These sea anemones eat ants
The giant plumose anemone is an animal, but it looks a bit like an underwater cauliflower. Its body consists of a stalk-like column that attaches to rocks and other surfaces on one end, and to a crown of tentacles on the other......»»
Extra Crunch roundup: Think like a VC, CockroachDB EC-1, handle your stock options
Don't wait until it's too late to build your early-stage marketing team — but don't hire too hastily, either. Ants and camels are famously resilient, but when it was time to select a name for a startup that offers open-source, cloud-based.....»»
Scientists resurrect "forgotten" genus of algae living in marine animals
In the late 1800s, scientists were stumped by the "yellow cells" they were observing within the tissues of certain temperate marine animals, including sea anemones, corals and jellyfish. Were these cells part of the animal or separate organisms? If s.....»»
Fire ants found to create "appendages" on self-made rafts when put in water
A team of researchers at the University of Colorado has found that fire ants can create 'appendages' on the rafts they make out of their own bodies when they find themselves in water. In their paper published in the Journal of the Royal Society Inter.....»»
"Crazy" ants that kill birds eradicated from Pacific atoll
An invasive species known as the yellow crazy ant has been eradicated from a remote U.S. atoll in the Pacific......»»
These sea anemones eat ants
The giant plumose anemone is an animal, but it looks a bit like an underwater cauliflower. Its body consists of a stalk-like column that attaches to rocks and other surfaces on one end, and to a crown of tentacles on the other......»»
Molecular connections from plants to fungi to ants
Leaf-cutter ants tend gardens of fungi that efficiently deconstruct plant biomass. This process converts lipids in the leaves into lipids the ants can use. Lipids in these gardens are an energy source, a component of cells, and a chemical for communi.....»»
How army ants" iconic mass raids evolved
Army ants form some of the largest insect societies on the planet. They are quite famous in popular culture, most notably from a terrifying scene in Indiana Jones. But they are also ecologically important. They live in very large colonies and consume.....»»
Study shows erosion of ant genome tied to loss of functional, behavioral and social traits in 3 inquiline species
Ants are renowned in the insect world for their complex social structure and behaviors. Workers and foragers support the queen, faithfully carrying out their social roles for the overall health of the colony. This complex "superorganism" —-as scien.....»»
Social plants: In the wild, staghorn ferns grow in colonies to improve water storage for all members
Social colonies are nothing new in the animal kingdom. We know bees, ants and termites live in large colonies, divide labor and co-operate to take care of offspring produced by a single queen......»»
4 reasons insects could be a dietary staple: Zesty tree ants to peanut-buttery moths
With the global population predicted to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, one of the biggest challenges in our lifetimes will be securing enough food for everyone......»»
The workers of yellow crazy ants can act like lazy wannabe queens, so we watched them fight
The invasive ant world is a competitive one, rife with territorial battles and colony raids. And yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes), one of the world's worst invasive species, have an especially interesting trait: they're the only invasive an.....»»
Learning about system stability from ants
A new type of collective behavior in ants has been revealed by an international team of scientists, headed by biologist Professor Iain Couzin, co-director of the Cluster of Excellence "Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior" at the Univ.....»»
Ant Responses To Social Isolation Resemble Those of Humans
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: Ants react to social isolation in a similar way as do humans and other social mammals. A study by an Israeli-German research team has revealed alterations to the social and hygienic behavior of ants.....»»
"Bug brain soup" expands menu for scientists studying animal brains
Using a surprisingly simple technique, researchers in the University of Arizona Department of Neuroscience have succeeded in approximating how many brain cells make up the brains of several species of bees, ants and wasps. The work revealed that cert.....»»
Ant responses to social isolation resemble those of humans
Ants react to social isolation in a similar way as do humans and other social mammals. A study by an Israeli-German research team has revealed alterations to the social and hygienic behavior of ants that had been isolated from their group. The resear.....»»
We’re living on a planet of ants
A new book looks at the amazing behaviors of ants and the people who study them. Enlarge Susanne Foitzik is a proud myrmecologist: an entomologist who specializes in ants (it was a new vocab word for me, too). Her lab at the Ludwig Maximilian.....»»
Social distancing in nature
Forager ants do it, vampire bats do it, guppies do it, and mandrills do it. Long before humans learned about and started "social distancing due to COVID-19," animals in nature intuitively practiced social distancing when one of their own became sick......»»
Scientists achieve breakthrough in culturing corals and sea anemones cells
Researchers have perfected the recipe for keeping sea anemone and coral cells alive in a petri dish for up to 12 days. The new study has important applications to study everything from evolutionary biology to human health......»»
Scientists achieve breakthrough in culturing corals and sea anemones cells
Researchers have perfected the recipe for keeping sea anemone and coral cells alive in a petri dish for up to 12 days. The new study, led by scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, has important.....»»
In dueling ants vying to become queen, behavioral and molecular cues quickly determine who will win
In one species of ants, workers duel to establish new leadership after the death of their queen. While these sparring matches stretch for more than a month, changes in behavior and gene expression in the first three days of dueling can accurately pre.....»»