Scientists working in the Philippines have discovered a new enigmatic species of ant with a bizarre pigmentation pattern that has no equivalent anywhere else on the planet. Reporting their discovery in the journal Zookeys, the scientists explain how the female pirate ant can be recognized by a distinctive dark stripe across the eyes that resembles […]
It was thought that all social insect species could produce, when needed, a crop of males who would go forth and fertilize new queens, but US and Brazilian researchers now say the antMycocepurus smithii reproduces without fertilization and males of the species are nonexistent. “Animals that are completely asexual are relatively rare, which makes this […]
Presenting their findings in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, US researchers contend that ants can accomplish a task more rationally than humans. The scientists, from Arizona State University (ASU) and Princeton University, explain that it is not the case of humans being “stupider” than ants, rather that humans often make irrational […]
A newly discovered parasite so dramatically transforms its host, an ant, that the ant comes to resemble a juicy red berry, according to a report in The American Naturalist. Biologists believe that the fruit mimicry caused by the parasite tricks birds into eating infected ants – parasites and all – so that the bird can […]
