Australian Ants Rule!

I thought I was through with Ant Analogies for a while, but couldn't resist this axiom from the Antipodes -

Australia has more ant species than the entire northern hemisphere.


An international study of 1003 ant assemblages on five continents (hey - celebrate scientists cooperating!) suggests that this is due to the equable temperatures of the lower latitudes, whilst climate changes 53-54 million years ago, amongst other factors, dramatically reduced northern ant diversity.

150 years ago Darwin postulated that the greater diversity of life forms in the southern hemisphere was related to a more equable climate. Ants also thrive in drier climate conditions, so my Australian friends might be comforted to know that, as the Continent runs out of water, at least Australian ants will be O.K.

Could Bill Bailey's "Insect Nation" be proleptically prescient?


(1) Darwin said nothing about more diverse and adaptable cricketers in the southern hemisphere but they seem to have exploited that niche as well.
(2) Future Earth is the 873rd blog to join the (bird heavy!) Nature Blog Network & is listed under the "Ecosystem" category. Be the first to visit & start Arjay's stats ticking. Please Let me know of any interesting blogs you find amongst the 872 others.
(3) Thanks again to Alex Wild for the Australian ant pic (Nothomyrmecia macrops).

Ant Analogies (4) Getting aHead

Meet Solenopsis geminata - tropical fire ant, a hot climate specialist found in hot arid regions around the world. It has spread globally through human commerce and is a major invasive pest in many regions, busily destroying biodiversity values on the way. Loves disturbed areas - a dead cert for a starring role as climate, population and food production find their convergent crises, I'd wager.


Now meet Pogonomyrex sp., a Genus of harvester ants from the deserts of northern and southern America. (Sadly no recent photos from Alex Wild this time, just the unattributed portrait from Wiki). Echoing Chandler in the sitcom "Friends" the connection between these two screams "Big Head, Big Head"! Fortunately a trio of scientists delved further, measuing the head size and shape of both polymorphic and monomorphic species. (Ed: Forget the Australian island "World's best job", surely being an Ant Measurer is a contender for the title?). Anyway, they detected signs that the polymorphic forms were a response to dietary change, and concluded that bimodal shape variation may be a common evolutionary response to seed processing.

The sting in the tail from this train of thought? What adaptations to specialised roles and tasks might serve our descendents if they need a different societal model to survive - assuming we are reconnected to forces of natural selection or technology allows us to create our own castes? Or will the big brains in our own big heads get us out of this mess first? (Ed again: my female descendents are O.K. with this, just so long as one caste all look like Hugh Jackman).

Ant analogies (3)

Ant of the day (photo thanks to Alex Wild) is Myrmecia piliventris, the Australian Jack Jumper Ant, one of the Bulldog Ants. What might we learn from this feisty fighter? Well, to avoid it if possible - jack jumper ants cause more deaths in Tasmania than spiders, snakes, wasps, and sharks combined. The problem is that their powerful venom frequently causes allergic reactions and anaphylatic shock is not uncommon. Fortunately their biographer and analyst Simon Brown has made it part of his life's work to protect the rest of us.

Aside from torturing human invaders, their venemous punch is advantageous for hunting and fighting. Colony living, workers make solo foraging trips and carry back prey to the nest. They are territorial and fight readily.

Which is why they feature in Arthur Schopenhauer's classic "The World as Will and Representation" as as a paradigmatic example of strife and constant destruction endemic to the will to live". "..... the bulldog-ant of Australia affords us the most extraordinary example of this kind; for if it is cut in two, a battle begins between the head and the tail. The head seizes the tail in its teeth, and the tail defends itself bravely by stinging the head. " (Gordon Brown, are you reading this?)

His sad conclusion was that emotional, physical and sexual desires can never be fulfilled. F-ant-astic.

Ant analogies (2)

Future Earth's Ant Analogies post was meant to be the start of a series about these Masters of the Universe, but inspiration went underground. Thanks to Alex Wild for bringing ants back to the surface with all their brilliant diversity - and unless he asks me not to, I'm featuring and crediting his fantastic photos in this antline of posts.

Ant of the day is from north America - Polyergus sp, Legionaire ants, often called Amazon Ants.

Polyergus are parasites on their hosts Formica ants. For detail see AntWeb but in essence, Polyergus cannot raise their own broods. They take over nascent colonies from Formica queens, allowing the host queens to live only as long as they are useful in building a critical mass of worker ants. Colonies also supplement the supply of workers with efficient raids on nearby Formica colonies - giving rise to anthropomorphic expressions of "piracy" or "slave raiding".

At the risk of alienating the science blogosphere, I think we can be too precious in deriding anthropomorphism. But that's for later debate. Instead of describing these behaviours in human terms, let's look at the models of existence that have evolved in 12,000 species of ants and see whether we might like to keep a few of them in our back pockets as options for our own existence on future earth. Another post tomorrow - exam term homework for selfish genes.

(P.S. Feast your eyes at http://www.alexanderwild.com/)

Ant Analogies

We are social beings – well, most of us anyway. We are intelligent – well, by our own measures. So perhaps there are lessons for us to be derived from sociobiology on social organization in the face of resource depletion? I admit to a fascination with ants, and we are finding out amazing things about what drives their organization and behaviour... check out the work of Nigel Franks and others from Bristol University - http://www.bio.bris.ac.uk/people/staff.cfm?key=687

In full despondency about the small size of the gains made at the Bali Climate Change conference, we might speculate as to whether the major difference between ants and people is that they make the right decisions for their species survival? What do you think President Bush? “T h i n k” I said.