Roboticists at Harvard and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras – very smart folks indeed – somehow entirely missed the great name “antdroids” when building the insectoid drones they call RAnts (robotic ants, which do not, in fact, rant about anything – not even against a tyrannical robotic ant queen).

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Category: Robotics, Engineering

Tags: Harvard, Biomimicry,…

Wasps invading ant-plant systems are displacing ants in disturbed forests, potentially harming ecosystem stability and regeneration. An international group of researchers from Queen Mary University of London, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and other institutions has identified unexpected behavior in the tropical forests of Malaysian Borneo.…

Tiny cone ants in Arizona have been seen cleaning much larger harvester ants, even inside their open jaws. The unusual behavior may benefit both species and has never been recorded before. In the deserts of southeastern Arizona, researchers have observed an unusual interaction between two very different ants. Large harvester ants gather outside the nests [...]

Baby caterpillars have figured out how to get themselves the royal treatment in certain ant colonies – getting carried around like precious cargo, fed on demand, guarded and being rescued from danger. But why would ants give this celebrity status to a caterpillar? The secret lies in perfect mimicry: the caterpillar copies not just the queen ant’s chemical scent, but the exact rhythm of her…

Bumble bees may overpower invasive Argentine ants in one-on-one fights, but those victories come at a hidden cost. When bumble bees encounter invasive Argentine ants at feeding sites, they may defeat them in direct clashes but still return to the colony with less nectar. A single victory does not necessarily benefit the hive if it [...]