The Daily Ant
Myrmecology Dies in Darkness
Author: Benjamin Blanchard
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I look at an ant and I see myself: a native South African, endowed by nature with a strength much greater than my size so I might cope with the weight of a racism that crushes my spirit — Miriam Makeba, singer and civil rights activist, in Miriam: My Story (1988)
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As we highlighted on Thursday, anybody interested in bringing ants to a wider audience must vote for The Ant Network. Even if you’ve already voted, you can vote once a day until the polls close on Tuesday. When turnout is high, ants win!
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The Daily Ant has received an exciting photo from an anonymous source: This picture was taken in San Jose, California. Furthermore, investigative journalism by The Daily Ant has confirmed that there is, in fact, an AnT Swim School in San Jose. We are happy to have discovered this ant hideout in a major American city!
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It may be Friday the 13th, but this article is talking about some lucky ants. Canopy ants, in particular. Ants that forage in trees exhibit a high level of ecological dominance, and ants are usually the most conspicuous organisms running around on tree trunks and branches, especially in tropical forests. This begs the question: Why?…
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The Daily Ant has been a little promotional this week, but why stop now? There is another noble antdeavor recently launched by Miles Maxcer: the Ant Network. Vote in support of his video here. Together, we must combat the pervasive vertebrate-first agenda!
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A PhD candidate at Penn State, João Araújo, studies the zombie ant fungus, Ophiocordyceps. Check out some of his amazing photographs at National Geographic YourShot, and make an account to “like” the photos!
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I just completed a 4-minute lightning talk on my recent work with Dr. Corrie Moreau on defensive trait evolution in ants, in the final session of talks at the SSB 2017 Standalone Meeting in Baton Rouge! For more information, see the published paper in Evolution and/or the brief blurb I wrote about it on U. Chicago’s ScienceLife blog. — The…
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A video message from Baton Rouge!
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With our editor-in-chief in Louisiana, our thoughts have naturally turned to Louisiana and ants. We therefore stumbled upon this article reviewing several Louisianan politicians. This passage stood out: Best in Show: Senate President John Alario. He’s the most gifted person in Louisiana politics. I quote here the anonymous individual who nominated the unsinkable Republican leader of the state…
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We’re ok with hamming it up for ants:
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The Daily Ant would like to report that our Editor-in-Chief is in transit to attend the SSB 2017 Standalone Meeting in Baton Rouge. He will be giving a lightning talk on defensive trait trade-offs and diversification in ants. Also in attendance will be Dr. April Wright, who will be giving a talk on using the fossilized birth-death…
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A recent study by Oksana Skaldina and Jouni Sorvari looked at head coloration in ants as a possible metric for the level of disturbance in European boreal coniferous forests. The researchers, both from the University of Eastern Finland, compared the level of melanization in the heads of queens in the wood ant species Formica aquilonia in native versus disturbed forest habitats. Notably,…
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