Month: September 2022

VIDEO of ants extracting honeydew from aphids by hypnotically stroking the aphids with their antenna to induce the cooperative behavior of secreting a drop of honeydew from their abdomen. https://lnkd.in/dbca4rV View in LinkedIn

BROAD SPECTRUM. "Understanding the evolutionary transition from interspecific exploitation to cooperation is a major challenge in evolutionary biology. Ant–aphid relationships represent an ideal system to this end because they encompass a coevolutionary continuum of interactions ranging from mutualism to antagonism." https://lnkd.in/d9truvs View in LinkedIn

MUTUALISTIC SYMBIOSIS. "In the best known relationship between ants and aphids, ants eat the sugar-rich honeydew excreted by the aphids and, in return, provide them with protection and hygienic services. This kind of interaction is termed trophobiosis and is considered to be mutualistic." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/4/1101.full View in LinkedIn

HOBBLING THE COWS. "The ants have been known to bite the wings off the aphids in order to stop them from getting away and depriving the ants of one of their staple foods: the sugar-rich sticky honeydew which is excreted by aphids when they eat plants. Chemicals produced in the glands of ants can also sabotage the growth of aphid wings." http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071009212548.htm View in LinkedIn

CONTROLLING THE HERD. "We believe that ants could use the tranquillising chemicals in their footprints to maintain a populous 'farm' of aphids close their colony, to provide honeydew on tap. Ants have even been known to occasionally eat some of the aphids themselves, so subduing them in this way is obviously a great way to keep renewable honeydew and prey easily available." http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071009212548.htm View in LinkedIn

WINTER CARETAKING. "Although most ant–aphid trophobiotic associations are facultative, some ant species bring aphids or even aphid eggs into their nests in winter, ensuring the continuity of the relationship." https://lnkd.in/d9truvs View in LinkedIn

HYGIENIC GROOMING. "The bodies of fungal-killed aphids were quickly removed from ant-tended aphid colonies. Ant workers were also able to detect infective conidia on the cuticle of living aphids and responded by either removing or grooming these aphids." http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2009/11/16/rsbl.2009.0743.short View in LinkedIn

DISEASE REDUCTION. "Our results extend the long-standing view of ants as mutualists and protectors of aphids by demonstrating focused sanitizing and quarantining behaviour that may lead to reduced disease transmission in aphid colonies." http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2009/11/16/rsbl.2009.0743.short View in LinkedIn

DISEASE REDUCTION. "Our results extend the long-standing view of ants as mutualists and protectors of aphids by demonstrating focused sanitizing and quarantining behaviour that may lead to reduced disease transmission in aphid colonies." http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2009/11/16/rsbl.2009.0743.short View in LinkedIn

MEAT VS HONEYDEW. "The ants appear to eat most of the early instar aphids, so that adult aphids are unlikely to face limited phloem resources and scramble competition with other aphids. We suggest that such culling of carbohydrate-providing symbionts for protein ingestion may maintain maximal host yield per aphid while also benefitting the domesticated aphids as long as their clone-mates reproduce successfully." (Instar, a transitory juvenile phase). https://lnkd.in/dYTnMRA) View in LinkedIn