This study investigated the effects of the permethrin-impregnated plastic on ant mortality and foraging rates, and tested its potential for preventing ants from colonizing potted soil. Direct exposure to the plastic for as short as 1 min caused significant mortality of both red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta Buren, and Argentine ants, Linepithema humile (Mayr); however, red imported fir...

We present in this paper, a new model for document hierarchical clustering, which is inspired from the self-assembly behavior of real ants. We have simulated the way ants build complex structures with different functions by connecting themselves to each other. Ants may thus build ”chains of ants” or form ”drops of ants”. The artificial ants that we have defined will similarly build a tree. Each...

The Argentine ant (Linepithema humile) is an invasive species that disrupts the balance of natural ecosystems by displacing indigenous ant species throughout its introduced range. Previous studies that examined the mechanisms by which Argentine ants attain ecological dominance showed that superior interference and exploitation competition are key to the successful displacement of native ant spe...

The metapleural gland is an organ exclusive to ants. Its main role is to produce secretions that inhibit the proliferation of different types of pathogens. The aim of the present study was to examine the morphophysiological differences between the metapleural gland of 3 non-fungus-growing ants of the tribes Ectatommini, Myrmicini, and Blepharidattini and that of 5 fungus-growing ants from 2 bas...

Biotic interactions are often important in the establishment and spread of invasive species. In particular, competition between introduced and native species can strongly influence the distribution and spread of exotic species and in some cases competition among introduced species can be important. The Caribbean crazy ant, Nylanderia fulva, was recently introduced to the Gulf Coast of Texas, an...

One of the most important extensions of the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP) is the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickup and delivery (VRPSPD) where customers require simultaneous delivery and pick-up service. In this paper, we propose an effective ant colony optimization (EACO) which includes insert, swap and 2-Opt moves for solving VRPSPD that is different with common an...

Ants have paired metapleural glands (MGs) to produce secretions for prophylactic hygiene. These exocrine glands are particularly well developed in leaf-cutting ants, but whether the ants can actively regulate MG secretion is unknown. In a set of controlled experiments using conidia of five fungi, we show that the ants adjust the amount of MG secretion to the virulence of the fungus with which t...

We studied in the field the load transport behavior of workers of the polymorphic Mediterranean seed harvester ant Messor barbarus Individual ants used two different methods to transport food items: carrying and dragging. The probability of dragging instead of carrying varied significantly with both the mass of the item transported and its linear dimension. Moreover, the values of item mass and...

Ants are social insects that work in groups to collectively achieve certain goals that can not be achieved by a single ant. One of the most interesting ants’ behaviors is the highly optimized path that ants follow, in their foraging, between the source of food and the colony's nest. Researchers are inspired by such optimized behavior in several applications. In this paper we introduce an integr...