Mutualism is a net positive interaction that includes varying degrees of both costs and benefits. Because tension between the costs and benefits of mutualism can lead to evolutionary instability, identifying mechanisms that regulate investment between partners is critical to understanding the evolution and maintenance of mutualism. Recently, studies have highlighted the importance of interspeci...

Seed dispersal mutualisms are essential for the survival of diverse plant species and communities worldwide. Among invertebrates, only ants have a major role in seed dispersal, and thousands of plant species produce seeds specialized for ant dispersal in "diffuse" multispecies interactions. An outstanding but poorly understood ant-seed mutualism occurs in the Amazonian rainforest, where arborea...

Positive species interactions have the potential to strongly influence the structure and dynamics of ecological communities, yet surprisingly few studies have documented their general importance. We tested the hypothesis that the mutualistic association between fire ants and aphids enhances the impact of fire ants on the herbivorous and predaceous arthropod community of cotton. We found that th...

1. Intensive agricultural practices drive biodiversity loss with potentially drastic consequences for ecosystem services. To advance conservation and production goals, agricultural practices should be compatible with biodiversity. Traditional or less intensive systems (i.e. with fewer agrochemicals, less mechanisation, more crop species) such as shaded coffee and cacao agroforests are highlight...

Ants comprise one lineage of the triumvirate of eusocial insects and experienced their early diversification within the Cretaceous [1-9]. Their ecological success is generally attributed to their remarkable social behavior. Not all ants cooperate in social hunting, however, and some of the most effective predatory ants are solitary hunters with powerful trap jaws [10]. Recent evolutionary studi...

In ants, including Formica japonica, trophallaxis and grooming are typical social behaviors shared among nestmates. After depriving ants of either food or nestmates and then providing them with either food or nestmates, a behavioral change in type and frequency of social interactions was observed. We hypothesized that starvation and isolation affected levels of brain biogenic amines including d...

In this paper we will present a new clustering algorithm for unsupervised learning. It is inspired from the self-assembling behavior observed in real ants where ants progressively become attached to an existing support and then successively to other attached ants. The artificial ants that we have defined will similarly build a tree. Each ant represents one data. The way ants move and build this...

Two new myrmecophilous species of the genus Petalomium Cross, 1965 (Acari: Pygmephoroidea: Neopygmephoridae), P. crossi sp. nov. and P. reductus sp. nov. are described from ants Myrmicaria distincta Santschi, 1925 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmicinae) in Ethiopia. The presence and shape of the postpalpal setae in species of the genus Petalomium are discussed.

Ant-based clustering due to its flexibility, stigmergic and selforganization has been applied in variety areas from problems arising in commerce, to circuit design, and to text-mining, etc. A modified clustering method with fuzzy ants has been presented in this paper. Firstly, fuzzy ants and its behavior are defined; secondly, the new clustering algorithm has been constructed based on fuzzy ant...

Eight simple techniques which may be helpful in ant research are presented. They facilitate: (1) collecting ground-nesting ants; (2) prompting ants to go out of their nest chambers; (3) introducing ants into a test tube; (4) recapturing ants during their mass escape in the laboratory; (5) keeping tidy foraging areas of artificial ant nests; (6) keeping high level of air humidity in foraging are...