Ant Visions

moved!

2010-07-16T14:28:00.005+10:00

ant visions has moved to

http://web.mac.com/ajaynarendra/AjayNarendra/antvisions/antvisions.html

Update feeds, links, bookmarks..

Light intensity during evening twilight triggers Bullant activity

2010-02-04T10:01:00.022+11:00

After having spent several days of nocturnal lifestyle studying the Bull ant, Myrmecia pyriformis in Canberra, I am quite pleased to report that one of our findings has been published¹. Our earlier discovery² that these ants exhibit strong bursts of inbound and outbound activity in evening and morning twilight respectively in the summer, prompted us to ask whether the onset activity of these ants is restricted to the twilight period for the whole year and if so how do they determine the time of the day in such a dim-lit temporal niche.

By regular monitoring of activity schedules at different nests it became clear that temperature does not play a major role in this – a factor thought to play a major role in regulating ant foraging. Of course when surface temperature dropped to 6.5°C the ants decided to take a break (thankfully for us!), which indicated that this might be close to their critical minima – that’s another story.

The interesting bit here was that in overcast conditions (determined by measuring light levels) ants began their activity much earlier relative to sunset time and conversely under clear skies began activity much later. This indicated that light intensity might play a role in the timing of foraging and that the setting sun alone was not a cue to begin activity.

Inspired by Edward Hodgson’s observations in 1955 on leaf cutter ants³ we set about modifying light intensity during twilight. The challenge of was to make the twilight brighter ensuring no point light sources would be available for orientation. We did this by using a dome shaped diffuser and suspending it above the nest entrance. This also ensured that if the ants came close to the nest entrance the visual panorama was still available for them to navigate. Keeping the lights on for the first 60 minutes of the twilight did not result in ant activity. As soon as the lights were turned off, activity began within a few minutes. The necessary controls were carried out and replication at three nests provided very similar results.

Publications in Proceedings B is currently available for free download as they are celebrating their 350^th anniversary. So go on and download this paper.

¹Narendra A, Reid SF & Hemmi JM. 2010. The twilight zone: light intensity triggers activity in primitive ants. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2009.2324

^{²Greiner B, Narendra A, Reid SF, Dacke M, Ribi WA & Zeil J. 2007. Eye structure correlates with distinct foraging-bout timing in primitive ants. Current Biology 17, R879–R880.}

³Hodgson ES 1955. An ecological study of the behaviour of the leaf-cutting ant Atta cephalotes. Ecology 36: 293-304

Animal navigation summer school

2009-11-25T08:41:00.005+11:00

I just got back from a fantastic summer school on animal navigation. This was the 8th consecutive year of this school and was organised by Allen Cheung at The University of Queensland, QBI, Brisbane. The summer school has always maintained a high teacher to student ratio & was no different this time around. We had several fantastic lectures and tours to labs. Here are a few highlights:

Magnetoreception in birds from Roswitha Wiltschko and Wolfgang Wiltschko. They gave a stunning overview of the field, the current controversies, and ideas of how to determine if your favourite animal uses magnetic field for orientation or positional information.
Medium-scale navigation of bats by Nachum Ulanovsky. The route following behaviour these bats from Israel exhibit is very different from what we currently know from birds. This was easily the most hotly discussed/debated talk over the whole week. Keep an eye out when this gets published sometime next year!
Janet Wiles, Director of Thinking Systems introduced us to her work on how they get robots to associate spaces with languages. Very cool!
Mandyam Srinivasan took us along the journey of the discovery of use of optic flow for distance estimation by honeybees. Also highlighted were the challenges bees face in making the perfect landing on vertical or horizontal surfaces.
Some pretty cool virtual reality work by Dan Angus and Allen Cheung where they created 3-D arenas and got us to think about image differences in a multitude of situations. This will be very crucial in light of the recent work on image differences in panoramic images in several animals.
Jochen Zeil gave us an overview of knowledge base of insects with great emphasis on the the different ways insects use landmarks.
Justin Marshall explained to us know why we know very little about navigation in marine environments, while we drooled over his study sites and study species (mantis shrimp, cuttlefish).

Jochen and I got two practical sessions running:

from the human navigation experiments using differential GPS all of us became acutely aware of the difficulty of walking in a straight line while blindfolded and ears plugged. Kudos to the desert ants!
in the ant navigation practical we discovered that Rhytidoponera metallica mostly rely on visual landmark information for homing but in certain contexts path integrates using a celestial compass.

I am already looking forward for the next year's summer school!

Use of panoramic skyline for navigation: Melophorus bagoti

2009-11-08T18:10:00.011+11:00

Ants use vector or visual information to head to a particular goal. To cope with disturbances or 'errors' arising from their global vector, they use landmarks either as familiar beacons to guide their entire journey or/and to pinpoint a specific location. Studies on Formica and Melophorus bagoti have shown the ants correct for any local displacements along the route which led several authors (me included!) to predict that ants use panoramic cues for homing.

Till date, however, no studies have explicitly tested this. Paul and Ken do exactly this in their recent article in Current Biology. By mimicking the skyline profile using walls of differing dimensions, they provide the best experimental evidence for the use of panoramic skyline not only for ants, but also for any insect. They show the ant's orientation in the natural scene is similar to the skyline profile they provided. They then rotated the skyline profile and found the ants change their orientation to match the rotation of the panorama.

Asexuality in ants

2009-04-16T10:39:00.009+10:00

Eukaryotic organisms mostly reproduce sexually. Since no males were collected in the Neotropical ant fungus growing ant Mycocepurus smithii, Himler and colleagues tested if M. smithii is asexual using different strategies: genetic tools, morphological measures and experimental analyses. Read this paper and check out the neat images of the reproductive tracts.

Abstract: Asexual reproduction imposes evolutionary handicaps on asexual species, rendering them prone to extinction, because asexual reproduction generates novel genotypes and purges deleterious mutations at lower rates than sexual reproduction. Here, we report the ﬁrst case of complete asexuality in ants, the fungus- growing ant Mycocepurus smithii, where queens reproduce asexually but workers are sterile, which is doubly enigmatic because the clonal colonies of M. smithii also depend on clonal fungi for food. Degenerate female mating anatomy, extensive ﬁeld and laboratory surveys, and DNA ﬁngerprinting implicate complete asexuality in this widespread ant species. Maternally inherited bacteria (e.g. Wolbachia, Cardinium) and the fungal cultivars can be ruled out as agents inducing asexuality. M. smithii societies of clonal females provide a unique system to test theories of parent–offspring conﬂict and reproductive policing in social insects. Asexuality of both ant farmer and fungal crop challenges traditional views proposing that sexual farmer ants outpace coevolving sexual crop pathogens, and thus compensate for vulnerabilities of their asexual crops. Either the double asexuality of both farmer and crop may permit the host to fully exploit advantages of asexuality for unknown reasons or frequent switching between crops (symbiont reassociation) generates novel ant–fungus combinations, which may compensate for any evolutionary handicaps of asexuality in M. smithii.

From: Anna G. Himler, Eric J. Caldera, Boris C. Baer, Hermógenes Fernández-Marín and Ulrich G. Mueller. 2009. No sex in fungus-farming ants or their crops. Proc. R. Soc. B. DOI 10.1098/rspb.2009.0313.

