ants

Helen McCreery

Tuesday, November 14th

In-Person Meeting
Virtual Zoom Option
7:30 PM EST

Dr. Helen McCreery
Dept. of Biology, Tufts University

Problem solving and flexible control in self-organized collectives

ABSTRACT: Across levels of organization—from subcellular processes to massive animal migrations—groups accomplish tasks well beyond what individuals can do. Among the most charismatic examples of this are the accomplishments of ant colonies. Ant colonies perform impressive tasks that are impossible for individual ants. In general, there are many benefits to collective action—e.g. it is typically scalable and robust—but there are also costs associated with collective systems, including high “inertia”, which is thought to result in a loss of flexibility. For example, the positive feedbacks that allow an ant colony to choose among resources may be hard to counteract if the chosen resource disappears. Yet for some tasks, ants rapidly respond to changing conditions. I will discuss the mechanisms of ants’ collective action in two tasks that require extreme flexibility: maze-like obstacle navigation during cooperative transport, and self-assembly of living bridges in army ants.

NOTICE: Welcome to the second CEC meeting of the 2023-2024 academic year! We will be holding hybrid meetings to accommodate COVID-19 precautions and audience members from around the world.

For those able to attend in person, we will have an informal dinner with the speaker at 6:00 pm at the Cambridge Common Restaurant. Our formal meeting runs from 7:30 – 9:00 pm in the Gilbert Room 101A of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (there will be signs to help direct). The meeting will begin with club announcements, followed by a 60-minute presentation by the invited speaker and Q&A. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists.

Stefan Cover

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

7:30 PM

Reviving the Endangered Art of Faunistics: Revising the Ants of North America

MCZ 101, 26 Oxford Street, Harvard University

ant workerStefan Cover, Harvard University

Many disciplines claim to be foundational to the rest of biology: systematics and genetics are two obvious examples.  A good case can be made, however, that faunistics (the study of faunas), and its botanical equivalent (floristics), are basal to all other biological disciplines.  Unfortunately, faunistics is a dying art. Good faunistic studies are uncommon and training in the field is not available.  Faunistics combines alpha-taxonomy, biogeography, life-history studies, and natural history to produce a comprehensive, practical, useful portrait of a fauna.  Come and see how these various elements are being used to assemble a new, more comprehensive monograph of the ants of North America.

The talk is free and open to the public. The meeting is readily accessible via public transportation. Parking is available in the Oxford Street Garage with advance arrangement, as described here, or (usually but not always) at spaces on nearby streets. Everyone is also welcome to join us for dinner before the talk (beginning at 6 PM) at the Cambridge Common restaurant.

CEC meetings are held the second Tuesday of the month from October through May. The evening schedule typically includes an informal dinner (6:15 to 7:15 PM) followed by our formal meeting (7:30 – 9:00 PM). The latter begins with club business and is followed by a 50 minute entomology related presentation. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists

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