{"id":4739,"date":"2011-02-15T21:42:36","date_gmt":"2011-02-16T01:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=4739"},"modified":"2011-02-15T21:42:36","modified_gmt":"2011-02-16T01:42:36","slug":"from-the-community-army-ants-beard-microbes-and-ant-mimicking-jumping-spiders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2011\/02\/15\/from-the-community-army-ants-beard-microbes-and-ant-mimicking-jumping-spiders\/","title":{"rendered":"Army ants, beard microbes and ant-mimicking jumping spiders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Army ant week:<\/span><\/strong> Biologist and photographer Alex Wild reported on army ants<\/a> all last week \u00a0in a series of posts on his blog Myrmecos<\/em>. In one post, he described how army ants link with one another using hooks on their feet: \u201cWhen the time comes to encamp, they can string together living curtains of ants in a matter of minutes. Army ant bivouacs are made from the ants themselves, a vibrant structure that protects the vulnerable brood and maintains temperature within a single degree of optimal<\/a>.\u201d Read more<\/a> or view photos<\/a> at \u201cArmy Ants as Living Legos.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Funky pheromones:<\/strong> Chemical signals, as ecologist and blogger Tracey Switek put it in a recent post on The Olive Tree<\/em>, \u201cdon\u2019t have to just be scents that waft through the air\u2026They can be toxins, which send a very clear signal either because they make the plant taste bad or outright kill or injure anything that tries to eat. We\u2019re all familiar with the culinary herbs such as basil, mint, thyme, cilantro and sage\u2026 But the real purpose of those pungent chemicals is to discourage insect predation.\u201d Chemical signals can change the behavior of a species in many ways\u2014for example, pheromones on squid eggs can cause males to become aggressive at the slightest touch (see above video). Read more<\/a> at \u201cEverybody Stinks: Chemical Signaling in the Undergrowth\u201d and at \u201cRage-inducing chemical on squid eggs turns males into violent thugs\u201d by Not Exactly Rocket Science<\/a><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Woody vines:<\/strong> Stefan Schnitzer from the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and colleagues gathered data on the abundance of woody vine growth in American tropical and subtropical forests, and the cascading effects they had on biodiversity and water supply. According to a recent Live Science<\/em> article, \u201cIt\u2019s possible an increase in woody vines could change the nutrient dynamics of forests, in part because of differences between their leaves and the leaves of tropical trees, all of which ultimately fertilize the forest floor.\u201d Read more<\/a> at \u201cTwisted Tropics: Growth of Vines Imperils Ecosystem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ant-mimicking spider: <\/strong>Michael Bok described the jumping spider, Myrmarachne plataleoides<\/em>, in his blog Anthropoda<\/em>. At first glance, the spider appears to be a red ant, but upon further examination, the\u00a0 four pairs of legs become noticeable (see above video). \u201cIt makes up for a lack of antennae, and an overabundance of legs, by holding its forelegs up, alongside the head,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIts huge anterior medial eyes are colored to match the head when not viewed directly, and the posterior lateral eyes are enlarged, with darkened pigment around them to mimic an ant\u2019s eyes. Also, the cephalothorax and abdomen are deformed and narrowed considerably.\u201d Read more<\/a> at \u201cMonday Mimic #10 Followup.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Love day:<\/strong> In honor of the romantic holiday yesterday, several sites posted articles on mating, courting and attraction in animals. Smithsonian\u2019s Surprising Science<\/em> blog,<\/a> for example, featured biology\u2019s ten worst love stories, including the redback spider: \u201cWhen mating, the male redback spider performs a somersault that places his abdomen right above the female\u2019s mouth, thus setting himself up to be eaten when copulation is done. It\u2019s a noble sacrifice<\/a> in the name of his genes\u2014cannibalized males copulate longer and fertilize more eggs than males that survive mating, and females are more likely to reject other males after they\u2019ve eaten their first mate.\u201d Read more on animal mating here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, the effects of climate change in Alaska<\/a>, coral reef bleaching<\/a> in Puerto Rico, call for bearded scientists<\/a> in Washington, D.C., animals believed to predict the weather<\/a> and a touching post<\/a> on researchers who lost their lives in the pursuit of science.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Mehmet Karatay<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Army ant week: Biologist and photographer Alex Wild reported on army ants all last week \u00a0in a series of posts on his blog Myrmecos. In one post, he described how army ants link with one another using hooks on their feet: \u201cWhen the time comes to encamp, they can string together living curtains of ants in a matter of minutes….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[311,1170,1066,168,820,1171,12,774,1172],"class_list":["post-4739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research","tag-ants","tag-chemicals","tag-forest","tag-forest-ecology","tag-jumping-spiders","tag-pheromones","tag-spiders","tag-squid","tag-vines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}