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Gliding Ant
Gliding ants are arboreal ants of several different genera that are able to control the direction of their descent when falling from a tree. Living in the rainforest canopy like many other gliders, gliding ants use their gliding to return to the trunk of the tree they live on should they fall or be knocked off a branch. Gliding was first discovered for ''Cephalotes atratus'' in the Peruvian rainforest. At least five genera in the subfamilies Myrmicinae, Pseudomyrmecinae, and Formicinae (mostly '' Camponotus'') display gliding of various degrees, in an example of parallel evolution. All species in the genus ''Cephalotes'' (within Myrmicinae) tested to date show this ability, as do many species within Pseudomyrmecinae. Unique among gliding animals, ''Cephalotes'' (Myrminae) and Pseudomyrmecinae ants glide abdomen first. Formicinae ants glide in the more conventional head first manner, though. Gliding ants have been shown to have an 85%"Yanoviak S. P., and Dudley, R.The role of vis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cephalotes Atratus
''Cephalotes atratus'' is a species of arboreal ant in the genus ''Cephalotes'', a genus characterized by its odd shaped head. These ants are known as gliding ants because of their ability to "parachute" by steering their fall if they lose their footing. Names It is called kaka-sikikoko in the Kwaza language of Rondônia, Brazil.Manso, Laura Vicuña Pereira. 2013. Dicionário da língua Kwazá'. M.A. dissertation. Guajará-Mirim: Federal University of Rondônia. Description ''Cephalotes atratus'' is a large, mainly black ant; workers are in length and females . Males are up to and have black heads and thoraxes, and dark reddish-brown gasters and limbs. The workers are spiny and heavily armoured with powerful mandibles for chewing through wood. Distribution This ant occurs in lowland tropical rainforests in South America where its range extends from Panama and Venezuela to Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and northern Argentina. It is a common arboreal species and colonies ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parallel Evolution
Parallel evolution is the similar development of a trait in distinct species that are not closely related, but share a similar original trait in response to similar evolutionary pressure.Zhang, J. and Kumar, S. 1997Detection of convergent and parallel evolution at the amino acid sequence level. ''Mol. Biol. Evol.'' 14, 527-36. Parallel vs. convergent evolution Given a particular trait that occurs in each of two lineages descended from a specified ancestor, it is possible in theory to define parallel and convergent evolutionary trends strictly, and distinguish them clearly from one another. However the criteria for defining convergent as opposed to parallel evolution often are unclear in practice, so that arbitrary diagnosis is common in some cases. When two species are similar in a particular character, evolution is defined as parallel if the ancestors shared that similarity; if they did not, the evolution of that character in those species is defined as convergent. However, thi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flying And Gliding Animals
A number of animals are capable of aerial locomotion, either by powered flight or by gliding. This trait has appeared by evolution many times, without any single common ancestor. Flight has evolved at least four times in separate animals: insects, pterosaurs, birds, and bats. Gliding has evolved on many more occasions. Usually the development is to aid canopy animals in getting from tree to tree, although there are other possibilities. Gliding, in particular, has evolved among rainforest animals, especially in the rainforests in Asia (most especially Borneo) where the trees are tall and widely spaced. Several species of aquatic animals, and a few amphibians and reptiles have also evolved this gliding flight ability, typically as a means of evading predators. Types Animal aerial locomotion can be divided into two categories: powered and unpowered. In unpowered modes of locomotion, the animal uses aerodynamic forces exerted on the body due to wind or falling through the air. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diurnality
Diurnality is a form of plant and animal behavior characterized by activity during daytime, with a period of sleeping or other inactivity at night. The common adjective used for daytime activity is "diurnal". The timing of activity by an animal depends on a variety of environmental factors such as the temperature, the ability to gather food by sight, the risk of predation, and the time of year. Diurnality is a cycle of activity within a 24-hour period; cyclic activities called circadian rhythms are endogenous cycles not dependent on external cues or environmental factors except for a zeitgeber. Animals active during twilight are crepuscular, those active during the night are nocturnal and animals active at sporadic times during both night and day are cathemeral. Plants that open their flowers during the daytime are described as diurnal, while those that bloom during nighttime are nocturnal. The timing of flower opening is often related to the time at which preferred pollin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Head
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may not have a head, but many bilaterally symmetric forms do, regardless of size. Heads develop in animals by an evolutionary trend known as cephalization. In bilaterally symmetrical animals, nervous tissue concentrate at the anterior region, forming structures responsible for information processing. Through biological evolution, sense organs and feeding structures also concentrate into the anterior region; these collectively form the head. Human head The human head is an anatomical unit that consists of the skull, hyoid bone and cervical vertebrae. The term "skull" collectively denotes the mandible (lower jaw bone) and the cranium (upper portion of the skull that houses the brain). Sculptures of human heads are generally b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abdomen
