The emergent complexity of ant societies is one of the most fascinating phenomena in the natural world: how do these tiny creatures form such intricate social networks? These networks are so nuanced ...

And then there’s Sceptobius lativentris. Parker’s research revealed that the adult beetles turn off their ability to produce ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. The Argentine ant is one of the most invasive species of ...

Ant colonies are well-defended fortresses. The social insects quickly sniff out most intruders and kill them to protect their ...

A supercolony of ants has been discovered stretching thousands of miles from the Italian Riviera along the coastline to northwest Spain. It's the largest cooperative unit ever recorded, according to ...

For some would-be ant queens, the easiest way to take over a colony is to dupe its worker ants into committing regicide. The scientist E.O. Wilson once wrote that ants are the most warlike of all ...

Biologist E.O. Wilson once wrote that "ants are the most warlike of all animals," noting that clashes between ant colonies dwarfed the human battles at Waterloo and Gettysburg. But sometimes ant ...

Humans benefit from caffeine in an assortment of ways, not the least of which is making that morning commute much more bearable. But a study recently published in iScience proves we aren’t the only ...

A new study expanded on a seemingly impossible scenario in which wood ants survived while trapped for years in an abandoned nuclear weapons bunker in Poland. The wooded area around the former Soviet ...

Deep inside an ant nest, some of the youngest members are primed to die for the group. When infection strikes, these baby ants do not just fall sick and fade away. They actively trigger their own ...