Ants and the City

{Ants and the City

Can urban green spaces help preserve native ant metapopulations?

1.) Intro to ant biology2.) Why ants make good models for research/education3.) UEI project background/ methodology

Overview:

{Ant Biology

1.) Six legs2.) Three main body parts (head, thorax, abdomen)3.) One pair of antennae4.) Exoskeleton5.) Two pairs of wings****** Only reproductive ants have wings

Ants are insects

1.) Bent antenna2.) Petiole3.) Metapleural gland – secrets antibiotics

What distinguishes Ants?

Ants go through complete metamorphosis, from egg to larva to pupa to adult

Ants are Holometabolis

Ants are Social Insects

Ants are Eusocial

Most extreme form of sociality where some individuals in a group can not reproduce

Very few examples of Eusociality in nature:AntsBeesWaspsTermitesNaked mole rats

Ant colony consists of a queen and her daughters- Males only produced once per year

Ant colony consists of a queen and her daughters- Only the queen can reproduce

Ant colony consists of a queen and her daughters- Only the queen can reproduce????

Why do ant societies work?

In terms of natural selection, why would animals like worker ants evolve to be sterile?

???

Very few examples of Eusociality in nature:AntsBeesWaspsTermitesNaked mole rats

Very few examples of Eusociality in nature:AntsBeesWaspsTermitesNaked mole rats

Very few examples of Eusociality in nature:AntsBeesWaspsTermitesNaked mole rats

Order: Hymenoptera

The answer is in the genes..

In most diploid animals, both males and femaleshave two sets of genes – one from each parent

50% 50%

Brothers and Sisters are 50% related to each other

Hymenoptera are Haplo-Diploid

Female ants have two sets of genes, but malesonly have one.

50% 100%

Sister ants are 75% related to each other

Sisters are related by 75%, but mothers and daughters are only related by 50%

So an ant does a better job ofpassing on her genes by raisingsisters.

This also why many ants, bees, and wasps are so aggressive…

An individual does not need to beALIVE to pass on her genes, soshe is more willing to sacrificeherself for her colony.

This reproductive division of labor allows for physical specialization not seen in human societies:Humans and other mammalian societies

have behavioral specialization (different individuals do different tasks) but little to no matching physical specialization

Soldier Farmer Infant Caregiver

Ant societies can show extreme behavioral and physical specializationSelection mainly works at the level of the

colony, not the individual, so individual ants can be highly specialized to help their colony (like the different parts of the same body)

Soldier Farmer Brood Caregivers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH3KYBMpxOU

video on leafcutter ants

Matching of Behavior and Morphology in Leafcutter Castes

E.O. Wilson, 1980

Other examples of extreme physical castes in ants:

Army ant soldier caste:Specialized for defense against large vertebrates

Honeypot AntRepletes:Specialized for food storage in desert climates

Trap-jaw ant hunters:Specialized for trapping fast moving prey

Jaw movement is currently one of the faster animal movement known!

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/08/21_ant_video.shtml

Video on trap jaw ants escape behavior