Advertisement

February 3, 2012

Ant Supercolonies Defying Evolution?

Kristian Sjogren, ScienceNordic


PHGCOM/Wikimedia Commons

First there was one; then there were two – and before long there were billions of them. Invasive ants have managed to form supercolonies that can grow indefinitely.

Ants normally form colonies with only one nest and one queen. But for 15-20 of the world’s 12,643 known ant species, this isn’t enough: they form supercolonies with several nests and several queens. This enables them to spread over large areas and wipe out other ant species.

Read Full Article ››

TAGGED: cooperation, evolution, ants

RECOMMENDED ARTICLES

May 9, 2012
Insect Uses Dead Ants as Camouflage
Joseph Stromberg, Smithsonian
Imagine you’re wandering in the forests near Lake Victoria, in Kenya or Tanzania, when you spot something strange crawling on a leaf. It looks like a dozen or so ants, stuck together in a ball. But look more closely and... more ››
May 11, 2012
Carnivorous Plant Employs Bodyguard Ants
Charles Choi, Live Science
Carnivorous plants can have valuable allies in ants, benefiting from their poop and janitor, bodyguard and cutthroat services, researchers say.The carnivorous pitcher plant Nepenthes bicalcarata dwells in the nutrient-poor peat... more ››
May 15, 2012
Snakes' Toxin Resistance Sheds Light on Evolution
Univ. of Virginia
Six predatory snake species on three continents, including three kinds of North American garter snakes, have independently developed a nearly identical molecular mechanism for resistance to a highly lethal defensive... more ››
May 14, 2012
How Do Essential Genes Evolve?
Dennis Venema, BioLogos Forum
In the last post in this series, we introduced a paper by Chen and colleagues that sought to identify new genes in various Drosophila (fruit fly) species. The youngest (i.e. the most recently evolved) gene they found is one... more ››
May 5, 2012
Humans: Urban Apes That Are Still Evolving
Desmond Morris, Telegraph
The scientific discovery, announced this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that humans are still evolving, is about as surprising as saying that scientists have proved that water is wet.... more ››
|