BACKGROUND AND AIMS Determining the sources of variation in floral morphology is crucial to understanding the mechanisms underlying Angiosperm evolution. The selection of floral and reproductive traits is influenced by the plant's abiotic environment, florivores and pollinators. However, evidence that variations in floral traits result from mutualistic interactions with insects other than polli...

Most cases of anaphylaxis caused by ants are attributed to ants from the Solenopsis genus [1] but there are many ant species of different genera and their distribution around the world varies. In Brazil, where there are over 2000 catalogued species of ants, all the cases of ant-induced anaphylaxis reported to date have been attributed to Solenopsis species [2,3]. We describe the fi rst case of ...

The association between the myrmecophyte Triplaris and ants of the genus Pseudomyrmex is an often-reported example of mutualism but no molecular studies have examined this association to date. In this study, the interspecific relationships of Triplaris were reconstructed using five molecular markers (two chloroplast and three nuclear), and the relationships of the associated Pseudomyrmex using ...

Routing in computer networks has played a special role in recent years. The cause of this is the role of routing in a performance of the networks. The quality of service and security is one of the most important challenges in routing due to lack of reliable methods. Routers use routing algorithms to find the best route to a particular destination. When talking about the best path, we consider p...

Army ants are well known for their destructive raids of other ant colonies. Some known defensive strategies include nest evacuation, modification of nest architecture, blockade of nest entrances using rocks or debris, and direct combat outside the nest. Since army ants highly prefer Pheidole ants as prey in desert habitats, there may be strong selective pressure on Pheidole to evolve defensive ...

Adam D. Kay,* Sara E. Scott, John D. Schade and Sarah E. Hobbie Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, 100 Ecology Building, 1987 Upper Buford Circle, St Paul, MN 55108, USA Department of Biology, College of St Benedict, St Joseph, MN, USA School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA Department of Integrative Biology, University of Californi...

Bacterial communities are highly diverse and have great ecological importance. In the present study, we used an in silico analysis of terminal restriction fragments (tRF) to characterize the bacterial community of the plant ant Pseudomyrmex ferrugineus. This species is an obligate inhabitant of Acacia myrmecophytes and feeds exclusively on plant-derived food sources. Ants are the dominant insec...

The number of plants pollinated by ants is surprisingly low given the abundance of ants and the fact that they are common visitors of angiosperms. Generally ants are considered as nectar robbers that do not provide pollination service. We studied the pollination system of the endangered dry grassland forb Euphorbia seguieriana and found two ant species to be the most frequent visitors of its fl...

Desert ants, foraging in cluttered semi-arid environments, are thought to be visually guided along individual, habitual routes. While other navigational mechanisms (e.g., path integration) are well studied, the question how ants extract reliable visual features from a complex visual scene is still largely open. This paper explores the assumption that the upper outline of ground objects formed a...

Mound-building Fmmica ants may be important biotic factors within prairie restorations because mounds found in virgin prairies can exist for decades, with densities up to 1,148 mounds/ha (465 mounds/acre). Research on the effects of Formica ant mounds on a virgin and an adjacent restored prairie (treatments) was established in 2003 near Olathe, Kansas; and it was expected that percent soil mois...