Adventures Among Ants - Mark W. Moffett [206]
military and military comparisons: competition for resources, 47, 48; decentralized authority, 34–36, 237–38nn31, 32; defense strategies, 56–57, 87, 240n10; generalization vs. specialization, 146; imprecision built into systems, 245n5; predation linked with, 33; rapid dominance, 27, 47, 212, 261–62n20; reconnaissance, 34; Roman armies, 33–34, 42; territorialism, 115–16; terrorism, 128; troop movements, 33–34. See also combat and combativeness; territoriality; warfare
mind: conflict as tool of, 228; human, 227. See also brain and central nervous system; intelligence; swarm intelligence
minors, defined, 5. See also polymorphism
Minsky, Marvin, 227
misinterpretation of behavior, 94–95
mistakes. See error and imprecision
mites, 247n8, 251n36
Mobile, Alabama, 219
monkeys, 155
monoculturing, dangers of, 197, 200
mosaics: biodiversity of, 133, 249n46; defined, 132, 249n36; location of, 132, 217; modification of environment in, 132–33; territoriality and, 132–33
Murphy, D.H. (“Paddy”), 22, 23, 26, 29–30
mutualisms, 121, 127, 128. See also ant plants
Myrmecocystus (honeypot ants): food patch preemptive attacks, 115, 246n17; group transport of repletes, 64; lack of migration in, 59; ritualized tournaments and slavemaking by, 165, 166, 253n12; taste of, 73
myrmecology, defined, 232
Myrmelachista schumanni, 131–32
Myrmicaria opaciventris,236n6
Myrmicinae, 153
Myrmidons, 223
Myrmoteras (trapjaw ants): mandibles of, 43; migrations of, 60
naked mole rat, recruitment in, 33
National Geographic Society, 37–38, 153
nationalism, 260n3, 261n11
native species, invasive ants as threat to, 206–7, 207, 208, 220
naturalistic fallacy, 156
navigation, in canopy, 137–39, 161, 164, 250nn10, 12, 18
nectaries and nectar, 119, 120, 124, 125, 129, 143, 183, 256n69, 258n15; cost to plant, 248n19
nests: Acanthognathus, 44; in acorns, 153, 167; air quality in, 173–74; ant gardens, 121–22, 214, 247n3, 250n23; army ants, 229; in canopy, 124; carpenter ants, 79–81, 80, 85; enslavement of, 156–57, 213, 253n34; entrances to, 84, 142, 164; excavation of, 56, 58; flooding of, 140–42, 209; inclusive sharing arrangements, 153–54, 214–15, 261n8; information flow to, 77–79; leafcutter ants, 170–74, 177, 187; marauder ants, 12, 56–58, 57, 140–41, 225; mobility and, 59–60, 229; multiple housing units, 167; new location, assessment of, 103–4, 243n10; organization of, 57, 171, 173–74; pavilion nests, 119, 247n42; raiding of, 79–81, 80, 84, 86–87, 88–90, 148, 151; silk used in, 113, 114, 124; unicolonial, 202, 204, 211–12, 215, 219, 260n18; variations within same species, 225; weaver ants, 109, 111, 113–14, 114, 115, 140, 213, 213. See also colonies, establishing; defense, individual; defense of society; discord within societies; migration
net, foragers jointly acting as, 26, 39, 41, 76, 116
neuron, compared to ant worker, 17, 227
New Orleans, 209, 211
New Zealand, 218
niche generalists vs. specialists, 239n23
Nickerson, Max Allen, 2
Nigeria, 73–74, 77–78, 85, 87–88, 95–96, 98–99, 101–2, 104, 106, 108
nightcrawlers (earthworms), 39, 65, 65, 98, 99
nomadism, 59–60, 190, 211, 229, 235n11 (ch. 1), 240nn14, 15
nondominant ants, 128–29
nonspecialist labor, 38, 39, 69, 212, 223, 226
Nothomyrmecia macrops, 125
nursery and nursery workers: age and, 9–10, 234n9; central-place foraging and, 63; nest organization, 57; slave ants as, 149, 150; social parasitic ants and, 252n21. See also larval stage; pupal stage; queens
O’Connell, Robert, 116
Odontomachus (trapjaw ants), mandibles of, 43
odor and identity. See group identity
Oecophylla. See weaver ants
Ohio State University, 152–53
omnivory: driver ants, 34; marauder ants, 45–49, 84–85, 238n18; weaver ants, 118, 119–20
opportunist ants, 128
oral detritus (infrabuccal) pocket, 188, 192, 196, 257n3, 258n17
overlap of generations,