere
but the older restorations tend to have more specialists such as soil-dwelling ants who are more particular about where they live Winkler explained.
You'll have ants everywhere she pointed out but the greater the diversity the more niches are being filled and the more successful the restoration effort.
and ants the gender determination of Trichogramma parasitoids is called haplodiploid that is fertilized eggs produce female offspring while unfertilized eggs produce male offspring summarizes Moiroux.
The entire range of studies covering the distribution of ant and termite populations in arid territories predominantly rather attests to the occurrence of irregular clustered distribution patterns at large scales.
which include bees ants sawflies and wasps. One of the starkest examples of this division of labor is the development of castes
and caterpillars as well as a few ants were collected also. The team also collected fresh leaves of the insects'host plants
This spray can kill ants or scare off frogs. The beetle produces the explosive agent itself when needed.
#Ants plant tomorrows rainforesttropical montane rain forests are threatened highly and their remnants are surrounded often by deforested landscapes.
Most tree species are dispersed by birds and mammals but also by ants. A study published today in the Journal of Ecology by a team from the LOEWE Biodiversity
Ants promote the regeneration of these forests by dispersing seeds to safe sites for tree establishment.
In this context the team conducted experiments to find out to what extent ants contribute to the dispersal of a widespread primarily bird-dispersed tree (Clusia trochiformis)
Ants haul seeds which have fallen to the ground to their nests or leave them intact on their way.
The study reveals that ants reduce seed predation by rodents and increase germination success --which confirms the importance of this ecosystem function for forest regeneration.
in addition to the impact of ants half of the depots where equipped with wire exclusion cages.
ants reduce predation and increase germinationants readily approached and hauled away about 60 percent of all seeds says Silvia Gallegos lead author of the study
In most cases the ants removed the aril which is a benefit for the plants due to a lower risk of fungal infestation and a higher germination rate.
But there are more positive effects of ants: Especially in the degraded habitats we found that seeds which had been removed by ants were predated less often
and germinated more frequently than the unmoved seeds explains Dr. Matthias Schleuning co-author and scientist at Bik-F. Quite often the ants removed the seed aril only in their nests
or on the way there--often leaving the seeds protected by the litter layer. Under the leaf litter the seeds were less likely to be detected by rodents
The farther the ants had transported the seeds the higher was the chance that Clusia seedlings had established.
Even more important services by ants in the futureants have a clearly positive impact on the dispersal
Due to the ecosystem service provided by ants in the degraded areas a faster and sustainable establishment of tree seedlings like Clusia may be expected.
Under this scenario the dispersal function of ants may further increase in importance for the restoration of tropical mountain forests.
After the fireit is the first time that a study compares different responses of a set of animal organisms to fire (snails spiders beetles ants grasshoppers bugs birds and reptiles.
Woodland salamanders facilitate the capture of this carbon before it is released by feeding on invertebrates (beetles earthworms snails ants etc.
#Ants protect acacia plants against pathogensthe biological term symbiosis refers to what economists and politicians usually call a win-win situation:
The mutualistic association between acacia plants and the ants that live on them is an excellent example:
The ants return this favor by protecting the plants against herbivores. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena Germany have now found that ants also keep harmful leaf pathogens in check.
The presence of ants greatly reduces bacterial abundance on surfaces of leaves and has a visibly positive effect on plant health.
Study results indicate that symbiotic bacteria colonizing the ants inhibit pathogen growth on the leaves.
Myrmecophytes are plants which live in a symbiotic relationship with ants. The acacia species Acacia hindsii which is native to tropical dry forests in Central america is such a myrmecophyte.
Its inhabitants are ants of the genus Pseudomyrmex. The ants depend completely on their host plants for nectar
and the food bodies rich in proteins and lipids which they require. The acacia also provides shelter the so-called domatia in the hollows of its swollen thorns.
In return for room and board mutualistic Pseudomyrmex ferrugineus ants become bodyguards protecting their host against herbivores and competing plants.
