tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87929510823855759632024-03-21T12:09:40.779-04:00Adventures Among AntsKingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-46430427197333477442011-11-18T08:15:00.003-05:002011-11-18T08:26:50.928-05:00<div>Look for my article in the <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ants-and-the-art-of-war">December 2011 issue of Scientific American, </a><i><a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ants-and-the-art-of-war">Ants & the Art of War</a>, </i>which distills some of the information on mass aggression in <i>Adventures Among Ants</i>. Some of the parallels between ant and human warfare are uncanny. I argue they arise because, among all animals, only modern humans, certain ants, and a few termites have societies with populations in the millions. For more on this idea, listen to me on the <a href="http://www.theworld.org/2011/11/ants-art-of-war/">BBC radio program, The World</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, times, serif;"></span></div><blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, times, serif;">Raging combatants form a blur on all sides. the scale of the violence is almost incomprehensible, the battle stretching beyond my field of view. Tens of thousands sweep ahead with a suicidal single-mindedness. Utterly devoted to duty, the fighters never retreat from a confrontation—even in the face of certain death. The engagements are brief and brutal. Suddenly, three foot soldiers grab an enemy and hold it in place until one of the bigger warriors advances and cleaves the captive’s body, leaving it smashed and oozing.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, times, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family:georgia, times, serif;font-size:14px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, times, serif;">I back off with my camera, gasping in the humid air of the Malaysian rain forest, and remind myself that the rivals are ants, not humans. I have spent months documenting such deaths through a field camera that I use as a microscope, yet I still find it easy to forget that I am watching tiny insects—in this case, a species known as <em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">Pheidologeton diversus</em>, the marauder ant.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family:georgia, times, serif;font-size:14px;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 25px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; line-height: 24px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><br /></p></span></div></blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs3NzHKVP1PEUilKJoZtClI4x8uevc5KIxeP4Mw9g4ZzUgInIo0Vy8ZcUvYfZU0Q_kW6BonIUt6t7zXOnT1jp2_IoYs50VlFyw-Xm9sibKWEhqGlOvjGst69afeg44Wf9F2OejoSb3MYM/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-11-18+at+8.10.56+AM.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 265px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs3NzHKVP1PEUilKJoZtClI4x8uevc5KIxeP4Mw9g4ZzUgInIo0Vy8ZcUvYfZU0Q_kW6BonIUt6t7zXOnT1jp2_IoYs50VlFyw-Xm9sibKWEhqGlOvjGst69afeg44Wf9F2OejoSb3MYM/s400/Screen+shot+2011-11-18+at+8.10.56+AM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5676323977956134610" /></a>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-30034259881813552452011-11-16T19:38:00.003-05:002011-11-16T19:46:33.128-05:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRvi57rT1J451x4sYIUz9nuy_ZKA39cf3rZqXN6rCGLTpmDBfrfScxr5ttNGkd5pBu66guofpqRvieT9VTHh5M1f1AaidgoJDp-CyVi7M8PKjyU0tvsltYTwKcDMJgs4g4AbJ3DMNEgv4/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-11-16+at+7.44.02+PM.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 157px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRvi57rT1J451x4sYIUz9nuy_ZKA39cf3rZqXN6rCGLTpmDBfrfScxr5ttNGkd5pBu66guofpqRvieT9VTHh5M1f1AaidgoJDp-CyVi7M8PKjyU0tvsltYTwKcDMJgs4g4AbJ3DMNEgv4/s320/Screen+shot+2011-11-16+at+7.44.02+PM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5675759469781357954" /></a><br />I have met Jon Stewart, and though the Daily Show hasn't been able to get me on in person, I did get a mention on air -- as the example of the anti-FOX News guy. <a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-november-7-2011/npr-vs--conservative-talk-radio?">Check it out!</a><div><br /></div><div><br /><div><br /></div></div>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-26691724109441031702010-11-21T08:38:00.009-05:002011-01-29T16:52:11.476-05:00Message to the Dalai Lama: Don't Make Ants Your Political Ideal<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicfTxkyI1UfnQcMMdpgW6o9yKolXNrOc-sDVOS3BKKwaNGWwEMEicTw19JZ6_8HmbZBrbKikVxuQNn5JtiQEZr_Ah876PQ40WQ3TUcYHtHrvBRtEczKNhYL01TdEsWFgzmYshPjxMeawQ/s400/Dalai+Lama.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 233px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicfTxkyI1UfnQcMMdpgW6o9yKolXNrOc-sDVOS3BKKwaNGWwEMEicTw19JZ6_8HmbZBrbKikVxuQNn5JtiQEZr_Ah876PQ40WQ3TUcYHtHrvBRtEczKNhYL01TdEsWFgzmYshPjxMeawQ/s400/Dalai+Lama.png" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />On November 19th the Dalai Lama spoke about compassion at a leadership summit in New Delhi, saying humans should behave more like ants (echoing King Solomon in the Bible). True, ants often show a devotion toward their nestmates that the citizens of human nations cannot match, but there are species with societies that show internal strife. Far more disconcertingly however, the compassion of ants is matched by their aggression: unity within each ant society and goes hand in hand with an absolute intolerance of outsiders.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">This makes ants are terrible models for political idealists. Indeed, most ant societies act toward each other like the Chinese have done toward Tibet, but far worse: they will annihilate outsiders without mercy.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Compassionate humans must forge our own path through this world.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Click on the picture to watch two minutes from the Dalai Lama's speech.</span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-673969858585769292010-11-18T15:04:00.004-05:002010-11-18T15:10:19.764-05:00Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqfpY2tV6CuzqhU4mYQ8VAWIx64_5y_HuhnSo_zak8_Wt2GphguADo29E7A0OY_tEKts0iSz72IitKuKwrXkO8khAomFBV-5mfMTIgs6NUG0t_hyphenhyphenwqIEULzibbgxY2bDz3mJQe15iWSKk/s1600/National+Outdoor+Book+Award.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 323px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqfpY2tV6CuzqhU4mYQ8VAWIx64_5y_HuhnSo_zak8_Wt2GphguADo29E7A0OY_tEKts0iSz72IitKuKwrXkO8khAomFBV-5mfMTIgs6NUG0t_hyphenhyphenwqIEULzibbgxY2bDz3mJQe15iWSKk/s400/National+Outdoor+Book+Award.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540984017716600722" /></a>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-57660480348673718272010-11-02T17:49:00.086-04:002011-02-06T19:56:39.801-05:00What is an "army ant?"<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Times;"> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:17.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';color:#810A07;"> <!--StartFragment--> </span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';color:#810A07;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(109, 7, 9); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">An army ant is any ant species in which the workers hunt in groups (classically, for animal prey).</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(109, 7, 9); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This sounds simple but even some of the experts are confused about what this means, so let me go into the technical details of how the phrase has been used by others.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(109, 7, 9); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Hunting in groups is often called group predation, or my preference, mass foraging. (The problem is that "group predation" has often been applied loosely to any situation in which more than one worker catches, cuts up, or carries prey—actions that are widespread in many ants other than army ants; nor do army ants necessarily </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">catch </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">or </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">carry</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> prey in groups.)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(109, 7, 9); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Indeed, the term "army ant" brings to mind a concentrated (and often huge) mass of predatory hunting ants, and it was in fact used specifically to denote such mass foraging species until Edward O. Wilson showed (in a 1958 article in </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Evolution</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">) that these species also tend to be nomadic, that is, change their nest locations frequently (and sometimes regularly). Since then, other authors have pointed out even more traits that could also be useful in designating which ants might be called “army ants,” notably, the queens are wingless and physogastric (bloated with eggs); food and brood are carried slung under the worker's body; "nests" are produced by workers linking their bodies together, in some cases yielding an exposed mass of resting ants called a bivouac; and the societies reproduce by fission—a young queen starts a new colony assisted by part her mother’s worker population rather than on her own.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(109, 7, 9); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Varied combinations of these traits have been treated as a “syndrome.” While this army ant syndrome can be a valuable idea, when it comes to the usage of the term "army ant" each additional trait (nomadism included) should be regarded as a proprium (a term philosophers employ to describe a nonessential property common to examples of a thing, but which is nonetheless not defining or essential). This is so for three reasons: 1) there are examples of undoubted army ants (species in the groups Dorylinae and Ecitoninae) that show these traits at best weakly (as </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">AAA</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> describes, some army ants can stay at one nest site for months if not years and so appear to be no less sedentary as many other ants; for example, from what I have seen and what Stefanie Berghoff describes, undisturbed colonies of the Asian </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Dorylus laevigatus</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> may well stay in one place almost indefinitely); 2) none of these additional traits are unique to army ants (for an example, see the description of the image below); and 3) the one characteristic that is unambiguously unique to army ants is as clear today as it was for early explorers: masses of foraging ants advance over long distances as a group in which food can be collected every step of the way.