News tagged with social insects

Meet the beetles: Social networks provide clues to natural selection

Think of them as a group of guys, hanging out together, but not spending much time with the ladies, nor getting much "action." Except these "guys" are forked fungus beetles.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jan 30, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Worm seeks worm: Researchers find chemical cues driving aggregation in nematodes

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have long seen evidence of social behavior among many species of animals, both on the earth and in the sea. Dolphins frolic together, lions live in packs, and hornets construct ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jan 12, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists discover first-ever bee 'soldier'

(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Sussex scientists working with researchers in Brazil have identified the first example of a 'soldier' bee.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jan 09, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (9) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Chemical warfare of stealthy silverfish

A co-evolutionary arms race exists between social insects and their parasites. Army ants (Leptogenys distinguenda) share their nests with several parasites such as beetles, snails and spiders. They also s ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 01, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Organism diversity: Fast-evolving genes control developmental differences in social insects

Genes essential to producing the developmental differences displayed by social insects evolve more rapidly than genes governing other aspects of organismal function, a new study has found.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Sep 19, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Altruistic wasps? More like plain self-interest

Social insects may not love their fellow bugs as much as once believed.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Aug 23, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

How unrelated wasps succeed by helping others breed

(PhysOrg.com) -- Why do some animals help to rear the young of an unrelated individual without any apparent benefit to themselves?

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Aug 12, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Monogamous queens help bees cooperate

(PhysOrg.com) -- New research published today in Nature Communications online journal suggests that monogamy and close genetic relationships work together to enhance the cooperative social structure of ins ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jul 20, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists studying wasps discover being social is better for fighting disease

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a paper release today, a group of scientists from Macquarie University studying the evolution of disease resistance in insects have found evidence that social species of wasps show significantly ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jul 19, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Is blood thicker than water?

In 1964 biologist William Hamilton introduced Inclusive Fitness Theory to predict and explain phenomena ranging from animal behavior to patterns of gene expression. With its many successes, the theory became ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Mar 25, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Can bees color maps better than ants?

In mathematics, you need at most only four different colors to produce a map in which no two adjacent regions have the same color. Utah and Arizona are considered adjacent, but Utah and New Mexico, which only share a point, ...

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Mar 10, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

How insects survive the long, cold winter

Baby, it's cold outside. Time to put another log on the fire, wrap up in a thick sweater, or make a steaming mug of tea. These human adaptations to cold weather are quick, easy and get the job done. Even more ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 04, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Studying ants to find out how colony size affects patterns of behavior, energy use

(PhysOrg.com) -- How does size affect the organization and physiology of superorganisms such as bacterial communities, insect colonies or human cities? James Waters and Tate Holbrook, graduate students in ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jan 26, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Rhythmic vibrations guide caste development in social wasps

(PhysOrg.com) -- Future queen or tireless toiler? A paper wasp's destiny may lie in the antennal drumbeats of its caretaker.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jan 24, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Next generation of algorithms inspired by problem-solving ants

(PhysOrg.com) -- An ant colony is the last place you'd expect to find a maths whiz, but University of Sydney researchers have shown that the humble ant is capable of solving difficult mathematical problems.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 10, 2010 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (27) | comments 11 | with audio podcast