However some ants also benefit from the plant's services without giving anything in return such as the parasitic ant species Pseudomyrmex gracilis.
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology have looked now more deeply into the insect-plant interaction asking
which were inhabited by either mutualistic or parasitic ants to leaves from which ants had been removed. Intriguingly the leaves of acacia colonized by parasitic ants showed more leaf damage from herbivores
and microbial pathogens than did the leaves that had mutualistic ants. The presence of the right symbiotic partner seemed to have a positive effect on the plant's health.
Analysis of the surfaces of the leaves revealed that the number of plant pathogens as well as of necrotic plant tissues increased considerably
when mutualistic Pseudomyrmex ferrugineus ants were absent. These plants also showed strong immune responses in the form of an increased concentration of salicylic acid a plant hormone
which regulates defense against pathogens. Detailed analysis of the bacterial composition on the surfaces of the leaves suggested that the presence of mutualistic ants changed the bacterial populations and reduced harmful pathogens.
Although far less pronounced this effect could also be observed in parasitic ants. How antimicrobial protection is transferred from ants to plant is still unclear.
Chilean researcher Marcia Gonzã¡lez-Teuber first author of the publication suspected that microorganisms associated with the ants might play a role.
Because acacia leaves are touched mainly by ants'legs she extracted the legs of mutualistic and parasitic ants and tested the effect of the extracts on the growth of bacterial pathogens in the lab. Plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae was sensitive to the application of leg extracts of both ant species
and its growth was inhibited. In the next step the scientist isolated and identified bacteria from the legs of the ants.
In lab tests bacterial strains of the genera Bacillus Lactococcus Pantoea and Burkholderia effectively inhibited the growth of Pseudomonas bacteria isolated from infected acacia leaves.
Interestingly some of the bacterial genera associated with the ants are known to produce antibiotic substances.
The Jena researchers have added thus another level of interaction to the symbiosis between ants and their host plants.
Such mutualistic relationships are much more complex than previously thought. In the future we will have to include bacteria
and other microorganisms in our considerations says Wilhelm Boland head of the Department of Bioorganic Chemistry at the Max Planck Institute.
Studies on symbiotic relationships between ants and myrmecophytic plants should not overlook the role of bacterial partners that help the ants protect their plants.
#Novel attract-and-kill approach could help tackle Argentine antsafter being introduced inadvertently in the United states from South america Argentine ants have invaded successfully urban agricultural and natural settings nationwide.
In urban California The argentine ant is among the primary pest ants. For example this particular species of ants makes up 85 percent of ants sampled by commercial pest control companies in just the Greater San diego Area.
Entomologists at the University of California Riverside have developed now a pheromone-assisted technique as an economically viable approach to maximize the efficacy of conventional sprays targeting the invasive Argentine ant.
They supplemented insecticide sprays with (Z)- 9-hexadecenal a pheromone compound attractive to ants and were able to divert Argentine ants from their trails and nest entrances.
Lured by the pheromone the ants were exposed eventually to the insecticide residue and killed. Study results appeared Dec 23 2013 in the online fast track edition of the Journal of Economic Entomology.
Our experiments with fipronil and bifenthrin sprays indicate that the overall kill of these insecticides on Argentine ant colonies is improved substantially--by 57 to 142 percent--by incorporating (Z)- 9-hexadecenal in the sprays said Dong-Hwan Choe an assistant professor of entomology
and the research project leader whose lab focuses on urban entomology insect behavior and chemical ecology.
Given the amount of insecticides applied today to urban settings for Argentine ant control and the impact of these insecticides on urban waterways it is critical to develop alternative integrated pest management strategies
These studies however only explored the use of the pheromone to disrupt the foraging of Argentine ants.
and low-dose pheromone to attract ants Choe said. Our ultimate goal is to minimize the impact of pest damages on urban life with at the same time no
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