links for 2010-05-30 at paulcarvill.com, the home of Paul Carvill on the web

link: paulcarvill at flickr

paulcarvill.com

Hi, I'm Paul Carvill and I'm a web developer. I am Head of Interface Development at LBi, Europe's largest digital agency.

I also like walking, cooking, Bollywood and rock 'n' roll.

links for 2010-05-30

posted: Monday, May 31st, 2010 at 12:02 am
  • Evolutionary biologist Mark Moffett talks about ants – latimes.com
    "Leafcutter ants have agriculture, which we don't think of in the animal world.

    The fungus is their food. It has their complete diet. These ants started growing their fungus 50 million years ago. Twelve million years ago, they domesticated that fungus so that it could no longer grow in the wild, much as we domesticated wheat and rice. And 8 million years ago, they figured out how to use leaves as a way to grow the fungus in huge monocultures. They even invented pesticides. These are produced either by glands on the ants or by a relative of the penicillin fungus that they grow in their nests."

    (tags: ants)
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