...Bullet Ants (Paraponera Clavata) are ants know for their very painful sting however they are much more to this ant then that. They are found primarily in Atlantic Coastland lowland rainforests (Sara Prado 2014) and there presence in these rainforests is a good indicator of the health of that ecosystem (MeGee and Eaton 2013). Secondary forest growth, or the growth of a forest after it has been deforested has been a large topic of study for scientists and Bullet Ants can help scientist see the effects of deforestation (MeGee and Eaton 2013). Not only can scientist study the abundance and diversity of ants to determine the overall health of an ecosystem (MeGee and Eaton 2013), they can also study the foraging habits and success of bullet ants...
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...Likening the red ants and the black ants to "the republicans (colonists) and the imperalists (the British)," Walden compares the battling insects to humans: For numbers and for carnage it was an Austerlitz or Dresden. Concord Fight! Two killed on the patriots' side, and Luther Blanchard wounded! Why here every ant was a Buttrick--"Fire! for God's sake fire!"--and thousands shared the fate of Davis and Hosmer (two colonists killed)....I have no doubt that it was a principle they fought for, as much as our ancestors, and not to avoid a three-penny tax on their tea; and the results of this battle will be as important and memorable to those whom it concerns as those of the Battle of Bunker Hill, at least. Clearly, Thoreau satires the importance that men have put upon going to war on "principle." Facetiously, he earlier compares the red ant who runs into battle to the the Spartan whose mother told their sons to return victorious or dead: "It was evident that their battle cry was "Conquer or die." Studying the red and black ants fighting for no other reason that they hate each other, or one has taxed the other, brings Walden's passage to the point/thesis of the futility of war as well as the terrible waste of life that it is. FUTILITY: I never learned which party was victorious, nor the cause of the war; but I felt for the rest of that day as if I had had my feelings excited and harrowed by witnessing the struglle, the ferocity and carnage, of a human battle before...
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...The Battle of Ants By Henry David Thoreau You only need sit still long enough in some attractive spot in the woods that all its inhabitants may exhibit themselves to you by turns. I was witness to events of a less peaceful character. One day when I went out to my wood-pile, or rather my pile of stumps, I observed two large ants, the one red, the other much larger, nearly half an inch long, and black, fiercely contending with one another. Having once got hold they never let go, but struggled and wrestled and rolled on the chips incessantly. Looking farther, I was surprised to find that the chips were covered with such combatants, that it was not a duellum, but a bellum, a war between two races of ants, the red always pitted against the black, and frequently two red ones to one black. The legions of these Myrmidons covered all the hills and vales in my wood-yard, and the ground was already strewn with the dead and dying, both red and black. It was the only battle which I have ever witnessed, the only battle-field I ever trod while the battle was raging; internecine war; the red republicans on the one hand, and the black imperialists on the other. On every side they were engaged in deadly combat, yet without any noise that I could hear, and human soldiers never fought so resolutely. I watched a couple that were fast locked in each other's embraces, in a little sunny valley amid the chips, now at noonday prepared to fight till the sun went down, or life went out....
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...Proposal ( Mini Project ) | Title of Experiment | Humanity Thinking in Ants | Lecturer Name | Ms.Nicole Ngai Suet Loo | Introduction Humans as we know first started out as nomads, moving from place to place to search not only for better shelter but also for a better food source. With human revolution, technologies and industries started growing. This leads to more choices ranging from better shelter to tastier food source. When options increase, it is challenging to make the best choice. If humans can choose the best food for themselves, what of animals and insects like ants? Have we ever wondered how ants look for food? More importantly, would they know how to differentiate from an abundant food source to a sparse food source? Ants have been evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plant. There are at least 12,000 identified ant species in the world. Scientists believe there are many more. They are easily identified by their elbowed antennae and a distinctive node-like structure that forms a slender waist. Moreover, they are incredibly known as successful species, due to their complex social organization. Coovert (2005) stated that, ants are social insects of the family Formicidae. Ants belong to the insect order Hymenoptera and are close relatives of bees and wasps. Ant are highly organise colonies. Ant societies have division of labour communication between individuals...
