Latest Atta Stories

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online There’s new evidence today ants that have been captured and made slaves by other ants aren’t simply taking their plights lying down. According to a new study, these slave ants are prone to try and take down their oppressors by sabotaging their families. The first signs of this kind of ant rebellion were noted by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) research professor Dr. Susanne Foitzik in 2009. However, in the nearly 3...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online One thousand rare and protected ants have been fitted with tiny little backpacks to try and understand the social network of how a colony works. A research team from the University of York is fitting tiny radio receivers to a colony of hairy wood ants in the world's first experiment to find out how they communicate and travel between nests. The nests are located on the National Trust's Longshaw Estate in Derbyshire, UK, which is a...

Predatory beetles can detect the unique alarm signal released by ants that are under attack by parasitic flies, and the beetles use those overheard conversations to guide their search for safe egg-laying sites on coffee bushes. Azteca instabilis ants patrol coffee bushes and emit chemical alarm signals when they're under attack by phorid flies. In an article published online July 27 in the journal Ecology and Evolution, University of Michigan researchers and their colleagues show that...

The smallest fly ever discovered is just 0.40 millimeters in length, and is a member of a fly family that is known for 'decapitating' ants A new species of phorid fly from Thailand is the smallest fly ever discovered. At just 0.40 millimeters in length, it is 15 times smaller than a house fly and five times smaller than a fruit fly. The tiny fly, Euryplatea nanaknihali, is also the first of its genus to be discovered in Asia, and it belongs to a fly family (Phoridae) that is known for...

Study increases understanding of 'coevolved mutualism' between ants and treesSurvival in the depths of the tropical rainforest not only depends on a species' ability to defend itself, but can be reliant on the type of cooperation researchers discovered between ants and tropical trees. The research, published in Biotropica, reveals how the ants use chemical signals on their host tree to distinguish them from competing plant species. Once a competing plant is recognized the ants prune them to...

A new study by biologists at Rice University and the University of Texas at Austin finds that the Texas leaf-cutter ant, Atta texana, adapted to the harsh Texas winters through their food. Although adapting to Texas winters may seem mild to those from northern climates, the ants' ancestors emigrated from the tropics.A texana, like all leaf-cutter ants, cuts leaves but does not eat them."Leaf-cutters can't digest the nutrients of leaves directly, so they use a fungus called Attamyces as a kind...

Leafcutter ants, signature denizens of New World tropical forests, are unique in their ability to harvest fresh leaves to cultivate a nutrient-rich fungus as food.Now, this mutualism -- a complicated interplay of ants, fungi and a suite of bacteria -- is coming into sharper focus as a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has published the complete genome of the leafcutter ant, Atta cephalotes.The study, published today (Feb. 10, 2011) in the journal Public Library of Science...

When their razor-sharp mandibles wear out, leaf-cutter ants change jobs, remaining productive while letting their more efficient sisters take over cutting, say researchers from two Oregon universities.Their study -- appearing online ahead of regular publication in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology -- provides a glimpse of nature's way of providing for its displaced workers."This study demonstrates an advantage of social living that we are familiar with -- humans that can no...

One of the most important developments in human civilization was the practice of sustainable agriculture. But we were not the first - ants have been doing it for over 50 million years. Just as farming helped humans become a dominant species, it has also helped leaf-cutter ants become dominant herbivores, and one of the most successful social insects in nature. According to an article in the November issue of Microbiology Today, leaf-cutter ants have developed a system to try and keep their...

New study shows the age of victims determines how fire ants respond to aggressorsPretending to be dead is an effective self-defense strategy adopted by young fire ant workers under attack from neighboring colonies. This tactic makes them four times more likely to survive aggression than older workers who fight back. As a result, these young workers are able to contribute to brood care and colony growth to ensure the survival and fitness of their queen. These findings by Dr. Deby Cassill from...