Social Evolution > Press releases
24 Februar 2010
Plotting and treachery in ant royal families
Social insects - ants in particular - are usually thought of as selfless entities willing to sacrifice everything for their comrades. However, new research suggests that ant queens are also prepared to compromise the welfare of the entire colony in order to retain the throne...
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20 November 2009
Termitter er unikke overlevere
Det er mere end 30 millioner år siden, at termitterne begyndte at dyrke landbrug i form af svampe for at brødføde kolonien. Men videnskaben har aldrig fundet ud af, hvordan termitterne opretholder rene monokulturer, i stedet for at blande forskellige stammer af samme afgrøder i deres underjordiske fødekamre. Nu har forskere på Københavns Universitets Center for Social Evolution i samarbejde med hollandske kolleger løst denne gåde og dermed tilført en vigtig brik i vores generelle forståelse af, hvordan samarbejde mellem arter fungerer i naturen. Studiet offentliggøres i det internationalt anerkendte videnskabelige tidsskrift Science...
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10 November 2009
Hvad gør hærmyren når den mister sin mor?
Tropiske hærmyrer er kendt for deres aggressivitet og deres raids mod langt større dyr, når de går amok og slæber byttet hjem til boet. Hærmyrerne er også kendt for med jævne mellemrum at flytte deres kolonier, når de har brug for nye græsgange efter endt vandalisering. Og centralt i denne brutale verden med millioner af individer, er koloniens ene dronning. Hun lægger æg og sørger dermed for artens overlevelse. Men dør hun - så har det været en gåde for forskerne, hvad der blev af resten af kolonien. Nu har forskere ved Biologisk Institut på Københavns Universitet i samarbejde med bl.a. en tidligere kollega, som nu er ansat på Harvard University i USA, løst gåden ved at studere den afrikanske hærmyre ved navn Dorylus molestus på bjergsiderne af Mount Kenya...
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the entire press release |
16 April 2009
Duften afgør om du er ven eller fjende
Myrer er ikke i tvivl: Hvem skal lukkes ind, og hvem skal ikke? Har du den forkerte duft kan det betyde en kamp på liv og død, mens myrer med samme duft lukkes ind i myretuens beskyttende fællesskab, viser ny forskning fra Biologisk Institut ved København Universitet...
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the entire press release |
2 December 2008
Invasive garden ants as new pest insects in Europe
Northern Europe has so far been free from invasive pest ants, but it seems just a matter of time until a new ant that was discovered in 1990 will reach these latitudes and work havoc in parks and gardens of Northern Germany, Scandinavia and the British Isles.
A new study, published this week in the journal PLoS ONE, illuminates where this ant comes from, how it organizes its supercolonies, and how it attained its pest status. The study provides a wake-up call for closer monitoring of urban ecosystems to eliminate infestations before they become problematic....
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13 March 2008
Genetic royalty demonstrates corruption in advanced ant societies
The maintenance of cooperation in the face of the apparent advantages of cheating is one of the major unsolved mysteries in evolutionary biology. Social insect colonies are a classic example of cooperation and have always been believed to be built on a foundation of egalitarianism, with all individuals having an equal chance of developing into reproductive queens or sterile workers. Now, however, it has been shown that royalty is genetically influenced in leaf-cutting ants, with certain genetic types cheating their nestmates by biasing their development into queens. Two distinct mechanisms are involved and, just as with human societies, the threat of suppression keeps cheats rare. The results demonstrate that corruption haunts even the most advanced of societies....
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25 February 2008
Attack of the invasive garden ants
An ant that is native to Eurasia is threatening to become the latest in a procession of species to invade Europe, as a result of inadvertent human introduction. Research published in the online open access journal BMC Biology demonstrates that the invasive garden ant, Lasius neglectus, which is a threat to native species, may already be more widely established than expected....
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4 January 2008
Chemical warfare between butterflies and ants
Among humans, making yourself smell more alluring than you really are is a fairly harmless, socially accepted habit that maintains a complete perfume industry. However, it is a matter of life and death for caterpillars of large blue butterflies that dupe ant workers into believing them to be one of the ant's own larvae. In a publication in the journal Science this week[1], researchers from the Centre for Social Evolution (CSE) at the University of Copenhagen show that caterpillar deception is also a matter of smell, and that there is an ongoing co-evolutionary arms race in smell similarity between cheaters and their victims....
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9 July 2007
Myre-dronninger med elefant-hukommelse
Mange myre-dronninger bliver slået ihjel af arbejderne, så der kun er én dronning tilbage i kolonien. Og hos nogle myre-arter slås dronningerne indbyrdes om magten indtil døden. Men der findes også myre-arter, hvor dronningerne godt nok slås indbyrdes, men de slår ikke hinanden ihjel. I stedet finder "de tabende dronninger" en naturlig plads i hierarkiet under vinder-dronningen, viser ny opsigtsvækkende forskning fra Københavns Universitet, som det ansete engelske videnskabelige selskab The Royal Society netop har offentliggjort....
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14 June 2006
Too much sperm may be bad for your health
An ant queen has all the sex of her life on a single day, when she flies away from the nest in which she was born and raised to obtain the sperm that she needs until the end of her days. Now it has been shown that queens are likely to die from diseases when they store more sperm than they can afford to maintain and that the suppression of their immune system is stronger when more males contribute to the stored sperm....
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6 January 2006
Bladskærernes bakterielle krigsførelse
Myrer udviklede landbrug for 50 millioner år siden. De er fuldstændig afhængige af underjordisk svampedyrkning. I modsætning til mennesket har myrerne været i stand til at passe og udvikle deres landbrugssystemer uden at bukke under for svampesygdomme. Det har været en gåde, hvordan myrer har været i stand til dette. I det ansete tidsskrift Science har forskere fra Biologisk Instituts Center for Social Evolution ved Københavns Universitet været med til at løfte en del af sløret. Gennem et internationalt forskningssamarbejde har de vist, at bladskæremyrer dyrker en speciel bakterie på deres egen krop, som producerer et fungicid mod de mest truende svampesygdomme...
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