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...Climate change Welcomes the Asian Needle Ant into its ecosystem The Asian needle ant is a native species of ant which has begun vastly spreading throughout the ecosystem; eliminating various native ant species and therefore corrupting how the ecosystem functions. The six-legged, brown-red insect appears to have an almost identical appearance to the Fire ant and Argentine ant; as well as 30 other species of ants. The Asian needle ant has already rapidly migrated from Asia, and can already be found in forests in 9 different states around North East America. It is not uncommon for ants to establish populations outside of their native habitat; with over 200 ant species already discovered in other habitats, with the international transportation and tourism trading system said to be the main cause. Guénard, Benoît, (2009) Formicidae. But what causes the Asian needle ants to invade new habitats and eliminate other ant species? Ants and their survival are greatly affected by changes in temperature and humidity. Therefore, climate change causes the colonisation of ant species in colder climates that are more suitable. Studies and experiments based on the distribution of the Argentine ant have proven that the major factor responsible for their numbers increasing Worldwide is due to climate change. The invasion of the Asian needle ant has had a large range of negative impacts on the ecosystem and its natural ecological functioning. The species is one of the most difficult to rid...
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...Ant Social Systems Ant Social Systems The social structure of ants is a very complex and interesting one. They live together in underground colonies where they divide labor amongst each individual and work as a cohesive unit. “Scientists estimate that there are about 20,000 different ant species roaming the Earth today (Binns, 2006).” While each species is unique in looks, habitat and food intake, they all share a unified behavior. Of all social insects ants are amongst the highest developed, their families or colonies are divided up into a defined caste system which consists of the queen ant, worker ants and drones. Further investigation into the fascinating life of these little creatures shows how they care for the young, reproduce, and benefit from generation overlap while maintaining very complex living quarters. Containment Structures With such intricate social systems it only makes sense that their homes are just as complex. Ants reside underground, in city like structures, where a series of tunnels are the highways that connect rooms or chambers together. These chambers serve many different purposes. They are nurseries for the eggs to hatch and larvae to develop, they are places to store all the food that has been foraged and they can serve as a place to mate safely, allowing for the queen to have a chamber of her own. These impressive intricate structures are created and maintained solely by the female worker ants. They make these tunnels and chambers by...
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...The constant struggles, the endless despair, life as an ant needs much repair. We struggle for food day by day, while we watch all the others stuff their face. We kill their pests which live in their lawn, while they kill our families with raid ant spray. Us ants also aid in decomposition, and act as a barrier to termites, while we keep the pest population down overall. Despite all the good we do to humans they just swat us off. While waiting on the kitchen counter us ants try our very best to be friendly. We hear them screech, we hear them scream while they swat our spines away. Life is like the weather. Sometimes it could be beautiful, but it can change abruptly and without warning. One cool summer day as close as I can remember, I was Sarah. I had blonde hair and deep blue eyes like the sea. I worked at a pharmaceutical company and life was going great. Until one day during a dark and stormy night, my life was changed forever. As I was driving I stopped at a takeout Chinese restaurant to get some food. As I opened the box there was an ant on the top of the box. There were none inside my food and so thinking it was no big deal, I took a napkin and squished the ant. As I started to drive I felt a large crash on the rear end of my car, and felt myself being...
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...with the state of armed conflict that is war, and for as long as there has been civilization there has been war. Upon first glance, Henry David Thoreau’s “The Battle of the Ants” seems like a simple descriptive story of a battle between two different species of ants, one red and one black, but if one were to further inspect the text, they could see that Thoreau uses the ants and their battle as a satirical allegory for human conflict. Thoreau chooses to use ants as a metaphor to make it clear to the reader that war is futile, pointless, and a waste of life. “The Battle of the Ants” begins with Thoreau casually walking out to his wood-pile as he stumbles upon the battle between the red ants and the black ants. After this, he compares these ants to humans, making the allegory apparent from the start. “It was the only battle which I have ever witnessed… On every side they were engaged in deadly combat, yet without any noise that I could hear, and human soldiers never fought so resolutely” (575). Thoreau uses hyperbole early in his essay to reinforce its anti-war theme as he describes the fighting ants to be in the middle of war. However, he implies that this war is miniscule by reminding the reader of its setting: a wood-yard. Thoreau goes on to describe an even smaller battle he witnesses between two ants, again, amid the chips, giving more scope to the idea that war is irrelevant compared to the broader schemes of the world. “I watched a couple that were fast locked in each...
