"Two Common Ponerine Ants of Possible Economic Significance”
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When you love studying insects you come to loathe the phrase “economic significance” it’s always about “pest control”
@futurebird Turns out more than 10% of the GDP of several states actually comes from ants farming aphids in suburban settings, causing severe problems for the concept of 'per capita'.
In this paper we will examine the strengths and weaknesses of modelling colonies as a single unit of 'formica economicus', versus the individual worker...
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I don't resent any myrmecologists for doing some work to "get that bag" the bag in the world of insects is not very large.
I am a little suspicious of geologists with country homes, however.
How many oil wells and fracking maps DID you make exactly?
I still wanna know what The Man With the Yellow Hat did to have a huge city apartment within walking distance of Central Park and also a country home with quite a bit of land.
All I can think of his that his parents endowed the museum and now he gets to go on “adventures” with his parents’ money and pretend he’s a scientist.
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"Two Common Ponerine Ants of Possible Economic Significance”
I know it’s probably a boring book about farms and pest control— but what if it wasn’t? What if it was a financial thriller about an ambitious pair of ants who take on Wall Street. (and only resort to stinging when all else fails) ?
Maybe the world needs such a book.
@futurebird This is the most entertaining thread I've read this morning. But I do have a question. In the attached photo is a reference to "fungus-growing ants." I wonder if any of those particular species affect mycorrhizal networks either positively or negatively?
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@futurebird This is the most entertaining thread I've read this morning. But I do have a question. In the attached photo is a reference to "fungus-growing ants." I wonder if any of those particular species affect mycorrhizal networks either positively or negatively?
The ants grow a particular crop of fungi they have cultivated (and domesticated) for millions of years. Different species of ants have different crops.
The way they excavate the soil and enrich it is probably important to many other organisms.
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The ants grow a particular crop of fungi they have cultivated (and domesticated) for millions of years. Different species of ants have different crops.
The way they excavate the soil and enrich it is probably important to many other organisms.
@futurebird @JeanieBurrell The fungus that leafcutter ants cultivate no longer has any living wild near-relatives, so (at least last I read about them) nobody knows what its ancestor is. It's also entirely dependent on the ants and incapable of surviving in the wild - much like human crop cultivars.
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@futurebird @JeanieBurrell The fungus that leafcutter ants cultivate no longer has any living wild near-relatives, so (at least last I read about them) nobody knows what its ancestor is. It's also entirely dependent on the ants and incapable of surviving in the wild - much like human crop cultivars.
@datarama @futurebird This is fascinating. So they are in an exclusive symbiosis? In human crops, new cultivars have to be continuously developed to sustain viability and nutrition, while heirloom varieties do not have this vulnerability. Has this fungus evolved in result to its cultivation?
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@datarama @futurebird This is fascinating. So they are in an exclusive symbiosis? In human crops, new cultivars have to be continuously developed to sustain viability and nutrition, while heirloom varieties do not have this vulnerability. Has this fungus evolved in result to its cultivation?
It absolutely has. In the higher attines the fungi helps maintain a level of humidity perfect for ant eggs and larvae. The young ants are embedded in it. They are born cradled in hyphae. The fungus produces nutrition rich bodies (not mushrooms, but more like underground nodes) with the protein and sugars the ants need most.
The integration is likely deeper than that of humans and our crops.
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It absolutely has. In the higher attines the fungi helps maintain a level of humidity perfect for ant eggs and larvae. The young ants are embedded in it. They are born cradled in hyphae. The fungus produces nutrition rich bodies (not mushrooms, but more like underground nodes) with the protein and sugars the ants need most.
The integration is likely deeper than that of humans and our crops.
Sometimes I wish I could be cradled in hyphae. It sounds very nice.
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The ants grow a particular crop of fungi they have cultivated (and domesticated) for millions of years. Different species of ants have different crops.
The way they excavate the soil and enrich it is probably important to many other organisms.
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It absolutely has. In the higher attines the fungi helps maintain a level of humidity perfect for ant eggs and larvae. The young ants are embedded in it. They are born cradled in hyphae. The fungus produces nutrition rich bodies (not mushrooms, but more like underground nodes) with the protein and sugars the ants need most.
The integration is likely deeper than that of humans and our crops.
@futurebird @datarama So these particular ants could not live without their fungi? The fungi has been subjected to selection, but have the ants?
