Many small animals make their teeth and claws from a smooth blend of proteins and heavy elements. These materials can form very sharp tools that make it possible to cut tough substances using tiny muscles.
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Articles on Ants
Displaying 21 - 40 of 78 articles
Yellow crazy ants are one of the world’s worst invasive species. And it turns out they have unique systems of reproduction that make life in the queendom more complicated than we realised.
A type of structure called a ‘scaffold’ acts like a safety net for ants when they go foraging, preventing them from slipping on steep surfaces.
Animals that are traded as pets are more likely to be invasive species, including a relatively new pet: ants.
The spread of tawny crazy ants may be driven, in part, by their need for calcium. The calcium-rich limestone bedrock of the lower U.S. Midwest may provide ideal conditions for populations to explode.
For some sand-dwelling plants, stickiness is a defense tactic that keeps predators at bay.
Using distance to avoid getting sick has deep evolutionary roots for humans and many other species.
You’ve probably seen ants marching over your kitchen bench this summer. Should you get out the insecticide, or learn to live with them?
Millions of dollars are being spent on trying to eradicate fire ants from Australia. But that might not be the only way to deal with the invasive pest.
They might be a hated household pest, but ants actually live fascinating and complex lives.
Infected ants help the fungus to spread its spores and reproduce.
Invasive pest ants cause billions of dollars worth of damage to crops, and threaten some of Australia’s World Heritage rainforests. The federal budget has pledged nearly $30m on wiping them out – but how?
The mouse who tidied the shed he lives in fascinated human viewers, but cleanliness isn’t a virtue unique to humans.
Invasive tropical fire ants spread by eating their fat useless sons.
Ants have something similar to blood, but it’s called haemolymph. Some insects use it in unusual ways. When threatened by a predator, blister beetles can squirt haemolymph from their knees.
Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical that can kill germs. It is found in two things many ants love to eat: nectar and honey dew.
The ants were a threat to many native species on Lord Howe Island. They were also a pest if they got into your home.
Ants have many tricks to deal with rain – like holding their breath, blocking nest entrances or drinking excess water and releasing it elsewhere by ‘communal peeing.’ But can they see rain coming?
New study shows parasitic Escovopsis fungus attacks the bacteria leafcutter ants use to protect themselves.
Insects aren’t known for having big brains, and slime moulds and fungi don’t have any. So how do they solve challenges that test the ingenuity of human transport engineers?
Top contributors
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Associate professor, University of Sydney
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Associate Professor, School of Mathematical Sciences, Monash University
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Research Fellow, School of Biosciences, The University of Melbourne
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Associate Professor, James Cook University
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PhD Candidate, Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester
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Professor of Ecology, The University of Western Australia
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Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia
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Principal lecturer, bioscience, Nottingham Trent University
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Senior Lecturer in Biology, Brunel University London
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Postdoctoral Research Associate, Florida International University
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Associate Professor, Ecology, Northumbria University, Newcastle
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Lecturer, Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester
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Research scientist, James Cook University
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PhD Candidate, Macquarie University
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PhD student, University of Oxford