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...Ant Colony Optimization 1 A Seminar Report on “Ant Colony Optimization” A Seminar submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of degree BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY In COMPUTER SCIENCE ENGINEERING Presented By Ranjith Kumar A (06J11A0534) Department of computer science engineering HITECH COLLEGE OF ENGG & TECHNOLOGY (Affiliated to Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad) Himayathnagar, C.B.Post, Moinabad, Hyderabad-5000 2 075. CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the Seminar Report on “Ant Colony Optimization”, is a bonafide Seminar work done by Ranjith Kumar A (06J11A0534), in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree Bachelor of Technology in “Computer Science engineering” J.N.T.U Hyderabad during the year 2010. Y.V.S Pragathi M.Tech Head of CSE Department 3 Abstract Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) has been successfully applied to those combinatorial optimization problems which can be translated into a graph exploration. Artificial ants build solutions step by step adding solution components that are represented by graph nodes. The existing ACO algorithms are suitable when the graph is not very large (thousands of nodes) but is not useful when the graph size can be a challenge for the computer memory and cannot be completely generated or stored in it. In this paper we study a new ACO model that overcomes the difficulties found when working with a huge construction graph. In addition to the description...
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...for ants." Natural History Apr. 2014: 8. Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources. Web. 21 June 2016. In the 1930s, red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta, hitchhiked from Argentina to the southern United States. Aided by their potent venom, they spread successfully, until, in the early 2000s an old rival from South America--the tawny crazy ant, Nylanderiafulva--arrived. That ant is now multiplying along the Gulf Coast states in the U.S., threatening to push out the once-dominant fire ant. 1) IDENTIFYING CHARACEISTICS Red imported fire ant | Identifying characteristicsRed imported fire ants have a long stinger at the tip of the gaster. | http://ipm.ucanr.edu/TOOLS/ANTKEY/rifastinger.html 3) NATURAL PREY OR FOOD SOURCE Fire ants consume many types of food. They are omnivores, feeding on sugars (carbohydrates), some oils containing polyunsaturated fatty acids, certain amino acids, and ions in solution. Although they primarily consume other arthropods and honeydew produced by some types of sucking insects (Hemiptera including aphids, scale insects, mealybugs, whiteflies and some others), they will also consume seeds and other plant parts such as developing or ripening fruit, and dead plant or animal tissues. * Fire ants feed on a wide range of foods including insects, honeydew, plant nectar, seeds, fruits, and dead animals. They are highly attracted to foods high in fat. http://articles.extension.org/pages/9766/fire-ant-habitat-and-food-sources ...
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...Biology 219 Invertebrates in the News “Native Ants Use Chemical Weapons to Turn Back Invading Argentine Ants” Although we may think that humans dominate the globe, one Argentine species of ant, Linepithema humile, is making strides to challenge this supremacy. In fact, this invasive species may be part of a colony that is “ the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination” (Walker). This mega colony has spread its reach over several continents, including Africa, Europe, Australia, and North America, and unwittingly humans have played a role in the formation of this colony by transporting these insects in contaminated crates of Argentinean sugar. Unfortunately, the spread of this invasive species has resulted in some serious ecological implications, such as the demise of the native ants inhabiting these conquered territories. The extermination of the native ants has greatly impacted the surrounding ecosystem, because “some native ant species that eat seeds have coevolved with certain native grasses and other plants to become a crucial part of the plant's propagation by carrying the seeds to new areas” ("Native Ants Use…”). Thus, the disappearances of these native species have drastically affected the dispersal and survival of these grasses, and the creatures that feed on or reside in these plants. However, one ant species native to North America, Prenolepis imparis, has decided to take a stand...
