Harvester ants (Messor galla Forel) defied various control strategies. Two field experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of Spent Engine-Oil and other nature-based materials on their emergence in Maiduguri, Borno State of Nigeria. The treatments evaluated are spot application of spent engine-oil and some natural materials in experiment 1 and individual and equal mixture of Pure Neem ...

Harvester ants (Messor galla Forel) defied various control strategies. Two field experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of Spent Engine-Oil and other nature-based materials on their emergence in Maiduguri, Borno State of Nigeria. The treatments evaluated are spot application of spent engine-oil and some natural materials in experiment 1 and individual and equal mixture of Pure Neem ...

harvester ants are known as one of the most renowned bio-disturbances in the arid and semi-arid ecosystems that affecte vegetation by collecting seeds and harvesting plants. it seems that physiognomy of plant association in steppe shrub land of roodshoor, saveh, iran has been highly changed by harvester ants’ activities that caused to conduct this research. the study was carried out on active a...

One of the most important micro engineers of the terrestrial ecosystems, especially in the arid areas is the harvester ants due to their activity in the soil through nest building; they can make major changes while influencing the surface and subsurface in the rangeland soil. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of harvester ants (Messor spp.) on some soil properties in Rood...

-The Dufour gland secretions of Messor minor, Messor capitatus and Messor bouvieri differ from those of other myrmicine ants so far studied in having no sesquiterpenoids present. M. minor resembles the North American harvester ants, Pogonomyrmex, in containing branched chain hydrocarbons. Messor and Pogonomyrmex appear anomalous among myrmicines and more closely resemble some formicines in this...

Sexual reproduction generally requires no more than two partners. Here, we show convergent evolution of social hybridogenesis, a reproductive system requiring three reproductive partners in harvester ants. In this unorthodox reproductive system, two distinct genetic lineages live in sympatry and queens have to mate with males of their own lineage to produce queens along with males of the altern...

Ant nests’ relatively stable and long-lasting microhabitats present ideal living conditions for many uni- multicellular organisms, whose relationships range from mutualistic to parasitic. Messor harvester ants inhabit arid semi-arid open areas where their colonies consist of large numbers individuals. Due the high number other organisms associated with ants, nests can be defined as islands uniq...

Environmental conditions and physical constraints both influence an animal's behavior. We investigate whether behavioral variation among colonies of the black harvester ant, Messor andrei, remains consistent across foraging and disturbance situations and ask whether consistent colony behavior is affected by nest site and weather. We examined variation among colonies in responsiveness to food ba...

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...