Cane toads: ants to the rescue

2009-04-01T22:20:00.008+11:00

Cane toad, Bufo marinus, are large toxic animals that are native to Central and South America and were introduced to Australia in 1935 to eradicate sugarcane beetles. These toads however have had detrimental effects on native Australian fauna - including marsupials, snakes & lizards. Checking the spread of these toads has been a task next to impossible. Recent work from Rick Shine's lab shows that the diurnal toads somehow fail to detect approaching Iridomyrmex reburrus ants, and the ants kill and feed on the toads. Read more about this latest research where the authors report their findings and discuss the possibility of using these ants to control cane toad spread.

Reference: Ward-Fear G et al., 2009. Maladaptive traits in invasive species: in Australia cane toads are more vulnerable to predatory ants than are native frogs. Functional Ecology: DOI 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2009.01556.x

Updates: Cataulacus

2008-08-12T10:17:00.006+10:00

Cataulacus ants are the cute and cuddly in the ant world! This is an arboreal genus distributed across the Indomalayan, Afrotropical and Madagascar region. They nest within cavities of plants and branches of trees. They play dead when disturbed and camouflage extremely well with the tree barks. Pictures of Cataulacus taprobanae from South India are up at the Ant Gallery.

When & Where do ants do it

2008-08-11T11:45:00.008+10:00

In some ant species males are known to aggregate and wait to attract females, while in others females stay put at a particular place & attract males. However, there is surprisingly little known about where and when ants prefer to mate and hence this recent article is a welcome addition. In this article Noordijk & others set up window traps in 3 locations: open field, forest edge and in the forest to capture flying ants. They set up pitfall traps to identify the ants that occupy these 3 regions. They studied six ant species Lasius umbratus, Lasius niger, Myrmica rubra, Myrmcia ruginodis, Stenamma debile and Temnothorax nylanderi. By regularly checking the window traps from April to December, they were able to identify specific duration of nuptial flights for each ant species.

The really interesting bit is that though nesting habitats of Temnothorax nylanderi, Myrmica rubra & Myrmcia ruginodis were located in forests, maximum alates were captured in the forest edges. Though nesting locations of Lasius niger was in the open field, alates were captured not only in the the open field, but also along forest edges & in the forest. The pitfall traps failed to capture Stenamma debile and Lasius umbratus, but alates of these two species were captured in the window traps. And guess where the maximum alates were found – forest edges! The authors suggest that preference of forests edges might have something do with specific micro-climate the ants require. But they think it could be more to do with the edges acting as a conspicuous landmark which ants use to find mates. For now, I am leaning towards the second possibility.

Read this article here:

Noordijk et al. How ants find each other; temporal and spatial patterns in nuptial flights. Insect Soc. DOI 10.1007/s00040-008-1002-9

Temporal niches & sympatric ants

2008-08-05T16:26:00.008+10:00

For the past few weeks I have been ardently trying to catch up on what's known about ants segregating their niche temporally for foraging. Turns out that there are several studies that address temporal shifts in ants, mostly at the community level, and very few that actually address temporal foraging patterns. Interestingly, I learnt that two Camponotus species, C. socius and C. floridanus exploit the same honeydew sources with socius being diurnal and floridanus nocturnal. However heartening it was to learn this, its frustrating that there is no more information [ex: seasonal differences, variation in castes, facet count, competition] available about this observation from Central Florida, USA which is reported in 4 lines in The Ants [p-383], as 'we made similar observations'. This more so, because temporal niche partitioning in foraging was recently shown in four species of Australian bull ants, Myrmecia species where all four species of ants rely on the same carbohydrate source (plant sap) produced by the same tree.

For what its worth, here are the two Camponotus species:

The diurnal Camponotus socius

Source [Mississippi Entomological Museum]

The nocturnal Camponotus floridanus

[source: Mississippi Entomological Museum]

Updates

2008-04-21T13:52:00.007+10:00

A new genus page on Dolichoderus is up. Yet to find a key to identify these ants to the species level.

No such issues with Polyrhachis though!! With some fantastic help from Rudy Kohout all species of Polyrhachis at the ant gallery have been identified to the species. The latest addition has been Polyrhachis australis which was found during a recent trip to Coffs Harbour.

Further, two species of the shield ants Meranoplus (M. diversoides and one from the fenestratus sp gp) have been added. I found Stefan Schoedl's 2007 publication extremely helpful to identify Australian Meranoplus. Here is the reference: Schoedl S 2007. Revision of the Australian Meranoplus: the Meranoplus diversus group, pp. 370-424. In Snelling R, Fisher BL & Ward PS (eds). Advances in ant systematics (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): homage to EO Wilson - 50 years of contributions. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute, 80 [pdf].

Argentine ant or not?

2008-04-14T10:05:00.002+10:00

For all of us who are unsure if the ant we have in hand is the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile or not, Alex Wild gives us a clear idea of what to look for. Even if you do not have this ant in your hand or where you come from (lucky you!), give it a read to see its distribution and key morphological features.

Shooting in the dark

2008-04-12T13:19:00.009+10:00

Lighting plays a crucial role in making an picture look presentable both technically and aesthetically. So what if the animal is nocturnal and hates light but is loved by the camera??

Here is a ant called Rhytidoponera which I found while I was at Nadgee nature reserve, a few kilometers south of Eden on the east coast of Australia. I found a nest of these ants so close to where my tent was pitched that I could watch them by actually lying down on the sleeping mat with half of me jutting outside the tent! One of those days, by late in the evening, after finishing off some experiments with solitary wasps, I set up the sleeping mat, flicked on the torch and lay there watching these fellows go about their work. They became active just before sunset and continued activity all through the night, till sunrise. They regularly returned to the nest with dead insects. I tried taking some pictures but with light levels being very low, it was proving to be a challenge. The twin lite flash I use comes with a lamp but the light was just too bright and almost always scared the ants away. So after having taken pictures for a couple of hours with no luck, I gave up and decided that just watching them may be a better option. Soon I realised that I could predict where an ant returning to its nest would be say after 5 secs. I decided to see if this would allow me to take some pictures which meant clicking in completing darkness. It turned out that in a matter of 30 mins I actually had a few nice pictures [see one below]. A gentle drizzle in the night led to a rain drop on the ant also being captured.
More and some new images of Rhytidoponera here.

A Rhytidoponera species returns to its nest carrying parts of a bull ant, Myrmecia pyriformis.

Photographed at 0215 hrs; Nadgee Nature Reserve, NSW, Australia

Restructuring & some additions

2008-04-02T10:18:00.009+11:00

The ant gallery has just undergone some major file restructuring and this now lets me add new images with less hassle. A new page on the shield ants Meranoplus is up and running. Next set of additions will be Meranoplus bicolor, Meranoplus diversoides and Meranoplus fenestratus sp gp.

Link to the Ant gallery has changed to: http://web.mac.com/ajaynarendra/Ants

With help from Dinesh Rao, a new spider gallery is up and running with live feed. The tricky ones have been Salticidae and Lycoidae members and we are in the middle of tackling these. Will post here of any additions, but thats unlikely to happpen till the end of the next week: juggling with some lecturing, running experiments and moving houses!

Back from Alice

2008-03-04T13:03:00.005+11:00

Been absconding for almost a month now! The most significant bit during this period was a visit to Alice to watch Melophorus bagoti. Here we began an ambitious project of trying to determine what is that the ants see while returning to the nest. While watching Melophorus, by sheer luck I ended up finding the Muscle-man ants Podomyrma species (pictured) in this site, a species which I hadn't seen here since 2003! So, yes in short that was really exciting!