The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the torso. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal cavity. In arthropods it is the posterior tagma of the body; it follows the thorax or cephalothorax. In humans, the abdomen stretches from the thorax at the thoracic diaphragm to the pelvis at the pelvic brim. The pelvic brim stretches from the lumbosacral joint (the intervertebral disc between L5 and S1) to the pubic symphysis and is the edge of the pelvic inlet. The space above this inlet and under the thoracic diaphragm is termed the abdominal cavity. The boundary of the abdominal cavity is the abdominal wall in the front and the peritoneal surface at the rear. In vertebrates, the abdomen is a large body cavity enclosed by the abdominal muscles, at front and to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Free Fall
In Newtonian physics, free fall is any motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it. In the context of general relativity, where gravitation is reduced to a space-time curvature, a body in free fall has no force acting on it. An object in the technical sense of the term "free fall" may not necessarily be falling down in the usual sense of the term. An object moving upwards might not normally be considered to be falling, but if it is subject to only the force of gravity, it is said to be in free fall. The Moon is thus in free fall around the Earth, though its orbital speed keeps it in very far orbit from the Earth's surface. In a roughly uniform gravitational field gravity acts on each part of a body approximately equally. When there are no other forces, such as the normal force exerted between a body (e.g. an astronaut in orbit) and its surrounding objects, it will result in the sensation of weightlessness, a condition that also occurs when the gravita ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cephalotes
''Cephalotes'' is a genus of tree-dwelling ant species from the Americas, commonly known as turtle ants. All appear to be gliding ants, with the ability to "parachute" and steer their fall so as to land back on the tree trunk rather than fall to the ground, which is often flooded. Ecological specialization and evolution of a soldier caste One of the most important aspects of the genus' social evolution and adaptation is the manner in which their social organization has been shaped by environmental pressures.Hölldobler, B., Wilson, E. O., & Nelson, M. C. (2009). The superorganism: the beauty, elegance, and strangeness of insect societies. New York: W.W. Norton. This is particularly true of the species '' Cephalotes rohweri'', in which an entire soldier class has evolved as a result of highly specialized nest cavity availability.Powell, S. (2008). Ecological specialization and the evolution of a specialized caste in ''Cephalotes'' ant. Functional Ecology, 22, 902-911. Because an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arboreal
Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. The habitats pose numerous mechanical challenges to animals moving through them and lead to a variety of anatomical, behavioral and ecological consequences as well as variations throughout different species.Cartmill, M. (1985). Climbing. In ''Functional Vertebrate Morphology'', eds. M. Hildebrand D. M. Bramble K. F. Liem and D. B. Wake, pp. 73–88. Cambridge: Belknap Press. Furthermore, many of these same principles may be applied to climbing without trees, such as on rock piles or mountains. Some animals are exclusively arboreal in habitat, such as the tree snail. Biomechanics Arboreal habitats pose numerous mechanical challenges to animals moving in them, which have been solved in diverse ways. These challenges include moving on narrow branches, mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Formicinae
The Formicinae are a subfamily within the Formicidae containing ants of moderate evolutionary development. Formicines retain some primitive features, such as the presence of cocoons around pupae, the presence of ocelli in workers, and little tendency toward reduction of palp or antennal segmentation in most species, except subterranean groups. Extreme modification of mandibles is rare, except in the genera ''Myrmoteras'' and ''Polyergus''. However, some members show considerable evolutionary advancement in behaviors such as slave-making and symbiosis with root-feeding hemipterans. Finally, all formicines have very reduced stings and enlarged venom reservoirs, with the venom gland, specialized (uniquely among ants) for the production of formic acid. All members of the Formicinae "have a one-segmented petiole in the form of a vertical scale". Identification Formicine ants have a single node-like or scale-like petiole (postpetiole entirely lacking) and the apex of the a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudomyrmecinae
Pseudomyrmecinae is a small subfamily of ants containing only three genera of slender, large-eyed arboreal ants, predominantly tropical or subtropical in distribution. In the course of adapting to arboreal conditions (unlike the predominantly ground-dwelling myrmeciins), the pseudomyrmecines diversified and came to occupy and retain a much wider geographic range. Pseudomyrmecinae consists of 230 described species in three genera. Among those, 32 species live in plant domatia, making them the most diverse plant-occupying ant group worldwide. *Pseudomyrmecinae Smith, 1952 ** Pseudomyrmecini Smith, 1952 *** '' Myrcidris'' Ward, 1990 *** ''Pseudomyrmex ''Pseudomyrmex'' is a genus of stinging, wasp-like ants in the subfamily Pseudomyrmecinae. They are large-eyed, slender ants, found mainly in tropical and subtropical regions of the New World. Distribution and habitat ''Pseudomyrmex'' is predom ...'' Lund, 1831 *** '' Tetraponera'' Smith, 1852 References * * External lin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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