Parasitic Mind Control in Ants

Its just wrong! Poor ants...

Ants vs HP 3-in-1

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

1705 Insect Monograph

Tarantula & Weaver Ants in Guava Tree

Maria Sybilla Merian's Metamorphosibus Insectorum Surinamensium is an exquisite collection of scientific drawings from an extremely talented artist and entomologist. Some of the watercolors of these plates are in a show "Amazing Rare Things", a collaboration between David Attenborough and the Queen's Gallery in London. For those of us not in England... they have a nice website with great images and commentary by David. The original watercolor of this plate was purchased by none other than King George III (albeit when he was the Prince of Wales).

Check out more plates, as well as the backstory on the volume and Merian at the brilliant site for bibliophiles - BibliOdyssey.

Audubon House Gallery also has a very nice collection of her watercolors available in the Merian Gallery

Giant Ant Sculptures!

Carcutter ants, Sydney, Australia.


Awesome "leaf"-cutter ant sculpture exhibit in Longleat Safari Park, Wiltshire, UK. You absolutely must check out the 'making of' website to get an idea of scale and appreciation!




Wooden ant installation, Chicago, Illinois. From Picasa.


From fire ant festival, Ashburn, Georgia.


Ants on Canyon Rd., Sante Fe, New Mexico.


The Portsmouth, New Hampshire Giant Ant by Nathan Walker. Read more about its creation!

Inverts 9: Verts 2

Myrmecos has an awesome time-lapse video of ant recruitment. Lizard get pwned x 8000. I was actually quite impressed by the removal of bones...

The recap:
Tarantula vs. Snake
Mantis vs. Snake
Octopus vs. Fish
Double feature: Man Sized Sea Scorpions vs. Armor Plate Fish and Jellies vs. Salmon
Octopus vs. Moray + half dozen fish
Centipede vs. Bat
Centipede vs. Mouse
Octopus vs. Shark

Ants, DNA Barcoding and Open Access

This week, as Alex Wild put it, Brian Fisher and Alex Smith "break the PLoS taxonomy barrier". In my last post, I evangelized and pontificated on the benefits of open access publishing in PLoS for taxonomy. That in itself is a ground-breaking accomplishment, but the paper by Fisher and Smith is interesting in own right. They report on ants in the Malagasy region from 2 genera, Anochetus and Odontomachus, and describe 3 species new to science. Additionally they evaluate the efficacy of DNA Barcoding as a "tool to accelerate species identification and description".

Of Ants and Islands

Madagascar is a unique island off the eastern coast of Africa with a highly endemic fauna, meaning that many of the creatures found there are found no where else on this planet. Fisher and Smith also report the first records from the nearby islands of Seychelles and Comoros. Using 500 individuals from 6,000 leaf litter samples, 4,000 pitfall traps, and 8,000 additional hand collecting events over a 14 years period, they were able to group together worker, queen and male castes. The descriptions are fine and document the features and variation in morphology well. One criticism I have is they contain no information that I could see on the etymology of the new species. Etymology is where the author describes what the name means. For the 3 new species described in the genus Anochetus, each is given a specific epithet honoring an individual, a Mr./Ms. Bolton, Goodman and Patterson. Who these people are that should get immortalized in ants we shall never know.

DNA Barcoding and Species Assessment

While the description and discussion on the ants' distributions are important for biodiversity studies, the authors spend a good deal of the paper discussing the efficacy of DNA barcoding in helping to delineate taxa. DNA barcoding is using a standard gene, typically the mitochondrial COI gene, as a marker to identify a species. This is useful when there is a specimen voucher with a known barcoded sequence to match unknown to. There is a good deal of controversy surrounding its use in taxonomy. Many taxonomists agree that describing species based only on a short snippet of DNA is bad practice.

Fisher and Smith use DNA barcoding on their ants for two reasons. The first is group the different castes together. Ants are social insects separated into workers, queens and males. Some ant societies have even more castes, such as sanitary workers and fungal farmers. Because the different ant castes are morphologically different from one another, it is sometimes difficult to tell closely related species apart, especially if they co-occur in a similar location. The authors assert that DNA barcoding was the "principal source of data" that group together different castes, sizes and genders.

