At 2:15pm Eastern Time today, Jezebel posted its annual list of favorite posts of the year. To our surprise, a question asked by our very own editor-in-chief was chosen as one of the few items on the list!
Author: Benjamin Blanchard
There is a band called Ants in the Kitchen. Ants in the Kitchen are playing at Wildhorse Casino in […]
Pheidole is one of the most diverse ant genera in the world, with 1,004 currently described species. This genus is known for having two worker castes – a “minor” and a “major”. The major caste typically sports a head that is comically larger than minor heads. You can see why Pheidole species are called the “big-headed ants”:
This ant group provides an excellent study system for investigating a fundamental question in ant research: How, and why, do major and minor worker castes evolve? Dr. Jo-anne Holley and colleagues addressed just this question in a study published earlier this year.
During the summer of 2013, leaks by Edward Snowden revealed to the world the extent of domestic and foreign surveillance by the United States National Security Agency (NSA). These revelations included the PRISM program, XKeyscore, and collaborations with phone companies to sweep up phone records. But one document, at the time, received comparably less press: the NSA product catalog offensively named the ANT catalog.
Regular readers of The Daily Ant likely already know that ants are very good at most things. From farming to construction to warfare, ants are rivaled perhaps only by humans. So, it is not surprising that along with a diverse array of interesting and intriguing behaviors, ants are also excellent at something we humans find a little less exciting: biological invasions.
As reported in The Daily Ant last week, Brazilian footballer Miraildes Maciel Mota, known as “Formiga”, has retired from football after a remarkable 21-year career. Understandably, we at The Daily Ant mourned this loss. However, we have recently learned, through an anonymous tip, that Formiga was not the only formicid footballer. The sport’s new standard-bearer is Sebastian Giovinco, Formica Atomica, the “Atomic Ant”.
Believe it or not, the title of this article is not clickbait.
This ant is Colobopsis saundersi:
On this Christmas Day, Americans across the country come together to celebrate the national holiday in their own way. Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. Agnostics appreciate a day off from work. Myrmecologists dwell on the ants of Christmas Island.
This is the location of Christmas Island:
The staff at The Daily Ant wishes everybody a happy first night of Hanukkah!
After a stunning, 21-year career as a Brazilian footballer, Miraildes Maciel Mota, aka Formiga, has retired from football. It […]
This is a turtle:
Many people around the world believe that turtles are boring.
This is a turtle ant:
Many people around the world believe that turtle ants are fascinating.
Reportedly, one of the turtle ant characteristics that people love most is how they use their heads to block their nest entrances. But these turtle ants may also provide insights into the evolution of worker castes in ants, as shown recently by Dr. Robert Planqué and colleagues in a new study published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
Art is the medium through which humanity communicates its deepest aspirations. It comes as no surprise, then, that examples of ant art can be found in cultures throughout the world and through time, dating back thousands of years. Here’s a look at ant art through the ages.
The Daily Ant 