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...between the leadership styles of the Queen ant, Princess Atta, and even Hopper the grasshopper. Also, the ant colony it self portrays the differences in social groups and who is looked at as a norm based on the ants perception and those who are deviant from the colony. And lastly, another sociological perspective that can be seen is the symbolic interationist perspective and the way one acts of deviance or norm and if that is based and if that behavior is biological or learned. In what follows the colony of ants will be descried and analyzed through the sociological aspects of, leadership portrayed by Princess Atta, the groups that are presented by the ants and the grasshoppers, and also the theories of behavior that can possibly explain Flik’s non compliant ways of the other ants. Leadership can be categorized in three different ways. These ways are Authoritarian, Democratic, and Laissez-Faire type leadership. Those who lead in an authoritarian manner are those who give orders and have things done their way and their way only. Democratic leaders strive to gain a consensus from others and are open to others ideas before making there final decisions. A leader who demonstrates laissez-faire type leadership is one who is highly permissive and provides little or no direction and gives others as much freedom as possible. In A Bugs Life, Princess Atta attempts to be authoritarian leaders in the beginning of the movie as the ants prepare the harvest for the grasshoppers...
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...Contents 1. Discuss the Organizational structure as illustrated in the movie by referring to the Antz Colony structure and the Insectopia structure. 2 The Antz Colony 2 What type of structure does the Antz colony have and what are the positive/negative effects of such a structure? 3 Insectopia 4 What type of structure does Insectopia have and what are the positive/negative effects of such a structure? 4 2. Discuss the job designs of the workers in the Antz movie and indicate the implications of the job designs on the motivation of the workers. 5 Job design elements defined 5 Job design elements in the Antz colony 5 How can job satisfaction among the ants be improved? 6 Job redesign 6 Alternative work arrangements 7 How can the employee’s/ ants be more involved? 7 Rewards used as motivators 8 3. Describe the Culture that was prevalent in the Colony. 9 What does the culture do in the colony? 9 What liabilities does this culture have? 10 4. Describe and discuss the changes that took place in the movie. 11 What were the changes in the Antz colony and how could they have been handled better? 11 Bibliography 14 1. Discuss the Organizational structure as illustrated in the movie by referring to the Antz Colony structure and the Insectopia structure. An organisational structure is “the way in which job tasks are formally divided, grouped and coordinated” (Robbins & Judge, 2011). An organisation has different elements that contribute to its structure...
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...Sociological Experience The sociological movie I chose to watch was, “A Bug’s Life”. I found several sociological concepts while watching the film. The movie is focused on a colony of ants that are being oppressed by a gang of grasshoppers who come every season demanding food from the ants. The grasshoppers use their size to dominate over the ants. One day in the spring, when the offering’s preparation has just been finished, an ant named Flik causes the whole offering of seeds to fall over into a river. The grasshoppers come and harass the ants and decide to give them one more chance to gather seeds. They expect the ants to do all of the work so the grasshoppers can just sit and play. The ants represent the working poor no matter how much work they do they cannot get ahead, while the grasshoppers hardly work and stay on top. Flik tries to recruit warrior bugs to fight off the grass hopers. Flik’s so called warriors turn out to be a group of circus bugs. When the colony discovers this they desperately try to pull together enough food for a new offering to the grasshoppers. After failing to gather enough food they try to scare them away with a fake bird. It nearly works, but Hopper the leader of the grasshoppers realizes that it was an imposter. As he is about to kill Flik the ants realize that they outnumber the grasshoppers 100-to-1 so they fight them off. This part of the movie demonstrates the effects of size in a group. They no longer have to live in fear of the...
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...theorist Karl Marx. Marx’s theory is famous for focusing on how society functions. In particular he concerns himself with how capitalism, the working class, and the revolutions create problems in our society. My paper will analyze how Marxian theory and concepts fit into major climactic scenes of the film. The film revolves around the protagonist Filk, a worker ant. The colony is being oppressed by a group of grasshoppers and their leader Hopper. The grasshoppers claim they will provide protection as long as the ants provide the food supply. When the ants cannot supply the food for the grasshoppers, Hopper demands the ants to produce twice as much food as they did before. As a result, the ants will not have enough food to store up for themselves. Filk then travels to recruit warrior bugs to help the ants fight off the grasshoppers. According to Marx, this would free the colony from the constant oppression of the grasshoppers. The major themes of the movie follow Marxian theory. The first relates to Hopper and how the grasshoppers abuse their power and exploit the ant colony. The grasshoppers expect food knowing that the ants cannot produce enough food for themselves and the grasshoppers to consume. In another scene, the lead grasshopper, Hopper, becomes livid when one of his soldiers suggests...
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