Updates: Pheidole

2008-01-30T10:51:00.002+11:00

A genus that is hard not to get excited about, a genus in which most species exhibit distinct dimorphism in the worker caste, a genus renowned for having several specialist seed harvesters, a genus present in both the New and Old World and often not merely present but ecologically dominant - the ant genus Pheidole. I have just added some images of Pheidole in a valient attempt towards clearing up space on the hard drive.

Asian Myrmecology

2008-01-10T14:08:00.000+11:00

Just heard from the Editors of the Journal, that all articles in the first issue of Asian Myrmecology are available for free download. Kudos to them!

More updates

2008-01-08T15:20:00.001+11:00

Genus pages of Tetraponera and Pachycondyla are up and running! I also added images of a male ant, Myrmecia croslandi, that has a chromosome number of 2n=2. All at the Ant Gallery

Updates, updates and updates

2007-12-30T20:39:00.001+11:00

Ok, finally some new pictures at the Ant Gallery. Highlights of the latest update is species of Camponotus, Iridomyrmex and Polyrhachis. An RSS feed is set up at each genus page.

More in 2008!

Measuring Science

2007-12-11T13:59:00.000+11:00

Answer from the hero in Leo Szilard’s 1948 story “The Mark Gable Foundation” when asked by a wealthy entrepreneur who believes that science has progressed too quickly, what he should do to retard this progress:

“You could set up a foundation with an annual endowment of thirty million dollars. Research workers in need of funds could apply for grants, if they could make a convincing case. Have ten committees, each composed of twelve scientists, appointed to pass on these applications. Take the most active scientists out of the laboratory and make them members of these committees. First of all, the best scientists would be removed from their laboratories and kept busy on committees passing on applications for funds. Secondly the scientific workers in need of funds would concentrate on problems which were considered promising and were pretty certain to lead to publishable results. By going after the obvious, pretty soon science would dry out. Science would become something like a parlor game. There would be fashions. Those who followed the fashions would get grants. Those who wouldn’t would not.”

Read more at:
Lawrence PA, 2007. The mismeasurement of science. Current Biology 17 (15): R583-R585

Novel mutualism

2007-11-30T13:41:00.001+11:00

An article on the ant plant Humboldtia brunonis from Western Ghats, India.

Megha Shenoy & Renee M Borges. A novel mutualism between an ant-plant and its resident pollinator. Naturwissenschaften DOI 10.1007/s00114-007-0289-0

Abstract
Pollination systems in which the host plant provides breeding sites for pollinators, invariably within flowers, are usually highly specialized mutualisms. We found that the pollinating bee Braunsapis puangensis breeds within the caulinary domatia of the semi-myrmecophyte Humboldtia brunonis (Fabaceae), an unusual antplant that is polymorphic for the presence of domatia and harbours a diverse invertebrate fauna including protective and non-protective ants in its domatia. B. puangensis is the most common flower visitor that carries the highest proportion of H. brunonis pollen. This myrmecophyte is pollen limited and cross-pollinated by bees in the daytime. Hence, the symbiotic pollinator could provide a benefit to trees bearing domatia by alleviating this limitation. We therefore report for the first time an unspecialisedmutualism in which a pollinator is housed in a plant structure other than flowers. Here, the cost to the plant is lower than for conventional brood-site pollination mutualisms where the pollinator develops at the expense of plant reproductive structures. Myrmecophytes housing resident pollinators are unusual, as ants are known to be enemies of pollinators, and housing them together may decrease the benefits that these residents could individually provide to the host plant.

Non-aggression with self-nonself discrimination - a first step for super colony formation

2007-11-07T21:00:00.000+11:00

An interesting report by Steiner et al on the ant Lasius austriacus where the authors show that monogynous colonies of this ant species lacks aggression between colonies. In fact workers 'integrate' across colonies, maintaining self-nonself discrimination. This paper argues that the lack of aggression in ant colonies (documented only in 21 species till date) could be the first stage of establishing peace and this in turn could lead to super colonies. The results shown in Figure 1 of this article, which shows genetic relatedness, aggression, discrimination and cuticular hydrocarbons variation at different geographic distances [0-100 km] is simply stunning.

Steiner FM, Schlick-Steiner BC, Moder K, Stauffer C, Arthofer W, Buschinger A, Espadaler X, Christian E, Einfinger K, Lorbeer E, Schafellner C, Ayasse M & Crozier RH. 2007. Abandoning Aggression but Maintaining Self-Nonself Discrimination as a First Stage in Ant Supercolony Formation. Current Biology 17: 1903-1907.

Multiple recruitment systems in ants

2007-11-05T14:46:00.000+11:00

Been surfing through the literature for signs of multiple recruitment mechanisms in any single ant species. I assumed there would be some work on Camponotus species as they exhibit tandem running (one-on-one & group recruitment), solitary foraging, and mass recruitment. Though there is quite a lot of work carried out on recruitment behaviour in Camponotus, they all seem to address one strategy in each species.
But, I found this interesting paper by non other than 'the duo', Holldobler and Wilson. Of the several interesting points in this article is that when the major workers cannot cross gaps to reach a terrain, they build bridges, to which other workers are visually attracted. However once the chains are formed, workers lay trail pheromones on this 'bridge' to recruit nestmates. The five different recruitment systems used by the African Weaver ant, Oecophylla longinoda as documented in this article are:
(a) recruitment to new food sources, mediated by odor trails produced from the rectal gland, coupled with tactile stimuli during mouth-opening, antennation, and head-waggling
(b) recruitment to new terrain, mediated by odor trails produced from the rectal gland and tactile stimulation through antennation
(c) emigration to new sites
(d) short-range recruitment to territorial intruders, during which the terminal abdominal sternite is maximally exposed and dragged for short distances over the ground to release an attractant from the sternal gland
(e) long-range recruitment to intruders, mediated by odor trails from the rectal gland and by antennation and intense body jerking

There are some fantastic sketches and close up photographs of these ants in the article.

Holldobler B and Wilson EO. 1978. The multiple recruitment systems of the African Weaver Ant, Oecophylla longinoda (Latreille) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Behav Ecol Socio 3: 19-60.

Eye structure in Bullants correlates with the timing of foraging bouts

2007-10-31T10:57:00.000+11:00

Ever wondered about what goes on in the enormous eyes of Bullants? Yup we did too, and we ended up finding that the diameter of the photoreceptor, the optical sensitivity, the number of facets and the facet sizes, all increase gradually from diurnal to diurnal/crepuscular, crepuscular/nocturnal and nocturnal species. Such adaptations in eye structure within a single genus, the primitive ant genus Myrmecia especially, is truly remarkable.

Read more here:
Greiner B, Narendra A, Reid SF, Dacke M, Ribi WA, Zeil J. 2007. Eye structure correlates with distinct foraging bout timing in primitive ants. Current Biology 17 (20): R879-R880.

ANeT '07 - India

2007-10-30T16:08:00.000+11:00

The conference was as it should be, lots of ant fanatics! Hosted by the Punjabi University, over 60 delegates from 15 countries attended this meeting. The highlight was without any doubt, Dr Rudolph J Kohout being honoured for his Lifetime contribution in the field of Myrmecology. A breathtaking cultural program organised by the Postgraduate students gave us all a feel for 'the real Punjab'. Session talks were spread out from nearly 9.00 in the morning to around 7.00 in the evening. Speakers were given 8 minutes, though most often this was quite flexible owing to some generous chair persons! We were off on a field trip to collect and watch ants at the base of Himalayas. The highlight for most was seeing Odontoponera transversa, while for others it was Oecophylla smaragdina. The journal of Asian Myrmecology was released and the articles in the first issue suggests a promising future for the Journal! All in all, a well organised conference by Dr Himender Bharati, attended by a nice community of 'ant people'. A must attend from now on!