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(109, 7, 9); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">An unfortunate consequence of complexly overdefining "army ants" in terms of a suite of often-connected traits (the army ant syndrome) has been that mass foraging itself has been neglected, to the point that it is often unclear from reading the literature what is truly distinct about army ant foraging. (Indeed, the origin and evolution of mass foraging are almost untouched as topics: how have army ants, the marauder ants, and a few ponerine ants come to search blindly as a group, without the aid of scouts?) As a result of this muddle, certain species in which multiple ants sometimes happen to catch or carry prey together but which forage in a manner antithetical to army ants are still mistakenly called army ants. (In such species prey search is conducted by long-distance scouts acting alone rather than by advancing throngs.) </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(109, 7, 9); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">For this reason, it is my hope that some of what I have written about group (mass) foraging in the opening chapters of </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">AAA</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> will serve to focus future researchers on army ant style raids, as far as I am concerned the pinnacle of foraging behavior in the animal kingdom. I also hope that the book's arguments lead us to simplify the definition of "army ant" to focus it as it was originally on the truly diagnostic trait of mass foraging. This would disengage the term from the useful idea of an "army ant syndrome," which I propose is best relabeled the "group predatory ant syndrome" to include (as it now already often does) those nomadic ants that employ large-scale recruitment to capture or retrieve live prey, among them species that </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">do not </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">show true group foraging, such as </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Leptanilla, Onychomyrmex, Pachycondyla analis, </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">and certain </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Leptogenys</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. The only writer who I have found to have made a clear statement of this critical distinction to date is Sean Brady (in his 2002 PNAS article).</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(109, 7, 9); "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Three questions that often come up:</span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(109, 7, 9); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Does mass foraging necessarily involve capturing live prey? </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> Not at all. Certain army ants find and eat some vegetable matter during raids, and marauder ants consume as much vegetation as animal flesh. It is entirely conceivable, though perhaps unlikely, that a completely vegetarian species could employ this hunting strategy, for example to drive off competitors from its food finds.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(109, 7, 9); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Does mass foraging necessarily involve a large mass of ants? </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Not at all. Though</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(109, 7, 9); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> we expect this strategy to have the most benefits when the number of participants is large, and </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(109, 7, 9); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">certainly the largest swarms get most of the attention, the raids of some species can be in the hundreds. We can even imagine two workers hunting as a team. As long as they stick together and one isn't simply leading (recruiting) the other to a food item, the pair would be "mass" foraging.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(109, 7, 9); "></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(109, 7, 9); "><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Could any ants forage both in groups and solitarily?</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> While such a mixed strategy should be possible, no examples are known to date; as AAA describes, the marauder ant forage entirely in raids (mass foraging), as do driver ants and the other "true" army ants discovered to date.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times; min-height: 13.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times; min-height: 13.0px"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Definitions of a few terms.</span></b></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times; min-height: 13.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Foraging.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> The search for food (all the behaviors that lead up to first locating a food item), as distinguished from harvesting (see). An individual searching for food is a forager.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times; min-height: 13.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Group foraging.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> See mass foraging. </span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times; min-height: 13.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Group predation</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. I follow what I interpret to be the usage of most researchers, and define the term broadly to describe any situation where multiple individuals work together to forage, harvest, or retrieve <i>live prey</i> (the term comes up most often for prey that are that are difficult to catch because of their size or defenses). </span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times; min-height: 13.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Group transport</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. Carrying of a food item by multiple individuals.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times; min-height: 13.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Harvesting</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. In ants, describes all the steps that ensue out side the next after a successful bout of foraging (that is, after food is found), including such behaviors as recruitment, killing prey, dissecting the food, and transporting it to the nest (whether by single individuals or by group transport).</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times; min-height: 13.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Mass foraging</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. Multiple individuals search for food together. (Whether they harvest or retrieve that food together after they find it is not relevant: see "group predation"). In army ants and the marauder ant, there is a continuous stream of participating workers rather than any specific group of individuals (which among ants is often an indicator of a group of workers recruited to </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">harvest</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> food rather than of a food search--or foraging--strategy). This is why I prefer the term "mass foraging" over the more widespread but often misleading phrase "group foraging."</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times; min-height: 13.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Mass recruitment.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> A food harvesting strategy where a stream of many individuals is recruited from a trail or the nest to a food item (or to a food-rich area).</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times; min-height: 13.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Solitary foraging</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. Single individuals depart (for example, from the nest or from a trail such as a trunk trail) to search for food alone. </span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Times; min-height: 13.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p></span><p></p> <!--EndFragment--> </span><p></p> <!--EndFragment--> </span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivLX1VvBwnVxJDJxyF9Lp8FNoMy25gaPcZEYO_sZ8g734OAwz7a6XuP4I-2a85Aj6vyDM2kLaTMegH976wddPorLXypmWl0jgmDYcu2h4EYPkMbLXV_yYzD4IWiC9KcYyf1Zmp0l__ltM/s400/Herdsmen+Ants.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5535074514424059810" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px; " /></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Calibri;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Image above: </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The herdsmen ants of Malaysia show several characteristics of the "army ant syndrome" and yet are an mealybug-tending species in which foraging seems to be conducted solitarily: the ants</span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> are nomadic, with physogastric queens and open, bivouac nests.</span></span></i></p></span><p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-82924191480976348912010-10-26T10:18:00.004-04:002010-10-26T10:27:36.267-04:00Guest blog on ants for "Life Magazine" online.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkqflzghIz-jE8kfh1X_OK6kaTPAOiPYfCiG3I0tnWWjMb-Rw7Y52f9XZFS9nU5EeMKwvKw-bsW34Z-yrejq8Yuacxwh9SMnkrVjtBgLxF741m4sSdbBEBJM-aV0_KSWXQgxVV6EI0I-Y/s1600/Life.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 321px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkqflzghIz-jE8kfh1X_OK6kaTPAOiPYfCiG3I0tnWWjMb-Rw7Y52f9XZFS9nU5EeMKwvKw-bsW34Z-yrejq8Yuacxwh9SMnkrVjtBgLxF741m4sSdbBEBJM-aV0_KSWXQgxVV6EI0I-Y/s400/Life.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5532360883533289570" /></a><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The editors at Life Magazine online have allowed me to rummage through their magazine archives of ant photographs and present my favorites along with a bit of commentary about the history of close-up ("macro") photography:</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/44561/adventures-among-ants-with-dr-bugs">"Adventures Among Ants with Doctor Bugs"</a><br /><div><br /></div></div>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-49207502176568037752010-10-12T07:48:00.004-04:002010-10-12T07:56:49.432-04:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHkL1mvxorIe6BWsvv-vSWZw6DxKFkakTx_5Ofw5wOZD56vKvyk0A2cc0cOry1syv5AOYyhr36dwOphNiLE3xSOoCzNpeQFgCdML-sW0dDDo-Ma8a1iATXhEaKShdlOG9hHR3MAvaFXRc/s1600/SuffolkTimes+7Oct2010.