Browsing Tag 'desert'
This post contributed by Heather Kirk, a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Sciences in Zurich, Switzerland When a 9.0 magnitude earthquake caused a series of nuclear accidents in Japan back in March of this year, there was nervousness in North America that nuclear fallout could blow across the Pacific Ocean to reach coastal [...]
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It may be difficult to picture just one locust singled out from a swarm. But believe it or not, desert locusts—insects infamous for their contribution to plagues and famine—are naturally solitary creatures. So what causes the group uprising that farmers are so familiar with? Research has shown that the internal workings of a solitary locust can affect the swarming behavior of the entire group.
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Scientists have found that the ant is the first known animal both to process the location of odors and to use that information to create a cognitive map. And for ants, that means their pair of antennae work overtime to recognize and process multiple odors simultaneously. In other words, it seems ants smell in stereo.
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