Pictures by Archana and Thresi

The Biology of Societies

2007-08-21T14:35:00.000+10:00

Insects, spiders, hyenas, amoeba, corvids, and humans: the complex feature of sociality exhibited in all these societies is in the upcoming special issue of Current Biology dedicated to the Biology of Societies.

Articles not to be missed are:

Kin Selection versus Sexual Selection: Why the Ends Do Not Meet by Jacobus J. Boomsma
Social Learning in Insects — From Miniature Brains to Consensus Building by Ellouise Leadbeater and Lars Chittka
Social spiders by Duncan E. Jackson
Social Immunity by Sylvia Cremer, Sophie A.O. Armitage, and Paul Schmid-Hempel

See Current Biology, 2007: vol 17 (16)

Ant Gallery is up!!

2007-08-19T23:59:00.001+10:00

For a while I have been thinking of setting up my ant photographs in one place rather than having sample shots!! Finally I have set up an image gallery here. I am currently in the middle of digging out images from my backup drives. The first batch of pictures are up: Anoplolepis, Camponotus, Crematogaster, Diacamma, Leptomyrmex, Melophorus, Myrmecia, Oecophylla, Polyrhachis, Rhytidoponera, Solenopsis and ant-mimics. Will be uploading images over the next few weeks and hence this site maybe be not be accessible continuously, only for the next few weeks!

Individual experience structures division of labour

2007-08-08T10:21:00.000+10:00

An article on the Japanese ant Cerapachys biroi shows that success or failure of a foraging individual (~7 successive experiences) can determine if the ant would continue as a forager or would decide to nurse the brood. A really simple strategy that could structure division of labour in insect societies. It is interesting to note the authors mention that an unsuccessful individual spends more time with the brood and hence could end up caring for the brood instead of foraging. Virgin workers of this species produces diploid eggs through thelytokous parthenogenesis. It would be interesting to see how insects with different grades of recruitment fare with this current finding.

Read the article here:

Ravary F, Lecoutey E, Kaminski G, Châline N & Jaisson P. 2007. Individual experience alone can generate lasting division of labour in ants. Current Biology 17: 1308-1312.

back from Cape Tribulation

2007-07-31T17:12:00.000+10:00

Along the North-eastern coast of Australia was where I was for the last couple of weeks! Along the Great Barrier reef, where it nearly touches the coast at Cape Tribulation was where I ended up camping for a few days. The days just zoomed past and all I can now remember is the ocean, blue sky, closed canopy forests, getting drenched in torrential downpour, leeches that constantly reminded of it being hot, wet and humid tropics!

Highlights: A close view of the endangered Cassowary, Golden BowerBird, four species of Leptomyrmex, several Polyrhachis species, important being the swimming ants, Polyrhachis sokolova, and finally spotting both morphological and chemical spider mimics of the green ant Oecophylla smaragdina.

The swimming ant Polyrhachis sokolova at Townsville, Queensland.

A stormy afternoon at Cape Tribulation, Queensland.

Change in worth ethics!

2007-05-26T00:17:00.000+10:00

Working in Central Australian and Saharan desert over the last few years had made me numb to the heat. The extent to which it has affected me is something I am realising now, as I am now starting field work in Canberra. Not used to it yet, but I am sure it will grow on me!

Homing in the Central Australian Desert

2007-05-20T19:16:00.001+10:00

My first back to back articles on ants have been published in the Journal of Experimental Biology! Both articles address the unique navigation strategies of the thermophilic Australian desert ant, Melophorus bagoti. Unlike any animal that has been studied so far, these ants have an extraordinary ability to consistently travel half their return distance towards the nest by relying on their path-integrator.

More in these two articles:
Narendra A. 2007. Homing strategies of the Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti I. Proportional path integration takes the ant half-way home. Journal of Experimental Biology 210: 1798-1803. [abstract].

Narendra A. 2007. Homing strategies of the Australian desert ant Melophorus bagoti II. Interaction of the path integrator with visual cue information. Journal of Experimental Biology 210: 1804-1812. [abstract].

ANet Conference in India: Oct 10-13

2007-05-10T18:40:00.000+10:00

The sixth ANeT conference (International Network for Ant Research in Asia) will be hosted by Dr Himender Bharti at the Punjabi University, in India from October 10-13, 2007. Deadline for abstract submission: August 15. More here

The exciting discovery I made was this group is coming out with an ant journal, 'ASIAN MYRMECOLOGY'; the first volume due any soon!

Cool cool!!

Bull Ants sting their way into National Geographic

2007-05-08T09:36:00.000+10:00

An excellent article on Bull ants (Myrmecia gulosa) by Mark W Moffett, with support from the Dinosaur Ant (Nothomyrmecia macrops) discoverer, Bob Taylor, is a feature article in National Geographic. View it here

In the land of the Oldest Ants

2007-04-10T16:58:00.000+10:00

Eyre Peninsula, that's where I was celebrating Easter! My main goal was to try and find the Dinosaur Ants, Nothomyrmecia macrops, at Poochera. However, after a long long search in the night I failed to spot any of them, and am consoling myself that it was perhaps too early in the season to look for them and will try again in a couple of months. On the bright side (with ants, there always is!), I was fortunate to find several species in the night (at Poochera alone) that I had not seen before: 3 species of Polyrhachis, 1 species of Cerapachys, 4 species of Camponotus, 2 species of Calomyrmex, and several Crematogaster species. I continued traveling around the entire Eyre Peninsula and it was truly a remarkable spectacle: for once the prized sighting of the trip was not the ants, but were the sea-lions and dusky dolphins!

This is how the trip went: Adelaide - Port Augusta - Kimba - Kyancutta - Wudinna - Poochera - Streaky Bay - Point Labatt - Baird Bay - Port Kenny - Elliston - Coffin Bay - Port Lincoln - Tumby Bay - Cowell - Whyalla - Port Augusta - Adelaide

New pics added

2007-03-10T21:28:00.000+11:00

Pictures of two species of Giant Bull Ants, Myrmecia nigriceps and Myrmecia tarsata have been added.

Icy shower in Canberra!

2007-03-01T13:30:00.000+11:00

You had to be here to believe it happpened!

I got home earlier than the usual on Feb 27 and heard the downpour begin around 10 in the night and then saw massive hailstones smashing on the window panes in a rhythmic patterns constantly. it brought back good old memories of my school days wherein we used to wait for hailstones during the monsoon and try catch hold of hailstones before they hit the ground. But I was just coming back from a long game of table tennis, I was too tired to dwell on what was happening and I just crashed at some point. I got up in the morning at 4, very diligently to start the scheduled recordings of crepuscular Bull ants, and lo behold, I got out of my apartment, and it looked like it had snowed. I looked closer and was surprised that it was in fact massive, really massive ice crystals! it was chaos allright, fallen branches on pavements, alarms going off in several buildings, ambulances, fire engines and patrol cars speeding on the road. Any sensible chap would have turned back home by now, but no, I pushed my bike along and reached the Uni, to see that it too was in shambles with alarms going off in various buildings. I met Sam who also like me was stunned to see Canberra in such a state and we went took a bike ride at 5 in the morning to have a look at the state of the city. I may be crucified if I say it was 'fun', especially since now I know the storm and the hail has damaged in ANU alone more than 70 buildings and the damage is being approximated in millions. Gosh, what a day!