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 155px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHkL1mvxorIe6BWsvv-vSWZw6DxKFkakTx_5Ofw5wOZD56vKvyk0A2cc0cOry1syv5AOYyhr36dwOphNiLE3xSOoCzNpeQFgCdML-sW0dDDo-Ma8a1iATXhEaKShdlOG9hHR3MAvaFXRc/s400/SuffolkTimes+7Oct2010.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5527125837387487042" /></a><br />Okay, a story in the Suffolk Times that gives me another moniker to hang a safari hat on:<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.suffolktimes.com/news-articles/2161/2161-Mark-Moffett-Greenport-entomologist-ants-photos.html">http://www.suffolktimes.com</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Do I get to sell little glass or plastic gismos with ants and soil in them? </div><div><br /></div><div>(Wait, I think I will call them "ant farms"!)</div><div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-28795095601793638282010-07-19T15:16:00.008-04:002010-07-19T15:52:24.171-04:00Photo Shows Suicide Bomber Ant Self-Detonating<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMkfZMBWm2aMCwnwn_AVDILZb0-mOPp1v7-sOIKgQ58YK_d4ZGUESvvY24a7iMKcJwE6MJwLhA6IIUy7vpAzUZOJc5AB3UefF8cSkKoeM7xcB3yte3igDITNhWmyHvCs4mvIzaKRKbJS0/s1600/Discovery+News.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 307px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMkfZMBWm2aMCwnwn_AVDILZb0-mOPp1v7-sOIKgQ58YK_d4ZGUESvvY24a7iMKcJwE6MJwLhA6IIUy7vpAzUZOJc5AB3UefF8cSkKoeM7xcB3yte3igDITNhWmyHvCs4mvIzaKRKbJS0/s400/Discovery+News.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495699750828440642" /></a><br /><div><a href="http://news.discovery.com/animals/photo-shows-suicide-bomber-ant-self-detonating.html">Discovery News</a> has published a blog about the "suicide bomber" ant, including my photograph from the <i>AAA</i>. The workers of several species in this group of carpenter ants will rupture their body when confronted by an enemy, spewing a toxic yellow glue that instantly kills themselves and any ants in the vicinity. These ants are currently being studied by Diana (Dinah) Davidson, recently retired from the University of Utah, who kindly showed me their behavior in Brunei.</div><div><br /></div><div>How is this defense used in practice? The details aren't known, but I doubt if workers enter the territories of other colonies to disrupt their societies, in the manner of a human terrorist. Nor would it make sense for the workers to self-immolate so readily on a battlefield -- the supply of fighters would soon become exhausted. My guess is that this is the species' way of handling lone scouts from other colonies that wander into their territories. (Actually, naughty me, that's how I took this picture: I used a food bait to lure foreign ants up a tree occupied by this colony.)</div><div><br /></div><div>A foreign scout may be as dangerous as a human spy if she returns home with knowledge about the colony or its resources. Killing her without hesitation is worth the loss of a worker's life.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>For on suicide by ants in the service of colony defense, see AAA pages 126-8.</i></div>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-53071332045770233212010-07-15T10:06:00.007-04:002010-07-15T10:26:37.390-04:00The Swimming Ant<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAUKnAUwoZY93TAOLUyYV3uZWrqd6oz4sKeCt8LtR2Z8jmgVdV8KI5DSnLTqSF7UHb7a2Iez3Arq5MjlTRPLplMhwUlduncw7aonFDC9LzStm8tk37-ixLEMOMDnI4aCdHGe43XKABVxs/s1600/Moffett+Swimming+Ant.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAUKnAUwoZY93TAOLUyYV3uZWrqd6oz4sKeCt8LtR2Z8jmgVdV8KI5DSnLTqSF7UHb7a2Iez3Arq5MjlTRPLplMhwUlduncw7aonFDC9LzStm8tk37-ixLEMOMDnI4aCdHGe43XKABVxs/s400/Moffett+Swimming+Ant.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5494137499476584642" /></a></div><div><br /></div>One of the delights of writing a book is covering eccentric topics. Chapter 11 of <i>AAA</i> investigates the physical world of the ant, including such matters as swimming and falling. Long experience in the rainforest had shown me that ants have to be good swimmers as a matter of course. But some species turn swimming into an avocation. At a mangrove swamp outside Townsville, Australia, James Cook University professor Simon Robson showed me the conical nest entrances of <i>Camponotus schmitzi</i> that are flooded at high tide. Workers hunt for small crustaceans when the ocean is low. If caught in the rising water they swim back to their nests. Those that arrive too late must wait out the high water on the trunk of a nearby mangrove tree. As this picture shows, the ants use the foremost legs to swim while the back pair are held behind like rudders. <div><br /></div><div><i>This blog expands upon page 142 of AAA.</i></div>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-14754927196086399662010-07-10T09:09:00.012-04:002010-07-10T22:17:43.838-04:00The Pioneering Spirit of Invasive Ants<div style="text-align: left;">As my final two chapters in <i>AAA</i> make clear, a key to the success of invasive ant species is their skill at "jump dispersal" -- that is, at leapfrogging across the landscape by climbing onto the debris that floats down a river, or (after humans came along) onto a boat, train, or car. And so the red imported fire ant (which occupies the American south) and the Argentine ant (which has taken over much of California) both originally came from an area of northern Argentina where frequent flooding of their homes honed their capacity to move fast when the opportunity presents itself, and thereby board human vehicles.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">What would it be like if the ants built their own boats, trains, or cars rather than hitching rides with us? With this question in mind, artist Marlin Peterson captures the pioneering spirit of the Argentine ant in one of his paintings for a children's book in progress that can be found on <a href="http://www.marlinpeterson.com/">www.marlinpeterson.com</a>. </div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 248px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGzYAGrmWmgWt5940DP7e54jSPqA7Uz-vLnMKHreEH4qaje1gQB3snn5CkYqi_kTe5f7SKYfuWd-zcU-N58G2uIzlgaK7xBKEObA6u-7lACL-sB6grECUVkfRo0LGz-XF5a_k9dViXt6c/s400/ants_cropped_950x7801.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5492466777296825538" /></div><div> </div></div>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-30588277556919346712010-07-10T08:56:00.003-04:002010-07-10T09:06:06.619-04:00The Art of Ant Agriculture<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px;"><h3 class="UIIntentionalStory_Message" ft="{"type":"msg"}" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-weight: normal; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; font-size:13px;"><span class="UIStory_Message"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Civil Eats</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, a popular website focused on sustainability and food, has published an interview in which I describe the origins of domesticated food among the ants.</span></span></h3><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="UIStory_Message"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://civileats.com/2010/07/09/the-art-of-ant-agriculture-a-conversation-with-an-entomologist/"><br /></a></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="UIStory_Message"><a href="http://civileats.com/2010/07/09/the-art-of-ant-agriculture-a-conversation-with-an-entomologist/"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 89px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy_xqq_JOVAXVXGcTbOGJhahBuFdOp5lyfEDpNYWr1u1DSlz1dVbfXO36rAGp4x7wEKrZisNnu0zWfLIlkOidrdMcFz1OtYo9P6xfDoQU-ySiD0vEUKLixucfPkWHoVrIDVAYlUKXGAbc/s400/Moffett+Civil+Eats.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5492262387751068914" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="UIStory_Message"><br /></span></div><div><span class="UIStory_Message"><br /></span></div><div><span class="UIStory_Message"><br /></span></div></span>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-77023847826103344122010-07-01T15:53:00.021-04:002010-08-01T20:04:56.372-04:00Farmers, Warriors, Builders: The Hidden Life of Ants<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000EE;"><u><br /></u></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dznm84qpYVP2tcjwxwKL3O9jWTU8o9BtdZpYGtTSpG-z0_KFXDSvBhBmRMQDgsNqPDL2hI2US9m8QSObsbciw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>This video is part of an exhibit of my words and photographs produced by the Smithsonian Institution, called <i>Farmers, Warriors, Builders: The Hidden Life of Ants</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>The exhibition was developed at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in 2009, where it was spectacularly popular, including as an <a href="http://www.mnh.si.edu/ants/">online site</a>. It is now available to museums worldwide as part of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES). </div><div style="text-align: right;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Tell your local museum about this show, whose specifications are given on the <a href="http://www.sites.si.edu/exhibitions/exhibits/ants/index.html">SITES website</a>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">For images like the one below of the opening of the exhibit at the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nmnh/sets/72157619056971041/show/with/3589349436/">Smithsonian, take a look here.</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilLvxVPVwcmWIY6chqy1_TAE_jP6zU0xh-R5HBnAscBW8gArL8B0dzlMwF02IC26Ch58fF46z1lBkUje_rUPIYVgdXzCtSHzrsc3zMhMLyboble8L1C3VJleI-Yj5P4rH7Pt-WSoqUIDg/s1600/James+Di+Lorento.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilLvxVPVwcmWIY6chqy1_TAE_jP6zU0xh-R5HBnAscBW8gArL8B0dzlMwF02IC26Ch58fF46z1lBkUje_rUPIYVgdXzCtSHzrsc3zMhMLyboble8L1C3VJleI-Yj5P4rH7Pt-WSoqUIDg/s400/James+Di+Lorento.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500596015123699378" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px; " /></a></div>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-12477759436845255342010-06-29T07:13:00.011-04:002010-06-29T07:33:59.371-04:00For warfare, go to the ant, not the chimpanzee<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixYMCnmBBmWAlouldABUvRwHNrGPSRVmLdp7IIW-D_rJ-NTWNMiyG86HAMx9kMW9zi_ej7ntLRMb1elhsNei3_6tBHwM3WE9O0m8kEOaQePcG85knB0tCOX_mTMq0rmxesnQj0ISvpLR0/s1600/sci-gallery.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 306px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixYMCnmBBmWAlouldABUvRwHNrGPSRVmLdp7IIW-D_rJ-NTWNMiyG86HAMx9kMW9zi_ej7ntLRMb1elhsNei3_6tBHwM3WE9O0m8kEOaQePcG85knB0tCOX_mTMq0rmxesnQj0ISvpLR0/s400/sci-gallery.