The other reason is to rapidly assess species identification. Fisher and Smith analyzed all the collections of a genus. Those showing a high degree of sequence divergence, i.e. the outliers, were "culled" from the analysis for morphological scrutiny. Traditionally, each individual would have to have measurements and notes taken on the morphological characters of interest. This is an extremely time-consuming process, but amplify that to 500 individuals of ants. The barcode method actually allowed them find the interesting individuals right away. This might not work for every taxon, but considering how affordable DNA sequencing has become this practice might take off for large collections. This will be extremely important as many biodiversity inventories are ongoing or coming to a close in the near future.

Another use for DNA barcoding brought up by Fisher and Smith is hypothesis generation. Hopefully most people will agree me (and the study's authors) that species are testable hypotheses. Like any scientific hypothesis, it is subject to refinement with new data. The barcode data helped Fisher and Smith to generate testable hypotheses regarding within-species divergence, several interesting aspects of biogeography (see page 20, last paragraph of first column for list) and female-limited dispersal capabilities in species with wingless queens.

I'll let Fisher and Smith have the final word:

"Nothing can replace the countless hours of careful observation necessary to understand variation and to delimit species boundaries. However, the addition of sequence data provides a means to create short-term results from inventories and at the same time generate data helpful to taxonomists. For taxonomists, sequencing highlights the specimens most deserving of focused study."

Disclaimer: Brian Fisher was my Evolution teaching assistant at UC-Davis. Although he is unlikely to remember me anyways, but the contents of this post are not in any way an artifact of this coincidence.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fisher, B.L. & Smith, M.A. (2008). A Revision of Malagasy Species of Anochetus Mayr and Odontomachus Latreille (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). PLoS ONE, 3(5), e1787. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001787

Rock Flippin!

So it was such a nice day today we went out and looked for insects! I flipped over a rock in my yard and found some ants tending to their young. Half of the future generation was subsequently wiped out hen my son decided to stick his finger in the middle of the grub pile. But it was fun watching the workers try their hardest to scurry off with the larvae. We must have looked quite the threat (and my son was!)







Maybe one of my ant blogging spineless compatriots, or Pennsylvania natural historians can tell me what species this is?

356 Fossil Animals Found in X-Rayed Amber

This is just an awesome find. From the European Synchotron Radiation Facility:

"Opaque amber accounts for up to 80% of the amber found in Cretaceous sites like those in Charentes. From the outside, it is impossible to tell whether something may be contained inside. Malvina Lak and her colleagues from the University of Rennes and Paul Tafforeau of the ESRF, together with the National Museum of Natural History of Paris, have applied a synchrotron X-ray imaging technique known as propagation phase contrast microradiography to the investigation of opaque amber. This technique permits light to reach the interior of this dark amber, which resembles a stone to the human eye. “Researchers have tried to study this kind of amber for many years with little or no success. This is the first time that we can actually discover and study the fossils contained within”, says Paul Tafforeau.

The scientists imaged 640 pieces of amber from the Charentes region in south-western France. They discovered 356 fossil animals, ranging from wasps and flies, to ants and even spiders and acarians. The team was able to identify the family for 53% of the inclusions.[...]"

"Examples of virtual 3D extraction of organisms embedded in opaque amber: a) Gastropod Ellobiidae; b) Myriapod Polyxenidae; c) Arachnid; d) Conifer branch (Glenrosa); e) Isopod crustacean Ligia; f) Insect hymenopteran Falciformicidae. Credits: M. Lak, P. Tafforeau, D. Néraudeau (ESRF Grenoble and UMR CNRS 6118 Rennes)."

Hat tip to Martin!

Book Review: Microcosmos

Microcosmos: Discovering the World Through Microscopic Images from 20 X to Over 22 Million X Magnification. This postcard sized book is a collection of unbelievable microscopic photography from the archives of The Science Photo Library assembled by Brandon Broll. I was in awe of the visuals and excruciating detail of the images. Below is an example page from the amazon webpage.


The book is organized into 6 sections: Micro-Organisms, Botany, The Human Body, Zoology, Minerals and Technology. Each section takes you through a visually stunning micro-world. There are 205 full page Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images and the magnification and description accompanies each of the images. Every image has a unique feature that will leave the reader searching for more answers.

A great coffee table addition or a thumb-through for inspiration, Microcosmos will undoubtedly leave you in amazement at the little world that surrounds us. At less than $20 on amazon I highly recommend this for your library (looks great next to Reef)!

