Ant Research Roundup

Kaspari et al. discover that coastal ants avoid salt while inland ants can't get enough.

Kaspari, M., Yanoviak, S. P., and Dudley, R. 2008. On the biogeography of salt limitation: a study of ant communities. PNAS early edition, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0804528105.

Barry Bolton and Brian Fisher continue their taxonomic work on the African ponerines in a recent issue of Zootaxa.  The paper establishes a new genus, Feroponera.

Bolton, B. & Fisher, B. L. 2008. Afrotropical ants of the ponerine genera Centromyrmex Mayr, Promyopias Santschi gen. rev. and Feroponera gen. n., with a revised key to genera of African ponerinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Zootaxa 1929: 1-37.

Lach, L. and Thomas, M. L. 2008. Invasive ants in Australia: documented and potential ecological consequences. Australian Journal of Entomology 47: 275-288.