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488156330220513362" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Arial; color:#333233;">In the last week dozens of news stories have appeared on the existence of warfare in chimpazees, based on interpretations of a long-term study at Gombe National Park just published in <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/retrieve/pii/S0960982210004598">Current Biology</a> by primatologist John Mitani of the University of Michigan and two colleagues. The description of chimpanzees isn't quite accurate in the use of the word "war."<span style="color:#000000;"> </span></p><p color="#333233" style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Arial; "><span style="color:#000000;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Arial; color:#333233;"><span style="color:#000000;">Think about it, and confirm it in any dictionary: a war is an attack between two<i> groups</i>. </span>What has been discovered for the chimpanzees is that a group will target single individuals from another clan in a stealthy raid, rather than carry out full-bore mass attacks on whole groups.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Arial; color: #333233; min-height: 12.0px"><br /></p> <p color="#333233" style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Arial; ">Anthropologists have described similar targeted raids for most human hunter-gatherer clans that are similarly small in size to a chimpanzee group. Among humans, large, more anonymous attacks only developed in the past two millennia as some human city-states expanded to have populations of hundreds of thousands and eventually millions.</p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Arial; color: #333233; min-height: 12.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Arial; color: #333233">The same strategic shift occurs among ants as the size of their societies similarly increases from dozens into the millions. Indeed, among animals, only certain ants and humans have societies at the upper end of this size continuum, and only ants and humans have true warfare.<span style="color:#000000;"> (On occasion termites have colonies as big, but their warfare is less well studied and possibly less well developed.)</span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Arial; color: #333233; min-height: 12.0px"><br /></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px Arial; color: #333233">Of course, chimpanzees are close relatives of humans, and any behavior patterns shared between us could suggest a long shared evolutionary history for aggression, as these news reports claim. But this shared evolutionary history isn't everything. The behavior of ants suggest the<i> size</i> of social groups can explain strategies for fighting, even across unrelated species.<span style="color:#000000;"> Massive group size provides the possibility of diverting excess labor to the battlefield, and of stockpiling resources worth fighting for.</span></p>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-56583392143255111972010-06-28T13:10:00.111-04:002010-08-05T12:12:06.940-04:00Falling into a trap: Do South American ants build torture racks?<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs_fgCJlZJbP4uhcuicZFVORP6n3_zoEbcqqwI3PgxnnPW0upmNb1xp7CXUWDrSTwDAYSrnY_N_PRKvfOsq-Bc7HH2Uqe3oCRNx1IgZxSRLGgWfZWX3tqD9K3o2GTPebVfXm_MlgE4qgw/s1600/Moffett+Allomerus+1.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs_fgCJlZJbP4uhcuicZFVORP6n3_zoEbcqqwI3PgxnnPW0upmNb1xp7CXUWDrSTwDAYSrnY_N_PRKvfOsq-Bc7HH2Uqe3oCRNx1IgZxSRLGgWfZWX3tqD9K3o2GTPebVfXm_MlgE4qgw/s400/Moffett+Allomerus+1.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487875842702338754" /></a><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It has been claimed that the shrub-dwelling colonies of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Allomerus decemarticulatus</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> ants build thatched covers on the stems of their plant that serve as traps. Reportedly multiple ants reach through the gridwork of openings in the thatch to pin down, and dismantle prey far larger than themselves, as if the thatching were a torture rack.</span></span></div><div><p class="GTiGeneralTextindent" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-indent:0in; line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">This notion of a trap implies a grasshopper (for example) could detect and avoid the ants if they were not hidden. From what expert Frederick Prete told me about orthoptera this isn't likely; it's doubtful a grasshopper can see the minute workers, let alone change course to avoid them in mid-leap. The initial report was missing data I wanted to see, so I decided to look at the ants myself.</span></span></p><p class="GTiGeneralTextindent" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-indent:0in; line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">As I describe in Chapter 7 of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">AAA</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, I put the trap idea to the test in Tiputini, Ecuador. I hung a mosquito net over a shrub with an </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Allomerus</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> colony, added a 100 orthoptera (katydids and grasshoppers) and sat inside for 5 mornings—a strange case of using a net to keep insects in instead of out. Even after the prey settled down, they were not selective in their movements. They hopped from where ants hid under a structure to where ants strolled in view to where there were no ants at all. I saw no evidence the grasshoppers noticed the ants when the workers were exposed, and whenever one landed among the workers, even those on or in the structures, it escaped unharmed. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="GTiGeneralTextindent" style="text-align: left;margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Furthermore the ants at my study site did not patiently wait in ambush hour after hour at each opening, as might be expected if the structures are sit-and-wait traps. The image below was taken when conditions were calm. As you see, few workers were stationed at the entryways.</span></span></p><p class="GTiGeneralTextindent" style="text-align: center;margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFeyrE00nOCbpVUPSxBYCRg42evDHKmMN0pxjU6XHg7akONuBWCGRvTxXrrLP2SSv4j6-DJ8Yhh58UTCP58pGd-bqGBkVQQl788MfcXlVTWy3fqwoyCZNywbT3KVtEBHIbT1FNulgY1nk/s1600/Moffett+Allomerus+4.JPG"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFeyrE00nOCbpVUPSxBYCRg42evDHKmMN0pxjU6XHg7akONuBWCGRvTxXrrLP2SSv4j6-DJ8Yhh58UTCP58pGd-bqGBkVQQl788MfcXlVTWy3fqwoyCZNywbT3KVtEBHIbT1FNulgY1nk/s400/Moffett+Allomerus+4.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487874337002592658" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px; " /></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="GTiGeneralTextindent" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-indent:0in; line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">But after I tapped the branch, ants arrived at the entryways within 15 seconds.</span></span></p><p class="GTiGeneralTextindent" style="text-align: center;margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkRMfHRov_73jVx0B5VeLq8IX6t8evka3eLlc2cP8qHewIDkE9lh6kHsnHnTIrUqPNWPBqd78RWWQxNtK6uQ3Y2mQY5tdhW7XsDG2Zuc7k1CntJoEg3E9XkFlZjoI3lxX4fTE2jh4jQVM/s1600/Moffett+Allomerus+5.JPG"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkRMfHRov_73jVx0B5VeLq8IX6t8evka3eLlc2cP8qHewIDkE9lh6kHsnHnTIrUqPNWPBqd78RWWQxNtK6uQ3Y2mQY5tdhW7XsDG2Zuc7k1CntJoEg3E9XkFlZjoI3lxX4fTE2jh4jQVM/s400/Moffett+Allomerus+5.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487873910099163938" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px; " /></span></span></a></p> <p class="GTiGeneralTextindent" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-indent:0in; line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">This response wasn’t fast enough to allow the ants to catch prey.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">When I put a grasshopper on the arcade and released it immediately, in all 50 cases it jumped away unscathed. When I used forceps to hold a grasshopper to the arcade for 15 seconds—far longer than it would normally stay put with ants biting it—the workers had time to restrain its body (lower picture). </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="GTiGeneralTextindent" style="text-align: center;margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim0jqLv1Xa3bRDEx_Mx-1zfU2n6SbTEWeAQa2FiZm_ewYGd_vt1lUftYJyjNrO1lxBQNOLAtt1Ac7ty2tVASWyLiiLIstVrsb9EVFZPk_-B3VWG7bcb4x32hAsdQRhqkzAc0vLOq-1ELE/s1600/Moffett+Allomerus+2.jpg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim0jqLv1Xa3bRDEx_Mx-1zfU2n6SbTEWeAQa2FiZm_ewYGd_vt1lUftYJyjNrO1lxBQNOLAtt1Ac7ty2tVASWyLiiLIstVrsb9EVFZPk_-B3VWG7bcb4x32hAsdQRhqkzAc0vLOq-1ELE/s400/Moffett+Allomerus+2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487897740042258082" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px; " /></span></span></a></p><p class="GTiGeneralTextindent" style="text-align: center;margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDgZD0PaGzI69zEQLdDECrA8Zf9S0AdvTkwkT89ZnGXGfDHUL0lOI_VU-GGOqJ-FDuSokf-SZKIA0YwrxIT1vZWzDImOLsWKn_ejbHCHlLDNJRkC3eu9W1KtyZW_F3JGYx2CE_Krmc-7g/s1600/Moffett+Allomerus+3.JPG"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDgZD0PaGzI69zEQLdDECrA8Zf9S0AdvTkwkT89ZnGXGfDHUL0lOI_VU-GGOqJ-FDuSokf-SZKIA0YwrxIT1vZWzDImOLsWKn_ejbHCHlLDNJRkC3eu9W1KtyZW_F3JGYx2CE_Krmc-7g/s400/Moffett+Allomerus+3.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487874654196700802" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px; " /></span></span></a></p><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Even now 39 of the 40 grasshoppers jumped from their captors over the next minute, and usually with 5 seconds. (The remaining individual was dismembered, though it was hard to tell whether it had been incapacitated by the ants or by the grip of my forceps.)</span></span></div> <p class="GTiGeneralTextindent" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-indent:0in; line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">If the constructions aren’t traps, what is their primary function? The covers run continuously along the branches of the ant's shrub, and contain a column of ants commuting between the colony’s multiple nests, from which workers leave through the many entryways on their foraging expeditions. S</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">uch</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> "arcades" likely serve primarily to protect the enclosed traffic against enemies, much as do the trail covers built of soil by marauder ants and driver ants. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="GTiGeneralTextindent" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;text-indent:0in; line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">One instance of a potential danger to the commuting workers was stopped by the defensive contingent at the arcade entryways. After a day of pulling leaping grasshoppers from my hair, I noticed interlopers of another species, a </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Pheidole</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> or </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">big-headed ant</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, climbing the plant to catch a wounded grasshopper missed by the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Allomerus</span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">.</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Upon the arrival of the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Pheidole</span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Allomerus </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ants began to guard each of the 20 or so arcade entrances nearest the commotion caused by the intruders. These guards, aided by nestmates roaming the arcade surface, caught and carried off one </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Pheidole</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> that wandered onto their trail (below).</span></span></p><p class="GTiGeneralTextindent" style="text-align: center;margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgojRzzJMj1naAt0uwY3HVuqEP0a5lusZmiBJLs8hyphenhyphenVWwC1WfZ6E2xh1v0yAPW9BnTk3UJNEgzRhzrETjPKS6_vso8Xj69FJEVedoKQjDoak6kbrS5HwfOHen_P71LOoYfh4QntQWK9mt4/s1600/Moffett+Allomerus+6.JPG"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgojRzzJMj1naAt0uwY3HVuqEP0a5lusZmiBJLs8hyphenhyphenVWwC1WfZ6E2xh1v0yAPW9BnTk3UJNEgzRhzrETjPKS6_vso8Xj69FJEVedoKQjDoak6kbrS5HwfOHen_P71LOoYfh4QntQWK9mt4/s400/Moffett+Allomerus+6.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487873695087919778" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px; " /></span></span></a></p><p class="GTiGeneralTextindent" style="text-align: left;margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Of course defense and predation can be linked, but I think it fair to interpret this meal of a </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Pheidole</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> as a lucky byproduct of defense—as might also happen with the occasional, hapless grasshopper that lands on any busy trail of aggressive ants.</span></span></p><p class="GTiGeneralTextindent" style="text-align: left;margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The fact is, similar structures are built by many other plant-dwelling ants. Here, for example, is the carton-covered trail of an </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Azteca</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> ant only a stone's throw from the colony of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Allomerus.</span></span></i></p><p class="GTiGeneralTextindent" style="text-align: center;margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; "><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpMO7ew4GldAoLrmRRHCjOPf6MOFOz15ofSOWLTkCvL13JVPgLs0_Yy_l6usPPP3NJfyf1NT8-o8eKZDGNaq3ppHUqOP9EhcY6mQs34N1rExhXvwUuCK9WSSRos_j7QOVnwp_YluARFxk/s1600/Moffett+Allomerus+7.jpg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpMO7ew4GldAoLrmRRHCjOPf6MOFOz15ofSOWLTkCvL13JVPgLs0_Yy_l6usPPP3NJfyf1NT8-o8eKZDGNaq3ppHUqOP9EhcY6mQs34N1rExhXvwUuCK9WSSRos_j7QOVnwp_YluARFxk/s400/Moffett+Allomerus+7.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487898025305202914" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px; " /></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="GTiGeneralTextindent" style="text-align: left;margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0in; line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 8.0px Helvetica"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Scientific notes. </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The original report: </span><a href="http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~mnkylab/publications/recent/Palleroni%20et%20al.Nature05.pdf"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">A Dejean, PJ Solano, J Ayroles, B Corbara, J Orivel 2005, Insect behaviour: Arboreal ants build traps to capture prey, </span></a></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~mnkylab/publications/recent/Palleroni%20et%20al.Nature05.pdf"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Nature </span></a></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~mnkylab/publications/recent/Palleroni%20et%20al.Nature05.pdf"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">434: 973.</span></a></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 8.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 8.0px Helvetica"></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 8.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">My research was done on the shrub </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Cordia </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">nodosa</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, on </span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">which the ants build arcades that look identical to those on </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Hirtella physophora, </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">the host plant to </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Allomerus decemarticulatus </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">in French Guiana where the original study</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">was done</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. T</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">he</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> orthoptera I used were 6 to 15 mm long, smaller than the ones illustrated in </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Nature. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The inability of my ants to kill orthoptera suggests the workers might have less virulent stings where I studied them in Ecuador than in French Guiana, though the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Nature</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> article does not report how often potential prey landed on arcades, the frequency with which the ants seized those prey, or their ultimate kill rate.</span></span></span></i></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 8.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></i></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 8.0px Helvetica"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(148, 15, 4); line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">This essay expands upon ideas on pages 94 and 95 of AAA, and the corresponding notes.</span></span></span></i></p><p></p><p></p><div><span style="font-family:Arial;"><br /></span></div> <!--EndFragment--> </div></div>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-49986669568482226182010-06-24T08:17:00.020-04:002010-06-24T08:38:57.716-04:00Why Size Doesn't Matter: Ants and World Domination<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhu3kBJdrbYa1-wpAyNytp_Zrzx9lOvKgnptwOLoBfb3P7p0BWHxHA5gVh5nvriHhcv425-406MU65v-42wfeFU8PjLV5AG0eqy2B60t9npRJF0kdz91CK0HjghOiD-ABGXVkDc-3eqic/s1600/340x.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhu3kBJdrbYa1-wpAyNytp_Zrzx9lOvKgnptwOLoBfb3P7p0BWHxHA5gVh5nvriHhcv425-406MU65v-42wfeFU8PjLV5AG0eqy2B60t9npRJF0kdz91CK0HjghOiD-ABGXVkDc-3eqic/s400/340x.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486315798675199474" /></a><br />See my guest blog (adapted from pages 143-145 in <i>AAA</i>) on <a href="http://io9.com/5571127/whi-size-doesnt-matter-ants-and-world-domination?skyline=true&s=i">io9</a>, one of the leading science fiction sites, and to my taste definitely the smartest of them. I touch on untapped potential for the ant in science fiction -- and there's much, much more to say! <div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">Dear Ant Man: </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">Contact me if you want your ants to do your bidding!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">Sincerely,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';">Mark "Doctor Bugs" Moffett</span></div>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-13612945160320416152010-06-19T19:29:00.008-04:002010-06-19T19:42:57.314-04:00How to Sell a Million Copies of an Ant Book<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:15.6px;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_rKuGt3FKTuQcrP6jFk9-2TmkLsjyJLyoJSUKB6cgTMtTOTAM2yqokwsLZEa8SzdEB1JFAJ8vJ5mS2EXEIQuKcXEobVt4c5VK-wTAjbKLi6FN7kQP8Odx3ecqNupcIgmTwAg1-duiQDc/s1600/35881_135551306457528_100000079783209_353918_1508135_n.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 339px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_rKuGt3FKTuQcrP6jFk9-2TmkLsjyJLyoJSUKB6cgTMtTOTAM2yqokwsLZEa8SzdEB1JFAJ8vJ5mS2EXEIQuKcXEobVt4c5VK-wTAjbKLi6FN7kQP8Odx3ecqNupcIgmTwAg1-duiQDc/s400/35881_135551306457528_100000079783209_353918_1508135_n.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484631554050302338" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Robert Jay Russell, author of <i>The Lemur's Legacy</i>, has been kind enough to explain to me how I could sell a million copies. (The photo is his.)</span></span></div>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-52130959272889750622010-06-17T15:47:00.010-04:002010-06-17T20:54:52.862-04:00Ants As Individuals<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI2p4ngWgvlEgGh4zxrle19Lssj3EYCKpKWi2iEzGifx2J2y4RVocPQKMYYb-45jyFAFuZdWdJK87YNSir12UNPUEKva95YhQ8LJAIn7fQX7ujuEqAny69WcmMwnnqh41cbh44TXcWcro/s1600/MoffettAntPersonality.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 292px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI2p4ngWgvlEgGh4zxrle19Lssj3EYCKpKWi2iEzGifx2J2y4RVocPQKMYYb-45jyFAFuZdWdJK87YNSir12UNPUEKva95YhQ8LJAIn7fQX7ujuEqAny69WcmMwnnqh41cbh44TXcWcro/s400/MoffettAntPersonality.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483839441172554370" /></a>Often I'm being asked in interviews whether it's true that ants have personalities, which is what I propose in the conclusion of <i>AAA</i>. Certainly! The problem of course is that we ordinarily see ants as specks on the ground, which is much like looking at people from an airplane. Get down to the level of your subject, watch them from within their own beautiful microworld, and the individual differences will become clear. <div><br /></div><div>The cliche about ants (tracing back to King Solomon in the bible) is that they are hard working, but as the book describes, this is not true. In a colony, there can be ants that work all day, and others who lie around and do next to nothing much of the time. In fact, my friend Barrett Klein just finished his dissertation at the University of Texas in sleep in the honeybee. It's likely that ants do their fair share of sleeping, too, but as with the bees it is also likely that some get less of a fair share than others. The hardworking individuals are sometimes able to motivate other workers to get an important task done, but at other times they have to go it alone. </div><div><br /></div><div>I show in the book that ants are often born into a certain specialization, but it is nevertheless possible for them get good at certain jobs through repetition, as some people do with a musical instrument. Different ant workers for example become adept at finding different kinds of food, or they come to know a certain area around their home best, and hunt there with special skill. </div><div><br /></div><div>In short, all ants are different, once you get to know them well enough.