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Stories

  • In pictures

The birth of ante-natal classes

Is childbirth an athletic feat? Kathleen Vaughan certainly thought so, developing the first modern exercise class for women in pregnancy.

  • Article

The fine line between collecting and hoarding

Being ‘a collector’ is often celebrated but being labelled ‘a hoarder’ can be humiliating, at best. Georgie Evans asks what makes one set of objects a collection and another a hoard.

  • Article

Nurturing my autistic, gender-questioning child

As mother of an autistic child who questions her gender, Jude Lax describes cherishing her growing daughter as she explores her identity.

All stories (3)

Images

  • Ants are swarming around the base of a hollow tree while the queen ant is talking to a grashopper. Etching by W. Hollar for a fable by J. Ogilby.
  • Trachymyrmex septentrionalis is the northernmost fungus growing ant, and is abundant in pine flat forests throughout the Eastern USA, ranging as far north as Long Island, New York. In this symbiosis, T. septentrionalis ants collect plant material and insect feces, which they feed to a specific "cultivar" fungus that they farm in underground gardens. Once the fungus has digested this food, it forms nutrient-rich swellings that the ants feed upon. The ants also protect their cultivar fungus from disease using antibiotic-producing Pseudonocardia bacteria that reside on the ants' proplueral plates (i.e., "chest"). The ants therefore both farm the cultivar fungus as their food source and protect it by "crop spraying" antibiotics produced by their symbiotic Pseudonocardia bacteria.
  • Trachymyrmex septentrionalis is the northernmost fungus growing ant, and is abundant in pine flat forests throughout the Eastern USA, ranging as far north as Long Island, New York. In this symbiosis, T. septentrionalis ants collect plant material and insect feces, which they feed to a specific "cultivar" fungus that they farm in underground gardens. Once the fungus has digested this food, it forms nutrient-rich swellings that the ants feed upon. The ants also protect their cultivar fungus from disease using antibiotic-producing Pseudonocardia bacteria that reside on the ants' proplueral plates (i.e., "chest"). The ants therefore both farm the cultivar fungus as their food source and protect it by "crop spraying" antibiotics produced by their symbiotic Pseudonocardia bacteria.
  • A fly is standing among ants swarming about the hollow base of a tree. Etching by W. Hollar for a fable by Aesop.
  • Ant eye, photomacrography
  • Bullet ant proboscis
  • Bullet Ant, Paraponea cravat
  • Eciton burchelli/Eciton army ant
  • Ant head and mandibles, photomacrography
  • A porcupine ant-eater. Etching.
All images (314)

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