Five insecticides used by urban pest management professionals for ant control and three experimental insecticides were tested to determine whether these insecticides were horizontally transferred among individuals in colonies of Argentine ants, Linepithema humile (Mayr) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Ants were exposed to insecticide-treated sand for 1 min and then placed in a colony of untreated an...

Across terrestrial ecosystems, modern ants are ubiquitous. As many as 94 out of every 100 individual arthropods in rainforests are ants, and they constitute up to 15% of animal biomass in the Amazon. Moreover, ants are pervasive agents of natural selection as over 10,000 arthropod species are specialized inquilines or myrmecomorphs living among ants or defending themselves through mimicry. Such...

Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) live in groups of nests connected by trails to each other and to stable food sources. In a field study, we investigated whether some ants recruit directly from established, persistent trails to food sources, thus accelerating food collection. Our results indicate that Argentine ants recruit nestmates to food directly from persistent trails, and that the expon...

Some parasites modify characteristics of intermediate hosts to facilitate their consumption by subsequent hosts, but examples of parasite-mediated mimicry are rare. Here we report dramatic changes in the appearance and behavior of nematode-parasitized ants such that they resemble ripe fruits in the tropical rain forest canopy. Unlike healthy ants, which are completely black, infected ants have ...

Desert ants, Cataglyphis fortis, are equipped with remarkable skills that enable them to navigate efficiently. When travelling between the nest and a previously visited feeding site, they perform path integration (PI), but pinpoint the nest or feeder by following odour plumes. Homing ants respond to nest plumes only when the path integrator indicates that they are near home. This is crucial, as...

Invasive ant species can have dramatic impacts on native ants, through direct predation and by usurping common resources. Most invasive ants and many native ants use honeydew, produced by phloem-sucking hemipterans. Because colonies of invasive ants can become very large after establishment, these ants may facilitate greater hemipteran trophobiont population growth compared with their sympatri...

The pressure of returning to and locating the nest after a successful foraging trip is immense in ants. To find their way back home, ants use a number of different strategies (e.g. path integration, trail following) and rely on a range of cues (e.g. pattern of polarised skylight, landmark panorama) available in their environment. How ants weigh different cues has been a question of great intere...

We revise species of seed-harvester ants in the genus Pogonomyrmex (subfamily Myrmicinae) that occur on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Three species are recognized: P. aterrimus Wheeler (new status), P. saucius Wheeler and Mann, and P. schmitti Forel. Pogonomyrmex schmitti sublaevigatus Wheeler (= schmitti) and P. schmitti darlingtoni Wheeler (= aterrimus) are synonomized. We also describe...

A field experiment was conducted with outplantings of the native perennial shrub Senna mexicana var. chapmanii in a semi-natural area adjacent to native pine rockland habitat in southern Florida. The presence of ants and the availability of extrafloral nectar were manipulated in a stratified random design. Insect communities were monitored and recorded over a period of six months with a view to...

Ongoing studies in South America of phorid flies of the genus Pseudacteon Coquillett 1907 have revealed two further new species in this genus that are described here: P. obtusitus and P. notocaudatus. Both species are parasitoids of Solenopsis (F.) fire ants.