Comments on: One, big, worldwide ant colony http://www.geniussteve.com/one-big-worldwide-ant-colony/ Steven Mietelski's occasionally updated tech blog Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:49:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: GeniusSteve http://www.geniussteve.com/one-big-worldwide-ant-colony/comment-page-1/#comment-61 GeniusSteve Sun, 31 Jan 2010 05:35:19 +0000 http://www.geniussteve.com/?p=34#comment-61 It's covered in-depth in The Superorganism (see more recent post on this site, The Hardest Book I've Read All Year). It has to do with the unique scent that develops on the exoskeleton of the ants and whether or not their colonies are polygyous or monogynous. Polygynous species are far tolerant of distant cousins scents than those of a more local cousin. It turns out that there is a bit more than scent at play... it's an _evolving_ scent. It’s covered in-depth in The Superorganism (see more recent post on this site, The Hardest Book I’ve Read All Year).

It has to do with the unique scent that develops on the exoskeleton of the ants and whether or not their colonies are polygyous or monogynous.

Polygynous species are far tolerant of distant cousins scents than those of a more local cousin. It turns out that there is a bit more than scent at play… it’s an _evolving_ scent.

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