Male Bull Ant: Myrmecia nigriceps

2007-02-27T07:19:00.000+11:00

As promised, here is a male of another species of Myrmecia, Myrmecia nigriceps.

Male Jack Jumper: Myrmecia croslandi

2007-02-23T19:27:00.000+11:00

Male of Myrmecia croslandi

The incessant rain over the last week has led to a major confusion among the ants here in Canberra. Most of the nests where I had observed nuptial flights in December are again having their nuptial flights, with alates males and females flying out. In the last week the following are the ants which have been releasing winged forms: Crematogaster sp, Iridomyrmex sp, Myrmecia croslandi, Myrmecia nigriceps, Camponotus sp. Crossed my fingers and hoping to see the alates of Rhytidoponera in the coming week.

Here is the first among the lot, Myrmecia croslandi. Things to note: remarkably reduced mandibles, extremely short scape, raised pronotum and mesonotum.

Myrmarachne plateloides

2007-02-21T21:37:00.000+11:00

One of my pictures of the ant-mimicking Salticidae spider, Myrmarachne plateloides, has made it to the July month of the Canadian Arachnologist Calender-2007. These spiders are look-alikes of the Asian Weaver Ant, Oecophylla smaragdina. Check out the other fantastic spiders that made it to the 2007 calender here.

Is anybody generous enough to send me this calender :)

Road trip: Sydney-Alice-Darwin

2007-02-12T15:07:00.000+11:00

One of the truly memorable roadtrips I have done so far in Australia was in 2004-2005, driving from Sydney to Darwin cutting across Wagga Wagga, Narrendra, Broken Hill, Flinders, Cooberpeddy, Alice Springs, Katherine, Kakadu and Litchfield. Dinesh, with whom I did the entire trip has written about our trip in India Today's Travel Plus.

Check it out here
Pics are here and here

Review of the Ant Book in Sanctuary Asia

2007-02-10T13:15:00.000+11:00

Excerpts of the review of the Indian Ant Book
by Bittu Sahgal for Sanctuary Asia

"One of the most welcome, natural history titles to have been published last year was the extremely well put together and printed, 'On A Trail With Ants: A Handbook of the Ants of Peninsular India', by Ajay Narendra (an expert on the navigational abilities of ants) and Sunil Kumar M. (who has documented the ant diversity of Bangalore).

This vital book should be a permanent part of the travel kit of those who escape to wild places and will prove extremely useful to those who seek to identify the ants in their backyards too.

At Rs. 600 per copy (in India), the book is a steal. To acquire a copy, write to antbook.india [at] gmail.com."

For a detailed review, see here

Ant Course

2007-02-07T19:59:00.000+11:00

I just had a look at some of the pictures of the ant course that was held in Australia. Looks like they had a really great time. The next Ant course is in 2007 and will be held at Arizona and in 2008 it is going to be at, hold your breath, Venezuela. How cool will that be!

here is the link for more info on the ant course.

Jack Jumper

2007-02-03T14:52:00.000+11:00

New photos of Jack Jumper, Myrmecia croslandi added.

Myrmecia croslandi

2007-01-09T22:35:00.000+11:00

Ok, the ant I stumbled across was of the pilosula species group, Myrmecia croslandi. Well, I did get stung by this ant but I am all fine!

Camponotus consobrinus

2007-01-03T17:02:00.000+11:00

New pictures of Camponotus consobrinus added.

Jack Jumpers

2006-12-29T17:56:00.000+11:00

I saw my first Jack Jumpers in Canberra. I am not sure what species they are yet. I haven't collected or photographed them still, but they looked quite similar to Myrmecia pilosula. I will confirm this and also upload some images in the next post.

Till then..happy new year!

Myrmecia pyriformis

2006-12-22T00:31:00.000+11:00

New pictures of Myrmecia pyriformis added.

Long scape in Male Camponotus

2006-12-19T12:57:00.000+11:00

It is that time of the year, when nuptial flights of ants are galore in Australia. In the last few weeks, colonies of the ant Camponotus consobrinus have had their nuptial flights in Canberra. The first flight I recorded was on December 11 and I saw several more on December 18 aswell. These ants are nocturnal and are commonly found in and around Canberra and Sydney. While observing the alates (winged forms) going in out and of their nest and some taking flight, I noticed that the males of this ant had a strangely long antennae. Upon close observation, I noticed that in fact the scape was distinctly long, which is quite unlike any other male ant I have seen. I wonder if long scape in males is seen in other species aswell..any takes on this?

Male Camponotus consobrinus licking its first pair of legs by dragging it in between its mandibles. Note the long scape that originates from the clypeal region.

A male Camponotus consobrinus draws its first pair of legs between its mandibles to clean it. Note the long scape that originates from the clypeal region.

Rare morph of Camponotus sericeus: Bangalore

2006-11-22T09:20:00.000+11:00

On one of my anting trips (September, 2006) with Sunil Kumar at Bannerghatta National Park, Bangalore, we found this ant foraging on the ground. Upon further searching we found another worker that was similar, except for the smaller size of the head, to the previously found worker. All characters of these two ants shouted out Camponotus, but we were certain that if this was Camponotus, it was very likely a new species of Camponotus for Southern India. Both the minor and major workers had a distinct golden pubescence, very similar to Camponotus sericeus, but quite unlike sericeus, the head of this particular ant was blood-red in colour. After returning back, I had a close look at the specimen and confirmed that it was indeed Camponotus. Surprisingly, all characters of this ant matched the features of the commonly occuring Golden Backed Ant C. sericeus.

I pulled out Bingham's book (which incidentally is available online) to learn that a few specimens of C. sericeus from Burma and Srilanka have a blood-red coloured head. So here it is, Camponotus sericeus with a red-blood coloured head, probably the first records of this morph from Southern India.

Just recently I found that this morph is quite common in Northern India, specifically Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat. [8-xi-2007]

Handbook of Ants of India

2006-11-13T05:15:00.000+11:00

On A Trail With Ants:

A Handbook of the Ants of Peninsular India

Ajay Narendra and Sunil Kumar M

A primer to the life of ants, introducing the reader to the ants of Peninsular India. The book sets a trend in ant studies by enabling the reader to observe and identify ants at home and elsewhere, in a non-intrusive manner. It is suitable for a varied audience, from students, entomologists, naturalists to photographers. Included in the book are more than 150 colour photographs, with almost all ants photographed in the wild for the first time.

A5 size paperback; 208 Pages; 188 Figures.

"An excellent book that will please both the amateur and the professional.. Both photographs and keys are very well presented.. (they) make the book reader-friendly. A very important contribution to science in general.. (and) to science in India... The book is timely because it is very much needed. I believe it will the first for very many years."

Andrew J Beattie, Professor & Director of Commonwealth Key Centre for Biodiversity and Bioresource, Macquarie University, Australia.

-----------------

"One of the most welcome, natural history titles to have been published last year was the extremely well put together and printed On a Trail With Ants – A Handbook of the Ants of Peninsular India by Ajay Narendra (an expert on the navigational abilities of ants) and Sunil Kumar M. (who has documented the ant diversity of Bangalore). This vital book should be a permanent part of the travel kit of those who escape to wild places and will prove extremely useful to those who seek to identify the ants in their backyards too. The best thing about the book is its simple but very credible text and the fact that it concentrates on the ants of India. The last, truly comprehensive book was a volume in the Fauna of British India published way back in 1903!" Read on

Bittu Sahgal, Sanctuary Asia
-----------------

"'Red, black, big and small'. Well, those were all that Ajay Narendra and Sunil Kumar M. knew about ants before they began their tryst with the tiny critters. Their work till date has yielded the first comprehensive field guide to ants in South India, On A Trail With Ants — A Handbook Of The Ants Of Peninsular India. Don't be put off by the mention of the field guide though. This book is a unique effort that brings hard scientific research within the grasp of a normal reader."

