Posts about ants
animals bacteria biology Career Cats cool curiouscat economy Energy Engineering engineering education engineers evolution experiment food fun Funding government green Health Care human health innovation K-12 kids Life Science medical research MIT nature ocean physics Products Research Robots Science science education science explained science facts science webcasts scientific inquiry Students Technology university research USA water webcasts

Swimming Ants

Posted on March 13, 2006  Comments (2)

Scientists discover swimming ants

North Queensland scientists have discovered a new type of ant, believed to be the only species that can live, swim and navigate under water.
…
The ants nest in submerged mangroves and survive by hiding in air pockets and then swimming to the surface.
…
“I was actually working with a film crew working on insects in the mangroves and they wanted to film one of these ants and I said, ‘Well, lets put it on a rock in a puddle of water and that’ll stop it going away and then you’ll be able to film it,’ and the ant promptly just leapt off the edge of the rock and swam across the water and disappeared.

“We were sort of dumbfounded.”

Dr Robson says it is amazing that the ants can survive in such a hostile environment.

“We’ve been doing a lot of studies on their foraging behaviour and there’s a lot of things that eat them, so when they’re swimming, fish will sometimes eat them, mud skippers will eat them, crabs will attack them,” he said.

It is great to see experts can still be so suprised by nature.

Unique northern ants gain global attention

Symbiotic relationship between ants and bacteria

Posted on January 8, 2006  Comments (3)

Study reveals classic symbiotic relationship between ants, bacteria

Ants that tend and harvest gardens of fungus have a secret weapon against the parasites that invade their crops: antibiotic-producing bacteria that the insects harbor on their bodies.

“Every ant species [that we have examined] has different, highly modified structures to support different types of bacteria,” says Currie. “This indicates the ants have rapidly adapted to maintain the bacteria. It also indicates that the co-evolution between the bacteria and the ants, as well as the fungus and parasites, has been occurring since very early on, apparently for tens of millions of years.”

Furthermore, Currie says, the fact that the species have coexisted for so long means there might be a mechanism in place to decrease the rate of antibiotic resistance – which could help address a significant problem facing modern medicine. “We can learn a lot about our own use of antibiotics from this system,” he says.

Read more about the overuse of antibiotics

  • Recent Comments:

    • Jason Monroe: Many of my friends do Crossfit and realize how quickly you lose weight when you increase your...
    • Denise Gabbard: Nice! This is the kind of thing we should all embrace. Not only are they helping the planet...
    • Huskar: Thanks your explanation.
    • Mark: Good point, my explanation is as follows. If someones got a better one I’d like to hear it....
    • Asad Wahab: I was just wondering if he can is round in shape then how come the electrons are shifted to one...
    • Sonia Bourke: That’s amazing – such a beautiful animal. I’ve always wondered how a...
    • Anonymous: Hi, Thanks for your nice article. I think India can overtake the China, because engineering...
    • Mark: We just bought one the other day at a plant sale, and it has just begun to flower. I didn’t...

  • Recent Trackbacks:

  • Links