Chebucto Regional Softball Club

@JeanieBurrell @datarama

To what extent have corn and wheat shaped humanity?

(consider our little teeth. )

@cthon1c

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.

@cthon1c

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.

@JeanieBurrell @datarama

Sometimes I wish I could be cradled in hyphae. It sounds very nice.

@JeanieBurrell @datarama

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.

@JeanieBurrell

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.

(image via: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Subterranean-portion-of-a-giant-leafcutter-ant-nest-in-Brazil-Concrete-was-poured-into_fig3_282628837)

@Cheeseness

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?

Not a good idea. They will ask you "what does that mean?"

Mostly it's just cute, but ... it's generally very obvious.

Sometimes you meet a parent of a kid you teach and it takes all the self control in the world, when they say "I'm Joe's mom" NOT to say "I can see that!"

@Moss @Tak

I think we all know what their "hedge funds" will be like.

@Tak

Imagine the wealth and power of the first ants to discover how to do a colony merger!

When you love studying insects you come to loathe the phrase “economic significance” it’s always about “pest control”

"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.

@TobyBartels

Consider the curious nibble of a huge sea bug.

@apophis @arstechnica

Instead of a penalty for bad actions, it just became scam profit sharing.

@tootbrute

I would like to think that some people are feeling very cold today, and it's not the weather, it's a creeping sense that there are things well and fully beyond their control.

For most of us, "some things are beyond my control" is a normal part of reality. But there are people for whom this is unthinkable.

@UweHalfHand

Such toothy cuties.

@nazokiyoubinbou

That's a different monkeys paw you're wishing on there.

@emptywheel.bsky.social

Kash Test Hunnies
XXX Files Express
Government Mandated Junket
Rumpus Roamer

@apLundell

Yes, it's an adventure.