Sentences with phrase «army ants»
"Army ants" refers to a type of ant species that live together in large groups and work as a team to hunt for food and protect their colony. They are called "army ants" because they move in organized lines and can be very aggressive, resembling an army on the move. Full definition
The common scientific belief has been that army ants originated separately on several continents over millions of years.
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Circular milling is also seen in army ants, but Franks says this is an unfortunate by - product of their tendency to blindly follow each other's pheromone trails — even though this can mean going round in circles until they die of exhaustion.
Brady's paper, «Evolution of army ant syndrome: the unique origin and long - term evolutionary stasis of a novel complex of behavioral and reproductive adaptation,» will be published on the Web by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) Online Early Edition between May 5 and May 9 before being printed in PNAS.
«What we found is that multiple times, the ancestors of these rove beetles adapted to life inside army ant colonies,» says Joseph Parker at Columbia University in New York.
In Peru, the team's testing site was swarmed with army ants for 2 days straight.
At least a dozen times, rove beetles independently evolved the ability to invade and steal from army ant nests.
These species live in the same areas as army ants, which attack their colonies.
Unlike most ants, army ants do not build permanent mound - like nests for their colonies.
Army ants frequently move nests, so the beetle would be left searching for a new host colony almost every night if it didn't have some way to keep up, he says.
One of the species in which the researchers induced the supersoldiers, P. hyatti, grabs its brood and climbs up stalks of grass to escape army ant raids.
It leaves in its wake not only a trail of carnage but also a series of connected columns along which the victorious army ant workers run with their booty.
He tells of mould destroying his precious medicines, of endless, heartbreaking epidemics of dysentery within his own hospital wards, of midnight battles with hordes of army ants marching for hours through camp destroying every living thing in their path.
And yet my students always find this puzzling, especially when you talk about army ants being vicious fighters.
Once, I returned to my room at the end of the day and found it invaded by army ants.
However, other species of Pheidole ants, those without supersoldiers, also live alongside army ants.
The University of Bristol's Nigel Franks set up a piece of wood for Panamanian army ants to traverse, but he drilled holes in it to impede their progress.
Army ants returning from a raid use their own bodies to fill potholes so that their fellows can maintain a forced march.
Army ants link themselves together to form rafts and bridges, and neurons in a brain fire off signals that collectively create intelligence.
«Biologists have wondered why army ants, whose queens can't fly or get caught up by the wind, are yet so similar around the world.
«As young chimpanzees get older they switch to manipulating predominantly sticks, which in this community is the tool type used by adults to harvest army ants,» Koops explained.
Instead of proving the common assumption that the Old World and the New World army ants developed their lineage independently on separate continents, the entomologist showed the ants evolved only once — on Gondwana.
New research shows that chimpanzees search for the right tools from a key plant species when preparing to «ant dip» - a crafty technique enabling them to feast on army ants without getting bitten.
Army ants eat mostly insects, but any slow - moving creature can become a victim, eaten alive and left a skeleton in a few hours.
But in 2003, Cornell University researcher Sean Brady published a paper concluding that «army ant syndrome» evolved exclusively on the supercontinent Gondwana, and spread its ferocity around the world from there.
Elsewhere, Cerapachys - like ants evolved into army ants, probably more than 90 million years ago, before Africa and South America separated.
Hitching rides with army ants in this way is nothing new.
Army ants frequently move to new colonies, so the beetle would be left searching for a new host colony almost every night if it didn't have some way to keep up, he says.
He points to nearly 60 known foraging relationships between birds and other creatures, from army ants to aardvarks and whales to warthogs.
Yet within the nests of most species of army ants, quietly stealing nourishment from their unwitting hosts, live tiny beetles that have evolved to look, smell, and behave just like their hosts.
Another striking example of self - organization in animal behavior is the swarm - raid of the army ant (AA 139 - 145).
My understanding is that there are two elements in internal relations, be the actual entity a proton or a person or anything in between such as an army ant.
The beetle uses its mandibles to latch on to an army ant's rear, where it blends in while moving to a new nest together with the ants
In this picture, taken on Barro Colordo Island, Panama, workers of the army ant species Eciton hamatum form a bridge with their bodies.
If true, this hypothesis means that army ants have been terrorizing the world for more than 100 million years.
More than 200 species are classified as «army ants» because of their odd and aggressive behavior; they exist primarily as nomads rather than building nests, their queens can not fly, and they famously attack their prey in an incredible swarm.
At least a dozen species of rove beetles have independently evolved almost identical disguises to dupe their army ant prey into accepting them as one of their own
They and army ants have evolved the ability to clump together to form structures, such as rafts and bridges, to get to dry land again.
An army ant colony does not welcome outsiders.
But a newly discovered species of beetle has an ingenious method of getting around with little effort: it bites on to an army ant's butt and hitches a ride.
Army ants have evolved only once and that was in the mid-Cretaceous period,» says Sean Brady, a Cornell postdoctoral researcher in entomology, whose study was conducted while he was doctoral candidate at the University of California - Davis.
Army ants, nature's ultimate coalition task force, strike their prey en masse in a blind, voracious column and pay no attention to the conventional wisdom of evolutionary biologists.
Periodically millions of army ants would march together through his camp, he says, like a flowing river of red.