</div><div><br /></div><div>In <i>AAA</i>, I carry this idea to the level of the superorganism (the idea that ant colonies act like single organisms, so that you can think of all the workers as part of this greater whole). What I have noticed is that one colony can be harder working or more risk-taking than another. </div><div><br /></div><div>Even an ant <i>colony</i>, then, might have a personality! </div>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-43467981054459796992010-06-16T15:37:00.043-04:002010-06-19T13:39:07.874-04:00Data Supports Usefulness of the Superorganism Concept<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf5Xk3xOig1cP5x8xJQop6lZSQhxzahNTYwMWwUxIT37O8eMLt7DGXjMsSXbH-Uyq0ckBpZHol-xt-cA_SD1iEDK-hSO1niym_mCVUgN5EXFYTubglyOGMTQtQpc8wgECQAornaErP8K8/s1600/Page+230+Adventures+Among+Ants.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 164px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf5Xk3xOig1cP5x8xJQop6lZSQhxzahNTYwMWwUxIT37O8eMLt7DGXjMsSXbH-Uyq0ckBpZHol-xt-cA_SD1iEDK-hSO1niym_mCVUgN5EXFYTubglyOGMTQtQpc8wgECQAornaErP8K8/s400/Page+230+Adventures+Among+Ants.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483445229580846642" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">The passage above, from page 230 of the conclusion of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">AAA,</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> expresses my hope that science will come to understand "the basic functioning of an ant colony the same way a physician understands a human body." That hope has been realized in part by the two publications below. A team of scientists detected remarkable correlations between the physiological attributes of whole ant colonies and those of organisms, as well as their lifespans, growth, and reproduction. What such patterns mean is not entirely clear. The authors point out that features unique to colonies, such as the structure of their nests, might help explain some of them. There's no reason to assume similar patterns couldn't emerge as well in more temporary groups of animals, such as herds of mammals or clusters of nesting birds. Still, metabolic and reproductive characteristics can now be added to the list of trends with increasing size shared by social insect colonies and organisms, among them greater specialization (more types of workers or cells), heavier reliance on infrastructure (for example complex trail systems or cardiovascular systems) and emergence of intermediate organizational levels, such as groups coordinated into assembly lines. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">References:<br /></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 20px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://people.biology.ufl.edu/gillooly/reprints/GilloolyCIB3_4.pdf">Gillooly, James F., Chen Hou, and Michael Kaspari. 2010. Eusocial Insects as Superorganisms: Insights from Metabolic Theory. Communicative and Integrative Biology</a>.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 20px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 20px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://people.biology.ufl.edu/gillooly/reprints/Hou_etal.pdf">Hou, Chen, Michael Kaspari, H.B. Vander Zanden, and James F. Gillooly. 2010. Energetic basis of colonial living in social insects. PNAS</a>.</span></span></span></div></div>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-83258685886758612802010-06-16T13:01:00.027-04:002010-07-20T21:23:32.336-04:00The ideal Nature Photograph<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih2hYgYlExOdMPSz6vnmCnwgW5jaao2jp31AG0V1rTH6SNNVCNfomMkyNTx5GM1iO_ox8Hc1NXhs1V65wXhs9guVo2ZXKJOFKddfzyW_rlHHeNb8ya6G26nrVC_x-u1blUSfRaRvtXRA4/s1600/MoffettOakTree.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 262px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih2hYgYlExOdMPSz6vnmCnwgW5jaao2jp31AG0V1rTH6SNNVCNfomMkyNTx5GM1iO_ox8Hc1NXhs1V65wXhs9guVo2ZXKJOFKddfzyW_rlHHeNb8ya6G26nrVC_x-u1blUSfRaRvtXRA4/s400/MoffettOakTree.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483434417598849298" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Whenever I'm asked which of my own photographs I like most, I think of Woody Allen admitting he never watches his movies: no matter how good the work, the impulse is strong to notice faults and give the subject another try.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br />In general, though, I feel the most delight with the rare image that captures a whole story -- a photograph that is indeed worth a thousand words. Like the well-wrought essay, nothing in such an image should be wasted: the eye should be able to linger anywhere within its borders and be rewarded with something relevant to the story.<br /><br />I learned my philosophy from Mary G. Smith, the science editor at National Geographic who got me started at the magazine. I was working on an article we called "Life in a Nutshell," about the menagerie of species that invade acorns. Most of the story happens after the acorns fall to the ground; for example, the slavemaking ants described on pages 151-153 of AAA often use multiple fallen acorns as apartment homes for their expanding colonies.<br /><br />A set of images for any story should make even obvious relationships clear. As I worked on my acorn shoot, one basic thing I missed was the fact that acorns come from oaks. Mary wanted me to come up with an unusual "take" on this relationship between nut and tree: Could I get her an image with an acorn on the ground and an oak tree and a bird flying off carrying another acorn in its beak... and how about a rainbow for good measure, so the text could describe the weather conditions suited to developing acorns?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br />I ended up on my stomach with a wide angle lens aimed up at an oak in Harvard Yard, lying so still for hours that the campus police were called on the suspicion I had passed out on the grass. I don't think the result is my best picture. I certainly didn't get all the elements Mary had mentioned into the frame. But it did add enough to the story to serve as its lead image.<br /><br />At least two images in</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">AAA</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">come closer than my oak picture to this idea of a ideal image. There's the one on page 43 (upper image below) that shows a 3 millimeter guard worker of a "trapjaw ant" using her long trap-like mandibles to drive off an intruder from the entryway to her nest. Behind her a larva eats this species' typical prey: a speedy rabbit-like invertebrate called a springtail that bounces around using its long tail (here hanging limply forward). The jumps makes springtails virtually impossible to catch unless the predator has a trap for jaws. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Then there's the photograph on page 69 (lower image below), which shows the special jobs performed by three of the four types of workers in the army ant species <i>Eciton burchellii</i>: at left, a "submajor" worker hefts a chunk of prey while the smaller "media" worker behind her serves to lift the booty's dragging end; hidden below them and smaller still, a "minor" worker lies in a pothole along their path, acting in effect as "living roadfill."</span></span><div><br /></div><div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 299px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWHwL919FvpkNRAj_wIleJsfX96iCYinlakO2-eJfhrJL9vVRkgxmhQY7zthOJPtX7uczvb0oiEKI2esJsrGXIjwn6Y2KztqM1ZGQQZyg1qQi99iB5WRFTH-DwrRbCEkW3P9CUhysNA8c/s400/MarkMoffettImages.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483437929092024178" /></div></div>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-75917664713859894762010-05-27T17:46:00.023-04:002010-05-27T18:44:49.516-04:00Supercolonies: Can they bring peace to the world of ants?<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">A few weeks ago Edward O. Wilson’s début novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Anthill</i> brought supercolonies to the attention of a wide audience, much as his 2008 book with Bert H<span style="mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;">ö</span>lldobler did for the idea of a superorganism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The terms are easy to confuse. A <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">superorganism</i> is a society such as a colony of ants integrated so thoroughly by the shared identity of its members that it acts as if it were an organism; a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">supercolony</i> is a society that, if given the opportunity, can expand in size often indefinitely by adding living space and reproductives (queens).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> Supercolonies are so extraordinary that I conclude <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Adventures Among Ants</i> with the Argentine ant, one of several invasive ant species forming colonies of this sort. The success of the strategy cannot be questioned: after 100 years in California, Argentine ant supercolonies still maintain extraordinarily dense populations, with about a million ants in the average suburban backyard around San Diego. Success is enhanced by dietary flexibility: after a colony exterminates local prey populations, it continues to prosper by shifting to a greater dependency on aphid honeydew.</o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Yet descriptions of supercolonies are confusing; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>in particular, there is a widespread perception that Argentine ants are bizarre for their lack of aggression [1]. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>To the contrary, I view them as the most aggressive of ants, especially toward other colonies of their kind—other supercolonies included. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">AAA</i> describes, battles between Argentine ant colonies have likely raged nonstop in California ever since more than one colony first arrived in the state a century ago. