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Originally posted by luciddream
Hide it before some religious nutcake comes and start separating Evolution by Micro, Macro, Cosmic, New York, Apple, Peanuts.
Originally posted by ionwind
Most people think only humans have agriculture, but we know of other species like ants that care for and harvest fungus.
Oct. 11, 2007 — Chemicals on ants' feet tranquilise and subdue colonies of aphids, keeping them close-by as a ready source of food, says new research. The study throws new light on the complex relationship between ants and the colonies of aphids whose sugary secretions the ants eat.
Scientists had previously established that certain types of aphids live in colonies where they are used as a food source by a neighbouring colony of ants. 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. The new study shows, for the first time, that ants' chemical footprints -- which are already known to be used by ants to mark out their territory - also play a key role in manipulating the aphid colony, and keeping it nearby.
Originally posted by ColeYounger
reply to post by ionwind
ionwind,
When I was kid, (ages ago, it seems) we would get pond water and look at paramecium and other tiny varmints through our Sears microscopes. Your thread has inspired me to go find the old microscope in the attic at my dad's house, or maybe buy a better one.