Edward Osborne Wilson
- O. Wilson is the scientist selected for the project. The scientist has proved his incredible knowledge in ant biology and has a significant influence beyond Myrmecology’s field to more expansive fields of science and society. Wilson has majored mostly in ant systematics, most of his research projects deal with species-level topics. The scientist has significantly contributed to improving the knowledge about the origin of ants. He discovered and analyzed important fossil taxa. Wilson proposed Lasius phylogeny, and he correctly predicted that Acanthomyops must be a member of this genus, which was later confirmed to be correct. A provisionary Formicidae phylogeny as a whole is derived from external and internal anatomy, observed in the ants gives an important contrast point within the picture obtained from molecular phylogenic analyses. Wilson’s work, ranging from Lasius to Pheidole, from extant species to fossil ants the factor that underpins all the work is his great interest to learn and understand biological diversity. Wilson’s research projects on origins, the causes and impacts of biological diversity makes him an interesting scientist for this project. The various scientific tasks, the writings describe the scientist’s passion towards scientific discoveries and his knowhow to employ critical evolutionary thinking in solving taxonomic question (Wilson, pp 214-226).
Genus Formicidae
Formicidae is classified under kingdom Animalia, they are metazoans, animals that are bilaterally symmetrical. They are fall under protostomia group of animals, phylum arthopoda and are in class insect. They classified in order Hymenoptera and superfamily Vespoidea and family Formicidae. Formicidae is a family group name of Hymenoptera and Aculeata. The scientific name is Formica Linnaeus. The family group name is Formicariae. The subfamilies of Formicidae include Pseudomyrmecinae, Proceratiinae, Ponerinae, Paraponerinae, Myrmicinae, Martialinae, Leptanillinae, Heteroponerinae, Formicinae, Formiciinae, Ectatomminae, Dorylinae, Dolichoderinae, Brownnimeciinae, Aneuretinae, Ambylyoponinae and Agroecomyrmecinae. The available names for genus-groups include Poneropterus, Myanmyrma, Kohisimyrma, Kiondikia, Hypochira, Eoformica, Condylodon, Camylomecia, Calyptites, Balkuris, Archaeopone (Wetterer et al, pp 309-346).
Genus Formicidae is an expressly monophyletic group that is described as eusocial organisms with a sexual dimorphism, aculeate Hymenoptera, geniculate antennae and metapleural glands. There exists several other unrecorded synapomorphies within the family, among them is adaptations suitable for terrestrial locomotion. The ants have lowly and laterally placed propodeal spiracle which is considered as an additional adaptation for terrestrial locomotion. The position of the propodeal spiracle facilitates the locomotion of the ant as it reduces the distance travelled by oxygen as it diffuses to the legs locomotor muscles. This characteristic does not clearly distinguish whether the original ants was epigaeic or hypogaeic as the adaptation for terrestrial locomotion wasn’t of much importance in the transition process for the Formicidae. The apomorphies are also present in the adult castes of this ant family (Wetterer et al, pp 309-346).
The distinguishing features for this genus include the following characteristics; they have forewings without cross-veins, the mating occur in mass nuptial flights, the alate queens sheds their wings after mating, the females have metapleural gland, have differentiated abdominal segment that forms a petiole, have elbowed antennae between the elongated scape and the funiculus, infrabuccal sac exists between hypopharynx and labium, prognathous heads exist in females, the worker caste has no wings and the organisms are eusocial, having perennial colonies (Wetterer et al, pp 309-346).
Human and ecological impacts of members of genus Formicidae
Ants are one of the most widespread and harmful organisms having exotic species found in most parts of the world. The ants are diverse, numerous and distributed widely from tropical to arctic ecosystems. The ant’s community is made up of many species living in various ecosystems including the deserts but most live in tropical areas. The population of ants across the various ecosystems is numerous, for example approximately one-third of the animal biomass living in Amazonian rain forest is made up of entirely termites and ants. It is projected that one hectare of this forest contain more than eight million ants and more than one million termites (Wetterer et al, pp 313-327).
The ability of ants to cause disruption in the indigenous ecosystems has been studied widely. The impacts of their presence highly depends on their preference for the habitat. Different ants prefer different habitats, for example Pheidole megacephala prefer rainforests habitats, others prefer moist habitats and savanna. Ants have significant have great human and ecological impacts. On the ecosystems, ants act as major predators of smaller invertebrates. They play a role of reducing smaller predators such as carabid beetles and spiders. The have impact on soil fertility as they act as soil engineers. This animals transfer large amounts of soil from one place to the other just like the case of earthworms. The role played by ants in regulating soil structure is mostly crucial in areas that have no earthworms like the deserts (Wetterer et al, pp 321-343).
Ants have harmful impacts on humans, a large number of cases of people stung by ants are reported every year. Cases of deaths are caused by anaphylaxis, this animals bring about health risks in areas where they co-exist with humans. Several ants’ species have neurotoxins, most of these species exist in Central and South America. An example is the fire ant and bullet ant. Carpenter ants mostly present in decayed wood in various forests invade human wooden structures and cause significant damages on the structures. Mature colonies of ants contain about 300 members, this colonies prefer moist and soft wood and use it as nesting site. Leaf cutters go along pruning vegetation pieces and taking them to their nests. The colonies of leaf cutters can have extremely large number of members up to millions, with this numbers they can cause great destruction in forestry, agriculture and horticulture. (Wetterer et al, pp 309-346).
Methods or techniques are used to study members of this genus
The collecting techniques used in studying the ant fauna include the following, the small organisms are recovered through submission of forest leaf litter to Winkler extractors or Berlese-Tulgrem funnels. They are extracted to the ground sardine baits. The ants can also be recovered from sifted litter. The ant trapping method can be used to trap ants, the traps contain two cups placed on the ground with the rims set at the soil surface for the ants to fall inside. A researcher may use hand collecting method for easily visible ants.
Current research that is being conducted on/with members of this genus.
Insects belonging to the family Formicidae are widespread all over the world, the insects are very common and are perceived to be the most successful in the entire insects community. There are a lot of questions about genus Formicidae that still require more research to find out the scientific explanations behind some characteristics of the ants. Also, scientists need to carry out research projects to find the cure for the neurotoxins produced by various ants that attack humans. There are also needs to find a solution for the agricultural and horticultural destructions caused by the ants. Scientists need to find the undiscovered benefits of the various ants and the way in which the ants can be used to benefit humans without pausing a threat of extinction of the various ant’s species (Wilson, pp 214-226).
Most interesting about this genus of organisms is that is present in almost all habitats and has different impacts on various ecosystems. The organisms have adaptations that suits them to various environments (Wilson, pp 214-226).
Current status of members of this genus is that ants are the largest species among all social insects having more than 12,000 known and described species with many others that are yet to be described. Formicidae contain 21 subfamilies. 17 of the subfamilies are extant while the rest 4 are extinct. The total number of ants has been increasing although some species are becoming extinct. The members occupy most of the terrestrial habitats apart from cold forests. Some of the ant species are facing extinction threat as a result of changing climates in their preferred habitats. The use of pesticides have resulted to reduction of the ants in some habitats. Humans need to reduce the use of pesticides in their agricultural activities as this greatly contributes to reduction of ants species. Deforestation is another human activity that has also raised a risk of ant species extinction. Deforestation bring about environment changes which may cause death to the ants. Human should refrain from such activities to safeguard the species that face the extinction threat (Wilson, pp 214-226).