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regarding the photo: did they.. drown an entire ant city in liquid rock so they could map it? 🫣 Or did they discover it already abandoned by its urban-farming citizens?
A farmer was fed up with the ants and wanted them gone. ("economic significance" strikes again, but I do have some sympathy for the poor farmers, these girls can strip a fruit tree overnight) This species isn't in any danger.
The farmer was going to have the nest dug up and destroyed so the scientists stepped in and learned something from it.
The thing about digging up the biggest ant nest is it allows the second and third biggest to take over... it's not that effective.
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A farmer was fed up with the ants and wanted them gone. ("economic significance" strikes again, but I do have some sympathy for the poor farmers, these girls can strip a fruit tree overnight) This species isn't in any danger.
The farmer was going to have the nest dug up and destroyed so the scientists stepped in and learned something from it.
The thing about digging up the biggest ant nest is it allows the second and third biggest to take over... it's not that effective.
I don't know if this casting is the one with the farmer, but one I read about that was very similar was such a situation.
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It absolutely has. In the higher attines the fungi helps maintain a level of humidity perfect for ant eggs and larvae. The young ants are embedded in it. They are born cradled in hyphae. The fungus produces nutrition rich bodies (not mushrooms, but more like underground nodes) with the protein and sugars the ants need most.
The integration is likely deeper than that of humans and our crops.
@futurebird @JeanieBurrell @datarama it’s likely to be not entirely the genius of the ants tending to a passive fungus, I’d suspect the fungus is as much responsible for the worktogethering here, and perhaps induced the ants to do this sort of thing, I wouldn’t put it past a fungus to make an ant do a thing
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@futurebird @datarama So these particular ants could not live without their fungi? The fungi has been subjected to selection, but have the ants?
To what extent have corn and wheat shaped humanity?
(consider our little teeth. )
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@futurebird @JeanieBurrell @datarama it’s likely to be not entirely the genius of the ants tending to a passive fungus, I’d suspect the fungus is as much responsible for the worktogethering here, and perhaps induced the ants to do this sort of thing, I wouldn’t put it past a fungus to make an ant do a thing
@u0421793 @datarama @JeanieBurrell
There are plants that control their ants. There are trees that get ants basically addicted to their nectar, to keep them around as body guards.
I do think the relationship of the fungi and the attines is most like that of humans and our domestic crops. It's a kind of deep mutual dependency.
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@futurebird @datarama So these particular ants could not live without their fungi? The fungi has been subjected to selection, but have the ants?
@JeanieBurrell @futurebird Leafcutters are *entirely* dependent on that fungus. All those leaves they famously cut aren't for them - they're for the fungus farms. Their digestive system is extremely specialized and they can't eat anything else.
When young queens fly from the hive, they first visit the fungus farms to bring a wad of fungus with them. They even "feed" it with their own eggs until the first broods of workers can start bringing leaves!
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@JeanieBurrell @futurebird Leafcutters are *entirely* dependent on that fungus. All those leaves they famously cut aren't for them - they're for the fungus farms. Their digestive system is extremely specialized and they can't eat anything else.
When young queens fly from the hive, they first visit the fungus farms to bring a wad of fungus with them. They even "feed" it with their own eggs until the first broods of workers can start bringing leaves!
@datarama @futurebird Oh! Like keeping a bit of my sourdough starter to make more sourdough starter. So that specific fungi is also dispersed by them?
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@datarama @futurebird Oh! Like keeping a bit of my sourdough starter to make more sourdough starter. So that specific fungi is also dispersed by them?
@JeanieBurrell @futurebird Yes. It doesn't live anywhere but their hives; it can't survive on its own in the wild.
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@JeanieBurrell @futurebird Yes. It doesn't live anywhere but their hives; it can't survive on its own in the wild.
@futurebird can correct me if I'm wrong, but IIRC there are also some aphid species that have become ant livestock and are now completely incapable of surviving without being tended and protected by ants.
(We apes were latecomers to the domestication and agriculture game, really.
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@futurebird can correct me if I'm wrong, but IIRC there are also some aphid species that have become ant livestock and are now completely incapable of surviving without being tended and protected by ants.
(We apes were latecomers to the domestication and agriculture game, really.
)@datarama @futurebird I try to grow roses. Aphids are my nightmare. No chemicals, though. Ladybugs are best bugs!
