Leaf‐cutting ants are generally recognized as important pest species in Neotropical
America. They are eusocial insects that exhibit social organization, foraging, fungus …

Chemical communication is a fundamental, highly complex component of social insect
societies. Ants in particular employ a remarkable diversity of chemical signals to maintain …

Transport networks are vital components of multicellular organisms, distributing nutrients
and removing waste products. Animal and plant transport systems are branching trees …

The distribution of food resources in space and time is likely to be an important factor
governing the type of foraging strategy used by ants. However, no previous systematic …

Edge‐mediated changes in species composition are known to result in modified species
interactions. Because of the crucial trophic position of herbivores and their far‐reaching …

Background Significant efforts have recently been put into the investigation of the spatial
organization and the chromatin-interaction networks of genomes. Chromosome …

Graph theory can be applied to ecological questions in many ways, and more insights can
be gained by expanding the range of graph theoretical concepts applied to a specific …

Determining how ant colonies optimize foraging while mitigating pathogen and predator
risks provides insight into how the ants have achieved ecological success. Ants must …

Living in large societies involves costs associated with high density of individuals, but being
near others includes the benefit of access to conspecifics' information. High densities of …

The trait-based approach to ecology promises to provide a mechanistic understanding of
species distributions and ecosystem functioning. Typically, trait analyses focus on average …