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">How can there be such divergent views on aggression in the Argentine ant? From what I can tell, those who see conflict as insignificant often seem to be confusing “colonies” with “nests.” </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> At most sites in California, Argentine ants live in harmony as far as the human eye can see. Other ant colonies occupy spaces more easily comprehensible to the human eye— whether they use one nest or many, all the ants restrict themselves to an area a few feet to a few dozen yards across [2,3]. It’s easy to question, then, how aggression can be absent between numerous Argentine ant nests that can be so far apart that they would be occupied by different colonies in any other ant species [4].</o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">But whether a colony is modest in size or of supersized proportions, we are unlikely to observe aggression away from the borders of its territory [5]. That is especially true for the “absolute territories” of the species that expel individuals from adjacent colonies as supercolonies do [6]. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">A supercolony’s control of such an immense tract of land does give the average worker inside it an unusually peaceful life: Only the relatively few individuals that happen to live near a colony’s border have a chance of experiencing conflicts with another colony of their own kind. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That’s because the population of a big society is likely to be huge relative to the length of its defended borders. This also gives large societies their excess labor force—a massive pool of workers that can carry out offensive operations at little social cost, allowing for the ceaseless, no-holds-barred warfare of Argentine ants.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">It is the lack of aggression among workers <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">within</i> a supercolony that can easily fool us about the capacity for belligerence by Argentine ant societies, which is directed largely toward outsiders, as it is for ants generally. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A few years ago, before four different supercolonies were known to exist in California, no Argentine ant was thought to fight with its own kind. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Now California’s supercolonies have been shown to attack each other along fronts that extend for miles. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What would happen if the other Argentine ant colonies worldwide are eventually wiped out by the Very Large Colony, which contains trillions of ants expanding their range throughout the world? With just the one supercolony remaining, and its identity maintained wherever it travels, Very Large Colony would no longer face warfare with other Argentine ants. This would indeed bring peace to the world of the Argentine ant. Yet achieving this peace will have depended on the ant’s nonpareil capacity to annihilate its own kind.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center">Notes </p> <p class="MsoNormal">1. The title for this essay is drawn from one of the papers that takes this alternative point of view: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Kazuki Tsuji 2010.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What brings peace to the world of ants?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Myrmecological News 13:131-132.</p><p class="MsoNormal">2. Argentine ant colonies in their native Argentina keep to smaller, more easily comprehensible sizes, most likely because they are penned in by numerous neighbors of the same or other hostile species, as they are as well in the American southeast.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">3. Does it make a difference to the individual ant whether her society occupies the modest territory or the expansive one? Probably not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Usually a worker comes to know only a part of her colony’s foraging area, no matter<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>how big the area is.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal">4. It may be more accurate and useful to think of Argentine ant colo nies as consisting not of many separate nests, but rather as an expansive anthill, in which many of the routes between nest chambers happen to be on the surface rather than hidden underground. The surface trails are in effect parts of the nest, as I described for the marauder ant with its trunk trails. (Whether one calls the frequent streams of brood-bear ing work ers, young adult ants, and queens between nest chambers along a surface trail a “migration” is pure semantics—similar pulses of traffic occur along the subter ranean routes within entirely underground nests.)</p><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">5. I am putting aside occasional hostilities over reproductive rights between nest mates in some ants, which typically occur inside the nest chambers.</p><p class="MsoNormal">6. Maintenance of truly "absolute" territories is expensive, and so foreign ants may often cross into the territories of many species. An inexpensive option is for a colony to defend resources rather than space per se, which is what honeypot ants do (<i>AAA</i> page 115). </p> <!--EndFragment-->Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-29615051095442956142010-05-26T07:36:00.010-04:002010-05-26T11:20:26.297-04:00Unexpected Uses for an Ant Book<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEGuHrr1CU2_Lt25gWvYKWlOmzZ99IQSzpXIdCrNGvOeAFkRgUn29rtcHprHHiiGGjAQ6kC0uy-iGHIgWm41vMgXl_wvLOMY4TAo98m-mO5yQl0tgTjtHApQDcBU4CLScGQVMnyyo3TKg/s1600/CIMG0054.jpeg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEGuHrr1CU2_Lt25gWvYKWlOmzZ99IQSzpXIdCrNGvOeAFkRgUn29rtcHprHHiiGGjAQ6kC0uy-iGHIgWm41vMgXl_wvLOMY4TAo98m-mO5yQl0tgTjtHApQDcBU4CLScGQVMnyyo3TKg/s400/CIMG0054.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5475543698957139202" /></a><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEGuHrr1CU2_Lt25gWvYKWlOmzZ99IQSzpXIdCrNGvOeAFkRgUn29rtcHprHHiiGGjAQ6kC0uy-iGHIgWm41vMgXl_wvLOMY4TAo98m-mO5yQl0tgTjtHApQDcBU4CLScGQVMnyyo3TKg/s1600/CIMG0054.jpeg"></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Mary G. Smith, the editor at <i>National Geographic</i> Magazine who (as I describe in AAA) was instrumental in shaping my career and those of such scientists as Jacques Cousteau, Jane Goodall, and Louis Leakey, sent me this picture the day after receiving her copy of my book at her home in St. Martin, where she has retired. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Mary reports: "Here's the scene I found early this morning after leaving your wonderful book on our coffee table last night. Brandi, one of our three cats (we also have two dogs), says it makes a swell pillow." </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">One can only hope the book's alternative uses will result in massive additional sales.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#333333;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: italic; font-family:Georgia, serif;">This essay expands upon page 37 of AAA.</span></span></div>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-75516875036500041752010-05-19T05:19:00.014-04:002010-06-16T19:12:52.467-04:00New scientific content in the book, Adventures Among Ants<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, serif;">1) I give the first detailed treatment of the foraging strategy that allows army ants to attack en masse (summarized on pages 22-23) and provide a hypothesis about the origins this mass hunting behavior (which I believe arose from accelerated trail production: pages 107-108).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">2) Leafcutter ants grow a domesticated fungus, making them one of the few agricultural species other than humans. With input from several anthropologists investigating the origins of human agriculture, and building on an excellent 2006 review by Ted Schultz and colleagues, I show in Chapter 15 that the evolution of leafcutter gardening has striking parallels to the history of farming in humans, including such details as the use of pesticides and the genetic control of their crops.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">3) I put forward a hypothesis about the origin of slavery in ants (namely, that it is an alternative to food hoarding, pages 167-168), and provide the first discussion of slavery for animals generally (page 155).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">4) The book describes what appears to be the first "cleaner ant" (an ant species that licks other ants in a manner paralleling the behavior of marine "cleaning fish:" pages 191-192).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">5) Throughout the book I document parallel trends for ants and humans between the size of a society and its complexity (for example in communications, physical infrastructure, life tempo, division of labor, assembly lines and teamwork and other patterns drawn from the literature, summarized on page 223).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">6) I document that warfare as unique to ants and humans, and attribute this to the uniquely large size of their largest societies, which possess an excess labor force available for large-scale confrontations (pages 123 and 128).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">7) Certain ants form supercolonies: societies that expand to billions of individuals (see Chapters 16, 17). <span> I</span> draw the conclusion that each of these societies can act as an independent species (pages 217-218: see <a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57444/">The Scientist</a>).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">8) In my conclusions, I present more detail than seen elsewhere on the commonalities between societies and organisms (the superorganism concept).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">9) I evaluate the superorganism concept, and align it with what other experts are finding out about <i>organisms</i> (see the book section starting on page 228).<span> I </span>propose that the most valuable criterion for a superorganism is the existence of a <i>common identity</i> that binds ant workers into a single, unitary whole, much like the cells within a human body. Identity has not been treated as central in the study of sociobiology, which I believe is a mistake. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:Arial;">Some additional points.