Insects, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 28, 2008

Ants Prefer Salt over Sugar

Ants have less of a sweet tooth and more of a preference for salty snacks, at least when they live in salt-poor areas far from the ocean, a new study finds. All animals — from ants to humans — need salt to maintain their body's nerve and muscle activity and...

Jan 26, 2009

Lizards' Dance Avoids Deadly Ants

Some lizards have developed long legs and a dance move that helps them avoid being possibly eaten alive by lethal fire ants. Fire ants from South America, called Solenopsis invicta, were introduced to the United States accidentally in the 1930s. The pesky creatures are known to attack so-called fence lizards,...

May 1, 2009

Image Gallery: Ants of the World

Dolichoderus scabridus (Image credit: Photograph © Alex Wild myrmecos.net)Some plants supply nectar to ants in return for protection from herbivores. Here a Dolichoderus ant feeds from nectar. Dolichoderus are morphologically and ecologically diverse ants found worldwide. They are heavily sculptured and their bodies often ornamented with spines. Oligomyrmex sp. –...

Nov 6, 2009

Following the Adventurous Ant Trail

This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. This work will be physically demanding. You will need to carry bulky sampling supplies into rugged terrain. Some sites may be swelteringly hot, others cold and rainy. You will need to move off trails...

Apr 1, 2010

Rural Ants Supersize When They Go Urban

The old story of a small-town kid making it in the big city has now been found in ants, a scientist revealed. The ant species in question, the odorous house ant (Tapinoma sessile), may have evolved for life in some of the tightest spots in the forest, but once it...

Jun 16, 2010

Invasive Species Thrive on Antarctic Islands

A tiny fly not native to Antarctica has proven it can not only withstand the icy polar climate, but thrive within it. This insect invader is just one of many foreign species that have reached several islands around Antarctica, with possible consequences for the native flora and fauna. Scientists with...

Oct 8, 2010

What Farming Ants Can Teach Us About Bioenergy

This ScienceLives article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. What new methods will allow us to create biofuel from plants? Garret Suen, a computational microbiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) in the Department of Bacteriology is trying to find out. Suen is a post-doctoral...

Feb 28, 2011

Fire Ants Go Global: Mapping an Invasion

In the past century, imported red fire ants have traveled the world and established colonies in far-flung places like Australia and China, oceans away from their native range in South America. Now a genetic study has retraced their routes, pinpointing the southern United States as the likely source for these...

Mar 29, 2011

Angry Wasps Capture Intruding Ants, Fly Away, Airdrop Them

What's a wasp to do when ants are ruining its picnic? Pick the little pests up and airdrop them out of the way, according to a new study. That's the strategy of the common yellow jacket wasp when competing with ants for food, researchers report today (March 29) in the...

May 8, 2011

How Zombie Ants Lose Their Minds

New gruesome details have emerged explaining how a parasitic fungus manipulates an unfortunate ant, filling its head with fungal cells and changing its muscles so the ant can grab a leaf in a death grip just when and where the fungus wants it. Research in a Thai rain forest has...

Nov 29, 2011

Invasive Ants Wave White Flag in New Zealand

Not all invasive species must be fought back using electrified barriers, natural enemies imported from afar, campaigns to turn them into food, or other, often pricey means. Instead, it appears that in some unusual cases organisms that have flourished unwanted outside their native range simply retreat on their own. Researchers...

May 9, 2012

Carnivorous Plants Employ Bodyguard Ants

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 swamp forests of Borneo. It is not a very effective carnivore by itself — its pitcher-shaped leaves lack the...

May 15, 2012

Some Fungal-Farming Ants Are Loyal to Their Crops

A group of fungi-farming ants are not only loyal to particular species of fungus, the relationship is so close it appears the ants and the fungus may be evolving together, a new study indicates. Each species of farming ants exclusively grows a particular species of fungus to feed their colony,...

Aug 31, 2012

1,000 English Ants to Receive Radio Tags

About 1,000 northern hairy wood ants are expected to have tiny radio tags, about 0.04 inches (1 millimeter) long, attached to their bodies, allowing researchers to track their movements on a protected English estate. The wood ants, which get their name from the eyebrows visible through a microscope, live in...

Sep 19, 2012

Mysterious 'Crazy Ants' Identified

An invasive insect known for a decade as the Rasberry crazy ant now has a scientific moniker, say scientists who have identified the pest for the first time. The ant first showed up in Houston in 2002 and is now found in at least 21 Texas counties and parts of...