Chickadee, nutchatch presence in conifers increases tree growth, says CU-Boulder study
... removed various species of beetles, caterpillars, ants and aphids from tree branches, increasing the vigo...were set up to exclude birds, ants, or both, since ants also can have significant impacts on other arthropods, he said. "The study indicates that pine ca...Reap what your ancestors sowed
...ese longstanding, durable entities like buildings, ants nests, or biofilms in bacteria, then you introduce an instability, he says. Its almost as if there is a pact with the devil, because you pay nothing now for your cheating, but you pay double tomorrow, because everyones cheating and the costs come hom...Scientists propose the kind of chemistry that led to life
...ure wiring pattern of the brain. Similarly, social ants first search randomly, then discover food, and finally build a short-term memory for the entire colony using chemical trails. They also compare the chemical steps to Darwins principles of evolution: random selection of traits in different organisms...Ants show us how to make super-highways
Certain army ants in the rainforests of Central and South America co...ning up to 200,000 foraging ants. Remarkably, some ants use their bodies to plug potholes in the trail leading back to the nest, making a flatter surface so...Fire ants are emerging nuisance for Virginians
Blacksburg, Va. -- Red imported fire ants (RIFAs), which have caused trouble in Florida and ...e insects in North America. When a colony of these ants perceives a disturbance to the nest or a food source, they respond quickly by rushing forward and gr...Flexible genes allow ants to change destiny
...overy of a flexible genetic coding in leaf-cutting ants sheds new light on how one of nature's ultimate se...g an optimum workforce balance." "It seems that ants have evolved their own solution to this problem. Given that it takes an ant eight weeks to develop f...World's leading scientists announce creation of 'Encyclopedia of Life'
...will connect scientific communities concerned with ants to apples to zebras. As part of its work, the Encyclopedia of Life will collaborate and partner with a wide range of organizations, individuals, and experts to help strengthen the Encyclopedia and its impact on communities throughout the world. "......an heat islands. These researchers discovered that ants within South America's largest citySo Paulo, Brazilcould tolerate heat better than ants from outside this city. Their findings, to be published in the online journal PLoS ONE, suggest that...Nectar is not a simple soft drink
...s - hawkmoths, hummingbirds (both pollinators) and ants ('nectar thieves'). Some compounds were attractive and others were not. Certain nectar blends seem to increase a flower's chances of being visited by useful pollinators while discouraging nectar thieves. Nicotine, the most abundant repellent found...Unpeaceful co-existence: How strengths and weaknesses maintain biodiversity in an ant community
Many species of ants scavenge for the same kinds of food. Why then does...e University of Utah conducted a detailed study of ants in the mountains of southeastern Arizona to identify exactly how they manage to share the same envir...Why do some queen bees eat their worker bee's eggs?
Worker bees, wasps, and ants are often considered neuter. But in many species t...ry. His hypothesis was that worker bees, wasps and ants do not reproduce because most workers are half sisters. Instead the workers favor the queen's male p...Invasive ants territorial when neighbors are not kin
...San Diego biologists shows that invasive Argentine ants appear to use genetic differences to distinguish f...rom foe, a finding that helps to explain why these ants form enormous colonies in California. In the December issue of the journal Molecular Ecology, the...New genetic analysis forces re-draw of insect family tree
...ndently. "Now that we know that bees, wasps and ants are in fact the closest relatives to the more distantly related (or 'basal') species, it appears more likely that the genetic basis for eusociality may have evolved only once, and was lost in the common ancestor of beetles, moths, and flies." The r...Ever wondered how ants find their way straight to the uncovered food in y... an efficient learning strategy. On the first trip ants store images of the route as they travel and on later trips to the food site will navigate using a c...Fire ant-attacking fly spreading rapidly in Texas
...itic flies introduced to control red imported fire ants have spread over four million acres in central and...rom Brazil and Argentina, to control invasive fire ants without pesticides. The fly larvae develop inside the ants and kill their host. Dr. Ed LeBrun, a r...ACS News Service Weekly PressPac -- Sept. 13, 2006
...ral way to control spread of destructive Argentine ants National Meeting Resources for Journalists Pre...ral way to control spread of destructive Argentine ants Chemists and biologists at the University of California, Irvine, (UCI) think they may have found ...California scientists find natural way to control spread of destructive Argentine ants
...he spread of environmentally destructive Argentine ants in California and elsewhere in the United States: ...stretch hundreds of miles. One colony of Argentine ants is believed to extend almost the complete length of California, stretching from San Diego to Ukiah, ...Landscape corridors promote plant diversity
...ement of insects; and animals that eat seeds like ants and mice can eat the seeds of more common species in connected patches and give rare seeds an advantage. While the researchers predicted that corridors would be beneficial to increasing plant richness, "It's surprising that we would see such a dr...Trap-jaw ants have fastest recorded strike in animal kingdom
... exceeding 300 times the insect's body weight. The ants in this study had body masses ranging from 12.1 to...se speeds. In comparison, animals such as trap-jaw ants and mantis shrimp (which formerly held the record for swiftest strike in the animal world) utilize e......PAIGN, Ill. -- Move aside, mantis shrimp; trap-jaw ants now hold the world record for fastest moving body ...maging system have found that the jaws in trap-jaw ants snap shut in less than a millisecond, averaging a speed of 38 meters per second (approximately 137 k...