The Daily Ant
Myrmecology Dies in Darkness
Author: Benjamin Blanchard
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The Daily Ant hosts a weekly series, Philosophy Phridays, in which real philosophers share their thoughts at the intersection of ants and philosophy. This is the eighth contribution in the series, submitted by Dr. Ben Roth. Concerning Wittgenstein’s 284th Philosophical Investigation “And now look at a wriggling [insect] and at once these difficulties vanish and pain seems able to get…
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Have you ever been stung by a fire ant? Even if you haven’t, you probably know how (supposedly) bad and evil fire ants are. Yet fire ants, and a couple other well-known invasive ant species like Argentine ants, are only a few out of about 13,000 known species of ants, and they give all of…
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As regular readers of The Daily Ant know already, ants harbor lots of bacteria. A growing number of studies are revealing that we should investigate these microbial communities, and their associations with their hosts, in order to fully understand the ecology and evolution of ants. In pursuit of this goal, Manuela Ramalho and colleagues just published an interesting study…
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The Daily Ant hosts a weekly series, Philosophy Phridays, in which real philosophers share their thoughts at the intersection of ants and philosophy. This is the seventh contribution in the series, submitted by Dr. Miriam Schoenfield. Ants in your pants Ants make great real estate decisions, and this is explained partially by the fact that their decisions are…
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Early Wednesday morning, BuzzFeed staff member Kelly Oakes published “21 Tweets That Will Make Scientists Laugh, Cry, Or Both”. We are happy to report that our relentless investigative journalism is featured in #10. Check it out. UPDATE: #12 is also formicid-friendly!
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Lichens are not ants. But, fortunately for lichens, lichens are nearly as cool as ants. Imagine what would happen if ants and lichens joined forces! If you don’t have a good imagination, then you’re in luck. Lichen Correspondant Joel Mercado-Díaz recently drew our attention to a couple beautiful ant-lichen photographs. With permission from the original…
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The Daily Ant hosts a weekly series, Philosophy Phridays, in which real philosophers share their thoughts at the intersection of ants and philosophy. This is the sixth contribution in the series, submitted by Keshav Singh. Do ants do things for reasons? Ants are creatures that seem to do a lot of things. When you see an ant,…
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So, you have some communities of ants. You notice that some communities are more diverse than others. In one community, certain species of ants are more common, while in another, different species are more common. How can you explain this coexistence and variation? Dominance hierarchies, perhaps? Dominance hierarchies have played a key role in ant ecology…
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Last Tuesday, we shared an interview with Brooklyn craft beer brewer Dailey Crafton, and many Tuesdays ago, we highlighted a Singapore bar that serves a special drink with ants. Thus, we have decided to launch an occasional series on the intersection of alcohol and ants, Brewsday Tuesday. Today, we have a special product advertised on Amazon:…
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The Daily Ant hosts a weekly series, Philosophy Phridays, in which real philosophers share their thoughts at the intersection of ants and philosophy. This is the fifth contribution in the series, submitted by Dr. Barry Lam. Hi-Phi Nation, a new and exciting philosophy podcast, produced this intriguing audio bit for The Daily Ant. It is about 5 minutes long. Enjoy! Production Credits The story…
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Brooklyn’s most ant-friendly craft brewer, Dailey Crafton, sat down with The Daily Ant to discuss beer, ants, and… well basically just beer and ants. Enjoy!
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Our editor-in-chief was recently interviewed over at Coffee Beings And Things. He was asked about coffee, ants, and more! But mostly ants. Check it out.
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