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{ Ants and the City Can urban green spaces help preserve native ant metapopulations?

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1.) Intro to ant biology 2.) Why ants make good models for research/education 3.) UEI project background/ methodology Overview:

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{ Ant Biology

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1.) Six legs 2.) Three main body parts (head, thorax, abdomen) 3.) One pair of antennae 4.) Exoskeleton 5.) Two pairs of wings*** *** Only reproductive ants have wings Ants are insects

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1.) Bent antenna 2.) Petiole 3.) Metapleural gland secrets antibiotics What distinguishes Ants?

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

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Ants are Social Insects

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

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Very few examples of Eusociality in nature: AntsBeesWaspsTermites Naked mole rats

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

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

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Why do ant societies work? In terms of natural selection, why would animals like worker ants evolve to be sterile? ???

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Very few examples of Eusociality in nature: AntsBeesWaspsTermites Naked mole rats

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Very few examples of Eusociality in nature: AntsBeesWaspsTermites Naked mole rats

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Very few examples of Eusociality in nature: AntsBeesWaspsTermites Naked mole rats Order: Hymenoptera

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The answer is in the genes.. In most diploid animals, both males and females have two sets of genes one from each parent 50% Brothers and Sisters are 50% related to each other

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Hymenoptera are Haplo-Diploid Female ants have two sets of genes, but males only have one. 50% 100% Sister ants are 75% related to each other

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Sisters are related by 75%, but mothers and daughters are only related by 50% So an ant does a better job of passing on her genes by raising sisters.

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This also why many ants, bees, and wasps are so aggressive An individual does not need to be ALIVE to pass on her genes, so she is more willing to sacrifice herself for her colony.

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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

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Ant societies can show extreme behavioral and physical specialization Selection 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

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R H3KYBMpxOU video on leafcutter ants

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Matching of Behavior and Morphology in Leafcutter Castes E.O. Wilson, 1980

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Other examples of extreme physical castes in ants: Army ant soldier caste: Specialized for defense against large vertebrates

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Honeypot Ant Repletes: Specialized for food storage in desert climates

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Trap-jaw ant hunters: Specialized for trapping fast moving prey Jaw movement is currently one of the faster animal movement known!

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http://www.berkeley.edu/news/ media/releases/2006/08/21_an t_video.shtml Video on trap jaw ants escape behavior