Students in associate professor of natural resources and the environment Jeff Garnas’s forest health course got an up-close look — 极 up close — at the head of a tropical leafcutter ant, collected in Ecuador in 2022. 大学仪器中心 analytical scientists Nancy Cherim and Mark Townley imaged this ant head using a 扫描电子显微镜 放大60倍.
“切叶蚁很迷人, since they cultivate fungal gardens to serve as an external gut for the colony,” Garnas, adding that they also pose a threat to plantation-grown trees in the tropics. “The complex ‘ultrastucture’ on their bodies and heads also harbors bacteria that produce antibiotics that help the ants stay disease-free and to keep their garden free of ‘weeds,或寄生真菌.” The microscopy magnification of the odor receptors on the ant’s antennae support his lessons on chemically-mediated communication in insects, 哪些对有害生物管理有影响.
当玫瑰是红的, ant heads are not: Cherim and Townley colorized the image, 让它看起来像是昆虫学的情人节.
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写的:
贝斯保梯 | 主要研究营销 | 贝丝.potier@wxyxsteel.com | 2-1566