Anand Sankar, The Hindu [December 04, 2006]

*********
for copies contact: antbook.india@gmail.com

The blind ants: Aenictus ceylonicus

2006-10-02T03:25:00.000+10:00

One of the several individuals of Aenictus ceylonicus seen on its long army-like trail

Nearly 9 years it had been since I last visited Bannerghatta National Park, which is ~20 kms from Bangalore. I visited this place with Sunil on the weekend (Sep 30, '06) and what a fantastic day did it turn out to be. 31 species of ants from 23 genera, classified under 7 subfamilies were found in a matter of less than 3 hours. We envisaged in an all out search and did not use any special collecting technique. The highlight of the trip was without any doubt Aenictus ceylonicus (the Blind ants), followed by Cerapachys longitarsus, Acropyga acutiventris, Platythyrea sagei, Plagiolepis jerdonii, red-blood headed Camponotus sericeus. A complete list to follow soon.

One of the several individuals of Aenictus ceylonicus seen on its long army-like trail

Ant nest pictures

2006-09-28T12:42:00.000+10:00

These are some of the nest pictures I decided to upload before moving them from the system.

Crevices and barks of the tree are nesting sites for the arboreal ant Dilobocondyla bangalorica. Bangalore: India

Terrestrial nests of the Army Ant Leptogenys processionalis. Bangalore: India

Nest clearing activity by some seed harvesting ants, Pheidole sp. Bangalore: India

Acrobat Ants, Crematogaster sp, establish nesting sites in small holes and crevices in tree barks. Sydney: Australia

Nests of the Australian Bull Ant Myrmecia fulvipes are common in urban areas. Sydney: Australia

A small hole like nest entrance of Cerapachys singularis in the Australian deserts. Alice Springs: Australia.

Nests of the world's most thermophilic ant Melophorus bagoti in the Australian deserts. Alice Springs: Australia.

Myrmecina in Bangalore!

2006-09-19T16:23:00.000+10:00

It is raining rare ants in Bangalore!!

It has been two days since I spotted Dilobocondyla and now here is yet another extremely rare Indian ant, Myrmecina. One individual of this particular species, M. urbanii, was caught during a sweep net collection in IISc campus and nowhere else in Bangalore. The only other report of this species has been from Kerala, in 1994. There are only two species belonging to this genus known from the Indian subcontinent. I am thrilled!!! The distinctly hooked like spines, along with the unusually large gaster left us gaping at this ant in the field. The habitat where we saw this ant was extremely disturbed, and is in principal a park, which is a huge lung space for Bangalore, Cubbon Park. Boy! are we on a roll.

Rediscovery of an ant genus from India, and discovery of a new species Dilobocondyla bangalorica

2006-09-18T12:56:00.001+10:00

A rare ant genus Dilobocondyla was discovered (Sunil Kumar et al, 1997) in urban regions of Bangalore, its first records from the Indian subcontinent. The species then unidentified, has now been rediscovered and has been found to be new to science. It goes with the species name, bangalorica in recognition of the locality, Bangalore, from where it has been found (Varghese, 2006). I had a rare first hand opportunity to watch these ants along with Sunil Kumar and Thresiamma Varghese. The ant measures less than 4 millimeters in length. The ants were never seen foraging on ground and as of now this species has been found to nest only on a particular tree species, Plumeria alba.

see more pictures of this new species here

Refs:
Sunil Kumar M, Srihari K T, Nair P, Varghese T and Gadagkar R. 1997. Ant species richness at selected localities of Bangalore. Insect Environment 3, 3-5.
Varghese T. 2006. A new species of ant genus Dilobocondyla (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from India, with notes on its nesting behaviour. Oriental Insects 40, 23-32.

Aphids, that ants stay away from

2006-09-04T14:27:00.000+10:00

An aphid sucking the sap out of a potted Marigold plant in Bangalore. Though several homopteran-tending ants walked all over the plant, none attended to the aphids. See more photos here.

From Bangalore

2006-09-03T11:30:00.001+10:00

Lots more traffic than usual, more greenery gone, lots of lakes on the verge of disappearing..urbanisation is rampant in Bangalore. And not surprisingly, the few ants that I see around are either invasive species such as the Yellow Crazy Ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes) or generalist species such as Golden Abdomen Ant (Camponotus sericeus [below]).

not around

2006-08-29T12:24:00.000+10:00

Finally the inevitable 'submission deadline' arrived and I did manage to submit my ph.d. thesis on Aug 22 and I am back in bangalore. Taking a much required long break now, and I will be back soon.

The Ants Pedometer

2006-07-31T18:46:00.001+10:00

How individually foraging ants reach the nest in a barren featureless desert, has been a subject explored for over a 100 years. Though the ant's ability to orient using polarised light was discovered, the mechanism behind estimating distances eluded researchers. Several hypothesis have been put forward to explain how ants might measure distances, step counting being one of them. By forcing ants to walk on stilts and shortened legs Wittlinger et al found that ants use a form of a step-integrator to reach the nest. Ants that arrived to a food source by travelling a distance x with normal legs were operated (lengthened or shortened) and left to return to their nest. Ants with long legs had long strides and measured a distance greater than 'x', while ants with shortened legs had short strides and measured a distance lesser than 'x'.

From: Wittlinger, M. Wehner R. and Wolf, H. (2006). The ant odometer: stepping on stilts and stumps. Science 312, 1965-1967.

backyard's back to life

2006-06-29T11:53:00.000+10:00

After the mundane last few days, finally the rain stopped, the sun is back, and the backyard is teeming with life and activity once again.

One Year Old

2006-06-26T18:38:00.000+10:00

I just realized that its exactly 1-year for this blog today.

Macro mania

2006-06-11T21:11:00.000+10:00

Got my new Canon MPE 65mm macro lens and its just awesome. The magnification and the detail in the tiny fellows is brutally overwhelming. It has been two days...and I am struggling to shoot at the maximum magnification, trying to get adjusted to the darkness in the lens. I don't use a tripod and the lens is heavy, heavier than any other lens I have used so far. Sometimes I wish my heart would hold on and stop for a minute while I get that shot right. It has been quite damp here, so I have been squeezing time out to get even a few shots.
Here are the first shots: Rhytidoponera metallica and Myrmecia fulvipes

New Photos

2006-04-10T04:58:00.000+10:00

Camponotus compressus, Camponotus sericeus and Oecophylla smaragdina from Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Sydney botanical garden

2006-04-10T03:28:00.000+10:00

A trip to the Sydney botanical garden with D, started of with a biiig disappointment as the tropical centre was closed. Though I didn't find many ants, the highlight of the day was sighting the 'Bird Dropping Spider', some lovely ferns and plenty of fruit bats.

A quick get-away to India

2006-04-06T00:49:00.000+10:00

Managed to squeeze a trip out to South India, and was back to recognising ants at the first glimpse. In between feeling at home, I found two genera, Platythyrea (P. paralella) and Lepisiota (L. opaca and L. fraunefeldi) and managed to id them in the field, and was delighted, as untill then, I had seen them only under the microscope.

