nsf.gov - Special Report - Fire Ants: Coping With These Invasive Insects

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In order to understand the evolution of complex societies, researchers are sequencing the genomes of social insects, including several species of ants. A team, led by Arizona State University organismal and systems biology professor Juergen Gadau, sequenced one of the genomes and set out to decipher which genes might be responsible for defining which ants work and which ants reproduce in a red harvester ant colony. Find out more in this news release.
Credit: Herbert A. 'Joe' Pase III, Texas Forest Service, Bugwood.org; licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License

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Yellow jackets are wasps, and though they seem eager to inflict pain, they do have some important redeeming qualities. They kill harmful garden pests and are among the most social insects on the planet, along with their stinging cousins, the ants and the social bees. Find out more in this Science Nation video.
Credit: Science Nation, National Science Foundation

Environmental Biology (DEB)

The Division of Environmental Biology (DEB) of the Biological Sciences Directorate supports fundamental research on populations, species, communities and ecosystems. Scientific emphases range across many evolutionary and ecological patterns and processes at all spatial and temporal scales.

Joshua R. King Laboratory

In Joshua King’s lab, researchers study natural history, community assembly and species invasions at multiple scales in natural and human-altered landscapes. The overarching themes of the research program are to understand how insects impact ecosystem functions and the mechanisms that drive species invasions associated with land-use changes.

Walter R. Tschinkel

Walter R. Tschinkel is the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Research Professor of Biological Science at Florida State University. He is one of the leading entomologists and myrmecologists (a branch of entomology that focuses on ants) studying the behavior of ants and the structure of their colonies.

Fast-evolving Genes Control Developmental Differences in Social Insects

A recent study found that genes involved in creating different sexes, life stages and castes of fire ants and honeybees evolved more rapidly than genes not involved in these processes.

The National Science Foundation (NSF)
 Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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