Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!ucsd!rutgers!sunybcs!dmark
From: dmark@cs.Buffalo.EDU (David Mark)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Ants and antagonists
Keywords: ants
Message-ID: <3566@cs.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 6 Jan 89 01:28:40 GMT
References: <18762@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: dmark@sunybcs.UUCP (David Mark)
Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Geography
Lines: 30

In article <18762@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> bks@ALFA.berkeley.edu ( Brad Sherman ) writes:
>The Megalopolis stretching some 50 miles from Sacramento to the
>San Francisco Bay Area is currently undergoing an invasion of
>(so-called Argentinian) ants.
>	1) What is the probable cause of this phenomenon?

  I imagine they came in with agricultural or horticultural products (live
  plants with soil.  Anyone actually *know*?

>	2) With no indigenous anteaters, is available food the
>	only limiting factor to the ant population? (This seems
>	unlikely).

  Flickers (ground-loving woorpeckers, Colaptes auratus) eat ants.  Maybe
  other insects; perhaps the weather; probably the USDA :-)

>	3) What is the order of magnitude of the number of neurons
>	in an ant?

  There was an article in _Science_ in 1987 about the 'mental maps' of
  honeybees.  I seem to recall about 10megs of neurons (but how many
  bytes per neuron?).

>	4) Any good basic books pertaining to ant physiology and
>	behavior?

  Sorry, I don't know of any specific.  But I found lots of ant books in
  the University library here a couple of years ago.

dmark@cs.buffalo.edu