</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;">Additionally, <i>Adventures Among Ants</i> is the first publication to describe: the distribution of army-ant-style hunting in animals other than ants (page 31); the apparent loss of such group hunting in one army ant species (page 105); the widespread confusion caused by biologists mistaking harvesting food with foraging (e.g., page 19); how ants find their way to the nest by "going with the flow" (pages 49-51); the relative insignificance of migrations to distinguishing army ants from other ants (page 60); the first survey of the group transport of food among animals (page 62); a novel discussion of the inefficiency of army ants (pages 77-79) and the capacity of army ants to handle patchy food (pages 82-84); how confounding predation and defense has led researchers to mistakenly conclude that ants build traps to catch prey (pages 94-95); the significance of success without diversity among the ants (running contrary to most descriptions of biological success in terms of biodiversity: pages 122 and 217); the likely importance of ant mosaics to the maintenance of tropical species diversity (pages 132-133); new ideas how and why ants glide from trees (page 136); the first review of swimming in ants (pages 140-142); and a description of how ant colonies serve as insect versions of large organisms (pages 144-145).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-63518022644168436462010-05-11T08:41:00.034-04:002010-05-30T12:38:18.663-04:00Why Nature Photography is Stuck in the Past<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXG0S8PW4q-l4SH4S12JURnPYScaO536Nip1WOWCheru2k3UVVCJILWmwPrl-k64CzhRcCZ8wvzFQ9YvMJF6DI3bW2Shushv-Aq52heLRBVsL4u0EB7ZLr8JjDP2MaMdOQKUwc2JYCMNQ/s1600/elephantsmaller.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXG0S8PW4q-l4SH4S12JURnPYScaO536Nip1WOWCheru2k3UVVCJILWmwPrl-k64CzhRcCZ8wvzFQ9YvMJF6DI3bW2Shushv-Aq52heLRBVsL4u0EB7ZLr8JjDP2MaMdOQKUwc2JYCMNQ/s400/elephantsmaller.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469994508870137202" /></a><tr height="560"><td width="445" height="560" align="left" xpos="18" content="" valign="top" csheight="560"><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular;font-size:100%;">From my desk calendar, a tiger peers at me behind leaf sprays. I flip through the months. A whale fin splashes; butterflies feed at flowers; a bear catches a salmon; a fish hides in an anemone; moonlit elephants bathe and trumpet, or just gaze into the camera like the one in the simple image here. Each situation has been the subject of countless photographs.<br /><br />These images are technically and aesthetically up-to-date, and certainly have their place. Yet with more than a century of experience now behind us, I believe nature photographers should be reaching deeper into new territory. We can be natural historians with a camera, journalists transcending color and design to encompass the uniqueness and drama of a species’ existence.<br /><br />A magazine article’s interconnected images should tell a story; each one, like a well wrought paragraph, must instruct and enthrall. Furthermore, as in ordinary journalism, the goal is to record not simply everyday routine, but decisive moments -- actions or events that might occur once in a subject’s lifetime, such as a marriage or bereavement might for a human.<br /><br />For any publication, then, I look at the proportions of three types of images: decisive moments; landscapes; and portraits. Within the portrait category I include rudimentary or commonplace behavior, such as a bird brooding her young; bugs mating; a snake threatening the camera; a leopard in a blurry dash. While satisfying when executed well, portraits weaken a story when they are too numerous, because they draw little from life’s most poignant dynamics. On the other hand, a story feels incomplete if a sweep of the subject’s environment -- a landscape -- <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">is no</span>t introduced at least once.<br /><br />Of the three kinds of images, usually an article with few dramatic action pictures especially suffers, no matter how elegant the presentation or sumptuous the plumage. If the topic were human affairs, the viewer might conclude that the photographer had weak emotional or intellectual connections with his own species. In this respect wildlife photography lags well behind other forms of journalism.<br /><br />The fault lies as much with editors as photographers. It is effortless to pick that calendar-style image or (in a frequent regress back to many <i>Life</i> magazine stories of a half century ago) the staged shot in a studio. This reflects both a lack of originality and emphasis on technical perfection over content. Just review most of the winners of nature photography competitions.<br /><br />The scarcity of (non-trivial) action images of nature subjects suggests opportunities for growth. Rather than ever-refining their presentation of the same, familiar events, photographers and their editors can seek out new behavior and insights to surprise their viewers. It is astonishing how much there is still out there to find.<br /><br />Updated and refined from:<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 51, 0); font-weight: bold; font-family:Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Magnificent Moments:<br />The World’s Greatest Wildlife Photographs<br /></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">GH</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Harrison, editor. Willow Creek Press (1995)<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><i>This post expands upon page 126 of AAA.</i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:#940F04;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;font-size:-webkit-xxx-large;"><i><br /></i></span></span></span></span></td><td width="1" height="560"><br /></td><td width="1" height="560"><br /></td></tr>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-48422644763913530682010-04-29T19:31:00.018-04:002010-05-04T22:40:56.322-04:00We Married Adventure<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs9Uq2eOVx7CPmbeSwCOaOGgxBj2-Z21DbR9dvaockYOoLdK9NYypBmvKeyCVJs7dhyFJWvutYQejzm_bwWraA9pVu8Mtm2n7bgUWdmliEbwc2aZsBoSvbF2FG32n3Wmv80WflC1t0Mm0/s1600/MarkMoffettWedding2.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 222px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs9Uq2eOVx7CPmbeSwCOaOGgxBj2-Z21DbR9dvaockYOoLdK9NYypBmvKeyCVJs7dhyFJWvutYQejzm_bwWraA9pVu8Mtm2n7bgUWdmliEbwc2aZsBoSvbF2FG32n3Wmv80WflC1t0Mm0/s400/MarkMoffettWedding2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465712979045321170" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>Okay, it's now late April and, with the book about to reach the stores, I have at last returned to the United States after months of nearly continuous adventure: southern India, Bhutan, Assam, Madagascar, Mauritius, Panama, Yemen, Hawaii. </div><div><div><br /></div><div>Throughout these voyages, Melissa has been at my side -- she has been my companion in my Adventures Among Ants for three years now.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>The conclusion of the book describes our wedding, which occurred during a research expedition to Easter Island in which Melissa and I were looking at the invasive ants and assisting in other projects concerning the reproduction of native plants and the mapping of caves. A traditional ceremony had not taken place on the island for years, but archeologist and former Easter Island governor Sergio Rapu enthusiastically made it possible. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">At sunset we came to the rim of Rano Kau volcano, where we were stripped and redressed in beaten bark and feathers. There was a chanting and dancing by the men and clapping by the women. Then Melissa and I exchanged rocks extracted from the volcano. We can claim to have one of the few marriages with documentation archived in the Smithsonian!</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf5O53ywjaL8KhKAYczrObjx8djUhaX2TFHUqU_51RMduEZjrqc88S5bl-fGtOi7MzJJQADYXXc3y7JALQW4S19gJTTlur7c51WA83DbZ_3Mf5ew1tlkOy1rOka8cNj4bSJvjDrROjVt4/s400/MarkMoffettWedding1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465711567610579506" /></div><div><br /></div><div>Here is the video we sent out as a wedding party invitation upon our return to the USA.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div></div><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzBFBouvZwBzUNLiEndxx-Q19Kp9jNgxQAKLhLNBrVDPVlZNdMANc0NV-Hyxfq20O4uivxGW0mzSgYA4phq_Q' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div>Our thanks to Amy Tan and Mike Hawley for these pictures. <i>For a bigger version of the video and more pictures, </i><a href="http://www.doctorbugs.com/marriage.html"><i>go here.</i></a><i> This post expands upon page 231 of AAA.</i></div>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792951082385575963.post-44034128203781350212010-03-15T09:29:00.011-04:002010-06-19T13:39:53.859-04:00What it Feels Like to be Bitten by an Army Ant<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU-eN1loXj1EhexGOmmhmDgQsnG-XtmG6IyGt_U7m5ivYoCMxb4wzXgjDlF0QTGJJMkSbqsnxHe5VKnSKbXQNwQhaBYL8xVWr7mYT14_75ZSEYCwzIg0qr2JWoD4Of1MDREH5z9s6NP-Y/s1600-h/Army+ant+bite.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU-eN1loXj1EhexGOmmhmDgQsnG-XtmG6IyGt_U7m5ivYoCMxb4wzXgjDlF0QTGJJMkSbqsnxHe5VKnSKbXQNwQhaBYL8xVWr7mYT14_75ZSEYCwzIg0qr2JWoD4Of1MDREH5z9s6NP-Y/s320/Army+ant+bite.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448857894510684962" /></a><div>Okay, this is not for the squeamish.</div><div><br /></div><div>One gets a fair number of bites while studying army ants. In the Old World "driver ants," all the workers participate in the attack, whereas the most famous New World species have a soldier caste specialized in vertebrates (photographers among them). These soldiers cannot cut flesh in the way driver ants do, and so in the New World species vertebrates are rarely killed and never consumed. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Nevertheless, each soldier causes considerable pain: she pierces the skin deeply with mandibles sharply recurved at the tips in such a manner that, like fish hooks, they are virtually impossible to extract (see close-up below).</div><div><br /></div><div><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkMBdgVQp_1EU5vh7q93GufThyHDwNMN1kwMi2_AR5GzIsLitehu1Db2UDwnWnqpeJ6-uq0rtXzFY_twzyOYqvK9EsJ_cNKL96oTDm28jMBRW-FKlmGG7b7BbNb192pKAhzuA3KSxW2dc/s320/Eciton+Mandible+Tips.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448859545198905634" /></div><div><br /></div><div>Her death therefore is certain. Insult to injury: she inserts her stinger during the bite.</div><div><br /></div><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dz9E5lnlfWDiysERzgZwSsxr6dvyCC-KZ-oeu_VY-V3sVX4DIK8XXTuiQ770KQPRc7lRbFLoqRg-FI2mGXf' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><div><br /></div><div><i>This essay expands upon page 91 of AAA.</i></div>Kingdom of the Antshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13402310036400615353noreply@blogger.com0