One of my favorite images from the book, scanned in by myself.

Assassin Bugs Use Corpses to Avoid Predators

Not only can your prey give your nourishment and a full belly, it can also be a shield to protect you from predators! A recent article by Jackson & Pollard in the Journal of Zoology described an interesting study in which the ant-snatching assassin bug (Acanthaspis petax) makes a "backpack" of its dead prey to avoid being seen by its predator, the deadly jumping spider (Salticidae)! Masking to avoid predation is not a novel development. There are decorator crabs who will take just about anything and put it on its back (including other live critters), sea urchins will don mussel shells and some weevils will even grow fungi, algae or moss on its back. What I think is cool about this system is the use of "corpse camouflaging". Not only can it save you from starvation, it can save your butt too!

"...they capture prey by grabbing it with their legs, piercing it with their syringelike mouthparts and using the ‘syringe’ to inject digestive enzymes and paralysing saliva. The bug then proceeds to suck up the digested ant tissues from inside the ant’s exoskeleton. Once finished, the assassin bug places what remains of the ant, an empty shell, on its back. The ant carcass adheres because of fine adhesive threads that the bug secretes from its abdomen."-Jackson & Pollard (2007)

Now thats recycling! I think we can learn something here. Perhaps we should recycle our food waste into new and life-saving innovations. Hmm... what can we do with all those leftover lemon and orange rinds?

Figure 1 (from Jackson & Pollard (2007)): Two juvenile Acanthaspis petax: one without (left) and one with (right) a mask constructed of ant carcasses.

Jackson & Pollard (2007) demonstrated that Acanthaspis with corpse backpacks were significantly picked off less by jumping spiders. They tested this using 3 different jumping spiders: Hyllus sp., Plexippus sp. and Thyene sp. Salticids are vision-guided predators so they would not be able to detect the assassin bug by smell per se. Spiders were presented either with naked, or unmasked, bugs or bugs masked with the putrid remains of their last meals (see figure above).

The result is that hits by all three species of spiders significantly increased when bugs were unmasked, meaning that the corpse camouflage is a successful deterrent to predators. To test whether the size of the mask affected attacks, the authors made lures that either exceeded or were shorter than the length of the naked bug. The result was the same in all scenarios: unmasked bugs were attacked an order of magnitude more than masked bugs. Hence, prey size is not a factor and the disparity between masked and unmasked bugs is due to the shield of dead ant bodies in and of itself. The lures also helped to control for confounding variables of using the live bugs (motion, behavior and other sensory cues), lending strength to their study.

But why a mask constructed of ant corpses? Ants are not necessarily the best prey for many species and are well respected across the animal kingdom. Typically ants are chemically defended or behaviorally defended (think of the swarming behavior of some species of ants), making them a difficult prey item. Additionally, there's not a lot of meat there so the effort put in might not balance with nutrition received. The authors hypothesize that their data suggest

"... that the salticid readily detects the masked bug as an object separate from the background, but it fails to identify it as potential prey.[...] As most salticids may be averse to preying on or coming close to ants (Nelson & Jackson, 2006), the fact that the bug’s mask is normally made of ants may be important when the bugs encounter salticids."-Jackson & Pollard (2007)

It would be interesting to see how this behavior evolved, what genes turn on this behavior. Once the gene(s) is/are found, how does that gene's phylogeny map over more conservative (i.e. less selected) genetic markers like mitochondrial DNA? A cross comparison with other decorating species would be very interesting in understanding the evolutionary history that gave rise to decorating behavior and how that behavior became instinct that is rooted in the taxon.
_____________________________________________________________________
Jackson RR, Pollard SD (2007) Bugs with backpacks deter vision-guided predation by jumping spiders. Journal of Zoology 273:358-363. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.2007.00335.x

Nelson, X.J. & Jackson, R.R. (2006). Vision-based innate aversion to ants and ant mimics. Behav. Ecol. 17, 676–681. doi:10.1093/beheco/ark017

Ant? Spider? You Decide!

During the course of my blogging here, I have become somewhat of a fan of spiders. My previous posts on spiders have focused on their unusual characteristics, such as doing the booty drop, showing off a little bling bling to catch the ladies eye, cutting off a leg to escape predators, and checking their web stats. I have developed an appreciation of spider diversity and behavior through reading papers that have caught my attention for this blog.