-Pictures to follow soon.

Metallic sheen Polyrhachis

2006-03-02T11:37:00.000+11:00

While hunting for a particular species of Rhytidoponera in the University campus, I stumbled upon this ant, Polyrhachis hookeri. Seeing the metallic green sheen from far off I shrugged saying..another Rhytidoponera, but once I got close to it...surprise surprise!! None of the 20 odd species of Polyrhachis that I have so far seen have a metallic sheen. Most of the species I have seen, had a golden pubescence either on the entire body or on the alitrunk or on the gaster.

At the Blue mountains

2006-02-23T14:15:00.000+11:00

Ruin Castle, Blue Mountains

All the A's, who happen to be invertebrate freaks, from my lab headed out to blue mountains on the last sunday. We walked towards the Ruin castle, a walk which was reported as a 4 hr return walk. The temperate forests presented a unique habitat with several species of Leptomyrmex and a few Iridomyrmex being very conspicuous all throughout the walk. The walk started off in a very predictable manner with steps along the way, that disappeared after a while, but surfaced up towards the fag end of the walk.

The 'best bird sighted' has to go to the male Lyrebird that A heard and we then spotted. The brilliant looking male was not singing but was making a mound by piling up leaves and twigs, a mound upon which he apparently would stand on to call and sing for the female.

The habitat was densely wooded (primarily Eucalyptus) and very wet, courtesy to the heavy rains over the last few days. Leaflitter thickness ranged from 2-9 centimeters, with canopy closed or broken at most places.

We came across a few interesting spiders and a few interesting webs. One such web was very likely of the Southern Funnel Web spider, a huge monstrous web on the tree, with the funnel penetrating the deep interiors of the tree. The web was quite devilish with tentacle like arms spread out and wound against the nearby protruding woody chunk. A few of the spiders we sighted belonged to the family Uloboridae, Araneidae (Araneaeus eburns).

Skinks, by god, there were numerous of them and they were not shy at all. One of them infact started eating breadcrumbs dropped by people at the resting place along the walk.

Saving the best for the last, the ants. I had first sightings of five species of Myrmecia, four of which new to me; some three species of Leptomyrmex, one species of Camponotus (look alike of C. sericeus present in Middle east to Southern Asia), 3 species of Iridomyrmex (all tiny ants measuring less than 4 mm), one still to be identified arboreal Myrmicine. I was truly impressed with Leptomyrmex that are commonly called 'spider ants' because of their long legs and the way they hold themselves high above the ground. Three of the five species of Myrmecia exhibited jumping behaviour, something I have often seen in Harpegnathos. But the jumps were short hops, rather than being elaborate >15 cm jumps as in Harpegnathos.

Ants from blue mountains

2006-02-21T05:43:00.000+11:00

More of Myrmecia and others. Soon to come, ants of the blue mountains!

New Photos

2006-02-07T20:49:00.000+11:00

Cerapachys singularis from Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.

Aussie ants say 'no' to maps

2006-01-19T14:53:00.000+11:00

Ants, unlike bees, do not use maps, but adhere to learnt routes in tussock rich desert habitats of Central Australia. A team of Swiss researchers highlight these findings in the Australian endemic ant Melophorus bagoti. Melophorus are solitary foragers, and each ant establishes idiosyncratic paths in their cluttered environment and adheres to them. What's interesting is that, the foodbound and nestbound routes are different and are not mere 180 degree reversals of each other. When an ant heading home is displaced, she searches till she finds the familiar homebound route and then 'channels in' to reach the nest. However in this period if the ant crosses the foodward path, they continue to search as if lost, thus providing evidence of 'one-way route navigation'.

From: Wehner et al, 2006. Current Biology 16: 75-79.
highlighted: Nature 2006 439: 246.

New Photos

2006-01-18T18:34:00.000+11:00

Melophorus bagoti and Myrmecia desertorum
from Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.

Tandem running

2006-01-18T14:59:00.001+11:00

A recent paper in Nature, talks about the well established recruiting behaviour in ants called tandem running in a different perspective: teaching and learning. Tandem running involves the leader ant waiting for a confirmation of the presence of the follower ant before taking a few steps. The follower ant confirms its presence by tapping the leader ant's legs, with its antennae, which triggers the leader ant to take a few more steps. The article talks about the same, but highlights that this behaviour in Temnothorax albipennis has an added cost as it slows down the leader ant. Ants use different forms of recruitment, tandem running being one of them and hence whether this is actually teaching and learning is highly debatable. If a leader ant moves slowly than usual, it would make it more vulnerable to predators. Even ants that produce alarm or recruitment pheromones for their nestmates end up attracting predators, but the recuritment remains in the best interest of the nest, rather than the individual. Though the article was interesting, I must confess, I did not find anything spectacularly new, compared to findings from earlier papers where tandem running or tandem calling was established. For earlier articles on tandem running see:

Moglich M, U Maschwitz and Holldobler B (1974). Tandem calling: a new kind of signal in ant communication. Science 186, 1046-1047.
Holldobler B and Wilson E O (1990). The Ants.
Holldobler B, Moglich M and U Maschwitz (1974). Communication by tandem running in the ant Camponotus sericeus. J Comp Physio A 90: 105-127.

Franks NR and Richardson T. 2006. Teaching in tandem running ants. Nature 439: 153

Saharan ants

2005-12-29T18:54:00.000+11:00

It happened during one of those days when I had managed to miss school to watch India-Pakistan cricket match. I changed channels during the drink's break to watch National Geographic. What I saw was stunning. One crazy guy, in the middle of Sahara trying to figure out how one single ant walks around. I learnt that he had been doing this in the middle of the desert for the past 2 decades!! I was completely overwhelmed and zapped, to even think that someone can get a job to watch an ant in Sahara. Now nearly after 15 years since I watched that screening on NGC, I must say that it was truly a privilege for me to make it Sahara to study these ants, one of the world’s thermophilic ants, Cataglyphis.

Cheng K, Narendra A and Wehner R. Behavioural ecology of odometric memories in desert ants: acquisition, retention and integration. Behavioral Ecology (doi:10.1093/beheco/arj017).

Slalom racer ant

2005-12-25T14:20:00.000+11:00

Ants with the largest eyes, yes largest eyes, lives in the tropical rain forests of French Guina. These ants, called as Gigantiops destructor, embark on their foraging behaviour individually, without making trails. A recent study to determine the unique navigational skills of this ant was conducted by a team of researchers at CNRS, France. They confined ants in a dome like structure and trained them to navigate to different locations and recorded individual ant's path. On their way out of the nest, ants navigate around the conspicuous landmark closest to its nest and on their way in they navigate around a landmark closest to the food source. What's fascinating is that en route to a goal, individual ants established idiosyncratic routes by slaloming around different landmarks. Does the slalom car racer come to mind?

From: Macquart et al. 2005. J Comp Physiol A: DOI 10.1007/s00359-005-0064-7.

I was fortunate to have been at this paper's presentation at ICE 2005 in Budapest.

Watching Ants

2005-11-19T16:48:00.000+11:00

...till Feb '06

Arboreal Bicoloured Ant

2005-11-06T06:47:00.000+11:00

This arboreal ant, Tetraponera rufonigra is one of the most commonly occurring Pseudomyrmicines in South India. They are solitary foragers and often nest in dead wood and rotting logs. They have an extremely sharp sting and are not shy to use it at all. They can be easily identified by their jerky walking movements. They are commonly found around coconut and mango trees.

