Ant-plants have been extensively used as model systems in the study of evolution and ecology mutualisms. Using a 15N isotope labeling experiment, we found that both native ant mutualist (Philidris cordata) an invasive (Pheidole megacephala) provide nitrogen to Australian ant-plant Myrmecodia beccarii.

The invasive Argentine ant, Linepithema humile (Mayr) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) has been evident in the North Carolina Piedmont, United States for 90 yr but has failed to spread further north. We investigated the mechanisms preventing this expansion. The Argentine ant ceases foraging at temperatures below 5°C and we hypothesized that winter soil temperatures at higher latitudes restricted fora...

Clustering analysis is used in many disciplines and applications; it is an important tool that descriptively identifies homogeneous groups of objects based on attribute values. The ant colony clustering algorithm is a swarm-intelligent method used for clustering problems that is inspired by the behavior of ant colonies that cluster their corpses and sort their larvae. A new abstraction ant colo...

The Cumberland Plateau supports diverse plant communities that vary greatly across cove and plateau habitats. Unfortunately, little is known about how terrestrial invertebrate communities vary across cove andplateauhabitats andhowdisturbanceaffects these communities. Toaddress this deÞciency, we used the Ant Leaf Litter protocol to survey ant diversity on the southern Cumberland Plateau in Tenn...

Hypersensitivity reactions caused by ant stings are increasingly recognized as an important cause of death by anaphylaxis. Only some species of ants ( e.g. Solenopsis spp., Myrmecia spp., and Pachycondyla spp.) cause allergic reactions. Ant species are identified by evaluating the morphologic structures of worker ants or by molecular techniques. Ant venom contains substances, including acids an...

BACKGROUND Deep brain stimulation of the anterior nucleus of the thalamus (ANT) is an emerging therapy for refractory focal epilepsy. However, the most optimal target for stimulation has not been unambiguously described. OBJECTIVE In the present study, we investigated the correlation between the stimulation site and outcome in order to define the optimal target for deep brain stimulation in r...

The aphid-ant mutualistic relationships are not necessarily obligate for neither partners but evidence is that such interactions provide them strong advantages in terms of global fitness. While it is largely assumed that ants actively search for their mutualistic partners namely using volatile cues; whether winged aphids (i.e., aphids' most mobile form) are able to select ant-frequented areas h...

A method is described for discovering pheromones of the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), using affinity chromatography with the pheromone-binding proteins of the ant. Proteins in the pheromoneand odorant-binding protein family, which are abundant in moths and other insect species, are not apparent in fire ant antennae. Two other types of hydrophobic lig...

Since the ant colony algorithm is proposed, it has achieved the remarkable achievements in many fields. With the development of the times, the traditional ant colony algorithm exposes its limitations for solving the questions. In this paper, we improve the ant colony algorithm. And we combine the ant colony algorithm with the genetic algorithm. Then, we propose the GAPSPAC algorithm. The algori...

Vehicle routing problem is a NP-hard problem, with the expansion of problem solving more difficult. This paper proposes a hybrid behavior based on ant colony algorithm to solve the problem, ant to different objectives in the first place as the path selection according to the analysis of the impact on the algorithm, then define the ant behavior and design four concrete ant behavior by selecting ...