One of the reasons I absolutely adore the theory of evolution is that its predictive power can be so wonderful. The results of selection so wondrous in and of themselves. I am familiar with many aspects of symbiosis, having co-taught a class on the subject with my advisor (I covered mammalian herbivore digestion, termites, wood-eating bivalves, and bioluminescence) and working on the ecology of animals with chemoautotrophic bacterial endosymbionts for my dissertation research. I have seen alot of strange and unusual adaptations, but they just keep getting stranger and stranger the more I delve into the fantastic world of evolution and behavior. With this I now bring you the word of the week:

MyrmecomorphicIts a fantastic word brought to my attention by a recent paper published in the Journal of Natural History by Nelson & Jackson. What does this word mean? The root words "myrm", "eco", and "morphic" refer to ant, home(Aydin suggests eco may derive from echo meaning repeating, which makes more sense than deriving from oiko meaning home) and form respectively. Hence this refers to species that are an "ant-repeating form".As Christopher from the Catalogue mentions in the comments below, the most plausible definition is from the roots myrmeco- (derived from myrmex, "ant") and morphic ("form"), meaning ant-form or ant-like.


Top photo by Sean Hoyland and bottom photo courtesy Sandilya Theuerkauf, Wynaad, 2006, both from Wikipedia Commons.
This is a form of Batesian mimicry, which is between 2 different species that look very similar. The caveat is that one species is usually toxic, spiny or otherwise not very pleasant to eat, while the mimic is typically a fraud in the arena of danger. In the two photos above did you spot the real ant? If you count the legs its easy to tell. The individual in the top photo has 8 legs whereas the bottom photo is the Weaver Ant, Oecophylla smaragdina, the queen nonetheless. The mimic is Myrmarachne plataleoides (female shown in photo, males have gigantic mandibles, about 33% of their body length).

The spider genus Myrmarachne (Salticidae - the jumping spiders) is characterized by these fraudulent mimics with nearly 200 species of ant wannabes.

Ants are dangerous and unpalatable prey-size organisms and a variety of would-be predators of salticids, including other salticids and mantises, avoid making predatory attacks on, or coming close to, ants. Experimental studies have also shown that salticids and mantises that are averse to attacking ants are averse to attacking Myrmarachne"-Nelson & Jackson 2007

Top: Oecophylla smaragdina, Bottom: ant wannabe Myrmarachne plataleoides (female). Photos copyright Chih Fah Shin
As I've shown with other jumping spider posts (see links in first paragraph) they have quite complex mating behavior. Nelson & Jackson describe in detail the mating behavior of Myrmarachne assimilisand M. bakeri. Its quite the romance novel. Visualize a hot steamy jungle next to a white sand beach, a gentle breeze, seagulls laughing in the distance...

He's alone, walking through the brush and then he sees her. The morning dew glistening off her abdomen. Her four eyes catching the sunrise to the east. He arches his palp and twitches his abdomen, standing erect. She faces him, waves her palps in their air as he watches with anticipation. She turns away, he follows, she turns around, he waits. Her cephalothorax lowers, he dances in response, she lunges past him, yet is blocked by his desire. Eight eyes are staring. She tries to leave, but his approach beckons her. His legs erect, they brush up against her legs. She wants to run away, escape from these feelings, yet can't seem to pull away. The power of lust overcomes all her senses. She shifts her abdomen closer, he gently places his chelicerae upon her abdomen. Softly, calmly, he applies each palp once, then its over.

"When the male disengaged his applied palp, he moved over the female (her abdomen no longer raised or rotated), tapped and stroked and then, once positioned again beside the female, the male scraped his palp across her now flexed-up and rotated abdomen and resumed copulation. Before next palp application, while centered over the female, the male sometimes stepped backwards and forwards, stroking and tapping intermittently."-Nelson & Jackson 2007

Trap-Jaw Ants in Arizona

Hat tip to Bug Girl for a great new resource: Tree of Life Podcasts! Perusing the list of awesome, yet highly educational, videos I came across this one about Arizona's very own species of trap-jaw ant, Odontomachus clarus. Trap-jaw ants are very interesting because they quite possibly are the record holders for the fastest movement in the animal kingdom! O. clarus is even more remarkable for being able to pull back its mandible 180 degrees. The movie itself is worth watching for the defensive bouncer and escape jumps. Enjoy!