Sunday 26 August 2012

Tags to shed light on northern hairy ants' movements


Researchers are planning to fit tiny tags to a protected species of ant in order to gain an insight into the insects' behaviour.
A team from the University of York will fit the devices to 1,000 northern hairy ants - the UK's largest ant species.
Although ants have been tagged in laboratories before, the project will be the first to attempt to track the movement of the creatures in the wild.
The project will take place on the National Trust's Longshaw Estate.
The site in Derbyshire is home to more than 1,000 nests and and estimate 50 million worker hairy ants.
Multiple nests
Sam Ellis, from the University of York, said the study would help answer questions about how the colony of ants organise themselves.

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