Many factors drive the organization of communities including environmental factors, dispersal abilities, and competition. In particular, ant communities have high levels of interspecific competition and dominance that may affect community assembly processes. We used a combination of surveys and nest supplementation experiments to examine effects of a dominant ground-nesting ant (Pheidole synant...

Abstract The present work aimed to investigate the deformation behavior of complex ant mound architectures under compression. We have used cement casting method extract four different nest morphologies. These casted structures were digitalized using a 3D micro-computer tomography scan. digitized simulated loading conditions finite-element methods (FEMs). In order supplement numerical understand...

mutualistic interaction between aphids and ants is one of the classical examples of mutualism. the current study was carried out during 2013-2014 in golestan province, north-eastern iran, to investigate the myrmecophilous aphids and their relationships with ants. in this study, 11 ant species representing seven genera and two subfamilies associated with 12 aphid species belonging to two subfami...

ABSTRACT Closterovirus-like particles associated with mealybug wilt of pineapple were acquired and transmitted by the pink pineapple mealybug, Dysmicoccus brevipes, and the gray pineapple mealybug, D. neobrevipes. Mealybugs acquired pineapple mealybug wilt-associated virus (PMWaV) from infected pineapple plants or detached leaves. The virus was detected in plants by tissue blot immunoassay and ...

Ants have always been helping people to solve various problems. Everybody remembers how they sorted seeds for Cinderella. For the IT community, ants have helped to show that Information Theory is not only an excellent mathematical theory but that many of its results can be considered laws of Nature. Reciprocally, we helped ants to be distinguished among other “intellectuals” such as counting pr...

Mutualistic ants can protect their partners from natural enemies in nature. Aenasius bambawalei is an important parasitoid of the the invasive mealybug Phenacoccus solenopsis. We hypothesized that mutualism between native ants and mealybugs would favor survival of mealybugs. To test this, we examined effects of tending by the native mutualistic ant Tapinoma melanocephalum on growth of P. soleno...

The insecticidal properties of the crude extracts of the leaves and flowers of Anemone pavonina were evaluated on Pheidole pallidula ants and showed significant levels of activity. Bioassay-guided fractionations led to the isolation of the butenolide ranunculin (1) as the active principle. Chemical investigations of the extracts showed them to contain as major components the sitosterol glycopyr...

World chocolate demand is expected to more than double by 2050. Decisions about how to meet this challenge will have profound effects on tropical rainforests and wild species in cocoa-producing countries. Cocoa, "the chocolate tree," is traditionally produced under a diverse and dense canopy of shade trees that provide habitat for a high diversity of organisms. The current trend to reduce or el...

Plants with simple architecture and strong constraints on their growth may offer critical insights into how growth strategies affect the tolerance of plants to herbivory. Although Dioscorea praehensilis, a wild yam of African forests, is perennial, both aerial apparatus and tuber are annually renewed. Each year, the tuber produces a single stem that climbs from the ground to the forest canopy. ...