For thousands of years, thorny African acacia trees have provided food and shelter to aggressive biting ants, which protected the trees by attacking animals that try to eat the acacia leaves. Called ...

The ant acacia is a small, thorny tree found in different parts of Costa Rica. It is famous, not for its impressive thorns or its ability to thrive in harsh environmental conditions, but because of ...

Ants known to defend certain species of Acacia trees from elephant predation deter the massive herbivores so effectively that they are impacting entire savanna ecosystems, according to a study ...

Feb. 15 (UPI) --Acacia ants have an exceptional sense of vibration. As a new study revealed, the ants, which live in and on Africa's acacia trees, can tell the difference between the vibrational ...

Researchers find that the ants of the acacia tree are tipped off to the presence of herbivores by vibrations that run throughout the trees when an animal gets too close or begins to chew. As a result, ...

After a recent period of major rainfall, I visited a wooded area to see what animals I could find, wondering if any had left for Noah’s Ark. I turned over an old piece of roofing tin and noticed that ...

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts. Ecologists have discovered the secret weapon used by certain acacia ...

A new study explores a disruptive force in the delicate African ecosystem that holds consequences for even top predators like lions. The big-headed ant, first recorded on the island of Mauritius, has ...

Ant-acacia plants attract ants by offering specialized food and hollow thorns in which the ants live, while the ant colony in turn defends its acacia against herbivores. This mutualistic relationship ...

On a swollen thorn, Crematogaster mimosae workers attack invading C. mimosae workers from a neighboring colony. UC Davis researchers in Africa have a riveting tale of natural balance gone bad, with an ...

AESOP’S FABLES are supposed to illustrate a moral point. If he had lived in Central America rather than Greece, though, he might have thrown in the towel at writing one entitled “The Ant and the ...

Acacia trees are a prominent feature of the East African savannah. They're also a classic example of the long-standing and complex relationships between plants and insects, in this case acacia ants.