Vegetated mounds are an important geomorphological feature of the Pantanal, where the influence of floods dictates not only hydropedological processes, but also the distribution and ecology of the flora and fauna. This work aimed to identify factors and processes that influence the formation and spatial distribution of the mounds, which are commonly associated with termite activity. In order to...

Large termite mounds, constructed by colonies of various species of macrotermitine termites (Isoptera, Termitidae, Macrotermitinae), are dominant features of the arid and semi-arid savannas of southern Africa. These mounds can populate a savanna in very high densities, generally one to four colonies per hectare, containing biomass of termites and symbiotic fungi that exceeds the typical biomass...

A thermosensitive developmental mutant of Dictyostelium discoideum identifies a gene product that is nonessential for cell multiplication but is continuously required during aggregation and the period when multicellular mounds are formed. After mounds form a tip, which has the properties of an embryonic organizer, this gene product may be nonessential. Surgical removal of the tip from a polariz...

Colchicine is shown to have several effects on the development of the pseudoplasmodia of the cellular slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum. At concentrations of 0.01 M and above culmination was prevented, while differentiation of cells into stalk cells occurred at the rear of cell masses. Essentially all cells transformed into stalk cells when slugs were left on colchicine agar for a long time....

Little is known about how anthropogenic changes in nature affect reproduction in social insects such as ants. We studied the effects of clear-cutting on the production of sexual offspring and on the mound size in Formica aquilonia, using neighbouring uncut forests as controls. Nest mounds were smaller in clear-cuts, apparently because they tended to be new bud nests. The basal area of nest moun...