So far, so good. No ants in the new place. Ants are actually quite amazing as social groups. Thanks to a research partner Dynamo for pointing out this article about ants. :o)
I was thinking about how crucial all flora/fauna are to the balance of our Earth. When Sarah was flipping out with each ant appearance and wishing ants would go away forever, we talked about this very aspect. That each has a purpose - we often just don't always understand nor appreciate this fact. Sort of like people. We forget to appreciate how we're each a part of a larger dynamic and tapestry.
I read how the Pakistani folk listened to and watched the crows [who loudly cawed and screeched an early warning] in order to brace & prepare for the aftershocks post massive Quake. I wish that we were all better tuned to the Earth and the creatures many view as "lower" denizens. We could learn a lot and maybe save our own lives at some point.
Here's the article on the incredible, edible egg - er, ANT!
Web site reveals ants' secret lives By Glennda Chui, Mercury News
Wed Oct 5,11:04 AM ET
Quick: When you see an ant, what's the first thing that pops into your head?
Ruined picnics? Bug spray?
Brian Fisher is out to change your mind about one of the most common -- and yet unheralded -- critters in the landscape.
``Ants are a source of infinite stories and beauty,'' said Fisher, an ant specialist at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. ``They are the glue that holds ecosystems together.''
The Bay Area is home to more than 100 native ant species, including ants that keep slaves, eat spider eggs and grow fungi in gardens fertilized with caterpillar poop.
Santa Clara County has 27 types, including an army ant, Neivamyrmex, and one called Formica integroides that builds mounds three feet wide.
The army ants swarm in packs to overwhelm prey, Fisher said, ``and they're a beautiful, beautiful kind of yellowish orange, and this is the stuff people think only happens deep in the Amazon basin, but right there, right in your hills, it's happening.''
Yet despite their reputation for creeping into kitchens and raising havoc, native ants are on the run. They're being driven out by Argentine ants, which form ``super-colonies'' of thousands of nests whose occupants cooperate, rather than fighting each other. Argentines are actually the ants most likely to invade your home. Three years ago, researchers in Europe reported a super-colony extending 3,600 miles from the Italian Riviera to northwest Spain.
Native ants, in contrast, serve many useful roles, from tilling the soil to pollinating plants to providing meals for bigger creatures.
These natives can still be found in parts of the Bay Area, especially in dry, hilly, woodsy areas.
That's where AntWeb comes in. Launched by Fisher in 2003, it allows you to browse ant photos, report Bay Area ant sightings and find out which types of ants live in your neighborhood.
Two weeks ago it added an interface with Google Earth, a 3D, interactive satellite map of the globe. This means you can click on a given location and call up a list of ant species.
Soon, Fisher said, he hopes to add a key that walks the user through a list of ant style points -- what color is it? are its antennae long or stubby? -- to help in identification.
But what he'd really like is for someone to digitize all the dusty data on ants from all the world's libraries.
``We want to get to the point where people can identify a specimen and submit notes on its behavior and biology,'' he said, with amateur hobbyists working hand-in-hand with trained scientists.
One of those amateurs is Gibson Anderson, vice president of human resources for Echelon in San Jose, who keeps an eye out for ants while mountain biking.
``When I come up with something I can't identify,'' he said, ``I send a few to Brian,'' who puts a name to the critter and adds it to the database. (Shipping tip: Don't tape the ant to a piece of paper. That's a sure way to rip thorax from abdomen. Instead, put it in a small plastic container, plastic bag or vial of pure grain alcohol.)
Mike Kaspari, an ant researcher at the University of Oklahoma, said official descriptions of ant species use only words, ``like reading a phone book. They use incredibly obtuse terms, like `slightly rugulose,' or `more rugulose,' which means kind of ropy-bumpy. It was like learning the Latin Mass.''
Now, he said, the ability to post color photos on sites such as AntWeb is revolutionizing the business of identifying species.
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