Crazy Black ants

2005-10-25T09:22:00.000+10:00

A truly different sort of a nest constructed by the 'tramp species", Paratrechina longicornis. Their presence now even in some of the evergreen forests of Western India, is not good news for conservation.

Bulldog Ants

2005-10-20T03:42:00.000+10:00

Mandibles distinctly reminded me of Harpegnathos saltator. But unlike the timid and shy Jumping Ant, these ants are ferocious and even chase human intruders who get close to their polydomous mound like nests. No idea what they feed on. They primarily remained nocturnal during the entire summer at Alice Springs, where ground temperature during the day hovered anywhere between 50-80 Celsius. I did get lucky on one of the cooler evenings to witness their nuptial flight, as I counted over 25 males testing their wings before flying, before it got too dark. This is called Inch ant and goes by the scientific name Myrmecia desertorum.

Cool Arboreal Predator!

2005-10-18T00:39:00.000+10:00

With over ten million workers in each colony, the Weaver ants, Oecophylla smaragdina, mastermind's the activities occurring in the canopies of the tropical rain forests. Deadly bites, sharp tarsal claws, coupled with a blast of formic acid, makes these ants the most aggressive arboreal ants.

My First Aussie Pseudomyrmicine

2005-10-17T19:27:00.000+10:00

Stopping in between the 6000 km drive from Sydney-Adelaide-Alice Springs-Darwin, deep in the outback, a few kms North of Wilpena Pound in South Australia, I found my first Australian Pseudomyrmicine, Tetraponera allaborans.

DNA barcoding again!

2005-10-13T20:29:00.000+10:00

What a coincidence it turned out to be! I read about DNA bar coding and ants just a few days back and I got to attend a seminar on DNA bar coding just yesterday, but it was not exactly on ants. Dr Faith from the Australian Museum, involved in the 2010 project, talked about pros and cos involved in addressing conservation issues by looking at a portion of a single gene called cytochrome oxidase 1. He gave us a glimpse of the kind of stuff they have been doing with webshots from their website "Barcode of Life". To be honest, I am mighty impressed and see a lot of potential in this, because:

(a) species do not require a name..a problem when we are addressing most invertebrates,
(b) rather than looking at species richness, DNA bar coding provides us an opportunity for the first time, to frame conservation by addressing diversity in phylogeny.
(c) since the bits of genes which are used are from mitochondrial DNA they would be unique to each species, thus helping in identifying species,
(d) it will work like a dream with insects (that have been preserved in alcohol for ages) and example being the DNA barcoding project on Arctic Canadian Collembolans.

To chart conservation strategies by using DNA barcoding, rather than addressing all the fauna present in one place, addressing a few taxa alone might be adequate. However while selecting this elite group of taxa, we need to make sure they suit the criteria of being an ecological indicator and not because they are our favourite groups (our usual mistake!).

Ant Posters

2005-10-11T05:01:00.000+10:00

The first two in a series of ant posters (A3 size) have been printed and are up for circulation. The posters are aimed to aid in field identification of ants by watching their behaviour and nest architecture. The posters are distributed free, courtesy of a wildlife enthusiast Mr Prem Koshy. Anybody interested, kindly shoot an email to: antbook.india at gmail.com.

DNA barcoding..would it be THE answer?

2005-10-11T04:45:00.000+10:00

A reason why community fluctuations in ant populations are unknown starts with the issue of identification. Alex Smith et al, ponder in their recent publication whether DNA barcoding of ants would help solve the problem. They do this by identifying ants to the generic level and then use a single gene (cytochrome oxidase 1) to identify species richness. A few more pilot studies like these should reveal the efficacy of the system to measure species richness.

from: Smith et al (2005), Phil Trans R Soc B 360, 1825-1834.

Looking for a weird ant - Western Ghats

2005-10-05T03:52:00.000+10:00

A month in India took me away from the city down into the rain forests of Western Ghats looking for an elusive jumping ant. The hunt was for a black morph of Harpegnathos saltator, a morph known only from Shimoga, a district in the Western Ghats. This hunt however carried out in the monsoon periods helped only in sighting their nests but not the ants. These black morph ants construct distinctly different nests compared to commonly seen red morph of H. saltator. Though this ant remained unsighted due to the heavy rains, the forest floors was teeming with several other species.

Google gets an ant!!

2005-10-05T02:54:00.000+10:00

A recently discovered ant from Madagascar, a Proceratium, has its species name christened as "google", a tribute to Google!! Introducing Proceratium google.

Parachuting ants!!!

2005-08-06T12:55:00.000+10:00

South American canopy ants, Cephalotes atratus when come in contact with foreign objects fall from branches of tall rain forest canopies. They however do not let gravity take them to the ground. They evade all the lurking predators on the ground by gliding and manoeuvre their fall towards the main trunk of the tree canopy they inhabit. Such stupendous navigating ability however isn't restricted to Cephalotini tribe alone, but is present in the other solitary foraging arboreal subfamily of ants Pseudomyrmcinae. An interesting common feature amongst ants that exhibit gliding, is that their evolutionary origin arises from flooded forests. The necessity to avoid water and the fish predators might be one of the reasons for the evolution of this bizarre form of navigation in microscopic animals.

Watch ants gliding down trees in Peruvian rain forests
from Yanoviak et al, 2005. Nature 433: 624-626.

10m, 100m, 1000m..in an ant's language

2005-07-18T20:21:00.000+10:00

In an elegant study on the renowned Cataglyphis ant, the secret behind their remarkable ability of estimating distances has been found not to be involved with any visual cues at all. Their related hymenopterans, the honey bees and bumble bees use optic flow on their retina to calculate distances to reach both the food source and their hive. The absence of visual cues in ants, thus strengthens the possibility of distance estimation (odometry) to be driven by the pro-prio-receptors on the legs of these tiny fellows.

from: Thiellin-Bescond and Beugnon 2005. Naturwissenschaften 92: 193-197

Hostility hastens recruitment

2005-07-18T20:07:00.000+10:00

Ants of the species Pheidole magacephala recruit more nestmates, especially large numbers of soldiers, when they find hostile chemical cues around a food resource. A first for Myrmicines, soldiers castes of these ants carry liquid droplets under their head and thorax owing to surface tension, very similar to certain Ponerines.

from: Dejean et al, Naturwissenschaften, 2005. 92: 324-327.

Males....the new species?

2005-07-03T17:31:00.000+10:00

One amongst the top 100 invasive species, a fire ant Wasmannia auropunctata, has males and females each reproducing clonally. Male ants develop parthenogenetically, thus having one copy of each gene, while females develop from fertilized egg, thus having two copies of each gene. Some females develop into a sterile worker class, while some others into reproductive class, called "gyne". The gynes in this bizarre little ant, have similar genetic makeup as of the reproducing queen. Males for the first time have retaliated by banishing maternal genes from the diploid egg. A stunning similarity in the genotype of the sperm in the speramatheca of the queen and in the newly produced males, revealing this. Would this male dominance or selfishness, result in the need to rewrite colony organisation and kin-selection theories?

from Fourneir et al, 2005. Nature: 1230-1234

Calling ants' names

2005-06-26T02:25:00.000+10:00

A collection of ant pictures taken by me over the last few years in several locations, with short descriptions of some common and rare Cerapachyinae, Dolichoderinae, Formicinae, Myrmeciinae, Myrmicinae and Ponerinae ant that I came across.