Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, images, and additional information follow below.
All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 6-19-15.
TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO
From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is
Virginia Water Radio for the week of June 22, 2015.
MUSIC – ~6 sec – Excerpt of “March of the Picnic Ants,” by No Strings
Attached
This week, we feature a tune for a large group of insects
whose image as hard workers fits their widespread impacts. Have a listen for about 35 seconds.
MUSIC – ~35 sec – Excerpt of “March of the Picnic Ants”
You’ve been listening to part of “March of the Picnic Ants,”
by No Strings Attached, on the 1999 CD “In the Vinyl Tradition Volume II,” from
Enessay Music. Ants are familiar for seemingly
non-stop work, big nest mounds, social organization in colonies, and—of course—finding
human food at picnics. Scientists
categorize ants as a family within
the insect group that also includes bees and wasps. The ant family includes an estimated 15,000
species worldwide and perhaps 1000 species in North America. Ants live in colonies in all kinds of land-based,
or terrestrial, habitats, with colony
workers possibly numbering in the thousands or even the millions in some cases. Ants’ diversity and numbers make them
important factors in terrestrial food webs, nutrient recycling, and soil
conditioning. But what about ants from a
water perspective?
Land and water ecosystems are connected in
many ways, so ants’ terrestrial impacts can eventually affect water bodies. While no known ants are aquatic, some species
live in wetlands, and for dryland species, moisture and humidity can influence where ants nest and when they leave the nest. Finally,
water is a key factor for at least two notorious ant pests: moisture-seeking carpenter
ants often nest in damp wood or other materials in human buildings; and Red Imported Fire Ants—South American
natives that now infest Virginia and several other southern states—survive
flooding of their nests by joining together into water-resistant rafts.
Innumerable, unavoidable, socially networked—lots
of things about ants are well-known. But
with possibly several thousand species still lacking full scientific description,
we don’t yet see the whole anthill. Thanks
to No Strings Attached for permission to use this week’s music, and we close
with a few more seconds of “March of the Picnic Ants.”
MUSIC - ~ 10 sec – Excerpt of “March of the Picnic Ants”
For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit
us online at virginiawaterradio.org,
or call us at (540) 231-5463. Virginia
Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part
of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment. Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo
version of Cripple Creek to open and close the show. In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you
health, wisdom, and good water.
AUDIO NOTES AND
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This episode’s music was “March of the Picnic Ants,” by No
Strings Attached, from the 1999 CD “In the Vinyl Tradition Volume II,”
copyright by Enessay Music, used with permission. More information about No Strings Attached is
available online at http://www.enessay.com.
Thanks to Eric Day, Virginia Tech Department of Entomology, for his help
with this episode.
PHOTOS
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Carpenter ant from house in Blacksburg, Va., May 18, 2015. |
Area of moisture where carpenter ants were located under the floor of a Blacksburg, Va., house, May 15, 2015. |
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Ant colony on a sidewalk in Blacksburg, Va., May 27, 2015. |
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Small ant-colony mound in a residential area of Blacksburg, Va., May 30, 2015. |
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Ants on a plant in a floodplain wetland along Toms Creek in Blacksburg, Va., June 20, 2015. |
SOURCES USED AND FOR MORE INFORMATION
Brian L. Fisher and Stehan P. Cover, Ants of North America, University of California Press, Berkeley, Calif.,
2007.
Laurel D. Hansen and John H. Klotz, Carpenter Ants of the United States and Canada, Cornell University
Press, Ithaca, N.Y., 2005.
Iowa State University Department of Entomology, “BugGuide,”
online at http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740.
R. W. Merritt and K. W., Cummins, An Introduction to the Aquatic Insects of North America, 2nd
Edition, Kendall/Hunt, Dubuque, Ia., 1984. – only aquatic hymenopterans are
some parasitic wasps that either enter water as adults to contact aquatic
hosts, or may parasitize non-aquatic forms of insects that have an aquatic
forms; p. 438).
Vincent H. Resh and Ring T. Cardé, eds., Encyclopedia of Insects, 2nd Ed.,
Elsevier Academic Press, Burlington, Mass., 2009.
Gary J. Skinner
and Geoffrey W. Allen, Ants, Richmond
Publishing, Slough, England, 1996.
University of California-Davis, “Pests of Homes, Structures,
People, and Pets,” online at http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7411.html.
University of Florida Department of Entomology, “Featured
Creatures/Red Imported Fire Ants,” online at http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/ants/red_imported_fire_ant.htm.
Brian Vastag, “The Incredible Floating Fire Ant,” Washington Post, 4/25/11; online at http://www.washingtonpost.com/the-incredible-floating-fire-ant/2011/04/22/AFd3EbjE_story.html.
Virginia Tech Department of Entomology Insect Identification
Lab, “Household and Pantry Pests,” online at http://www.insectid.ento.vt.edu/fact-sheets/household-pantry-pests/index.html.
J. Reese Voshell, Jr., A
Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America, McDonald and
Woodward, Blacksburg, Va., 2002.
RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES
For previous episodes on insects in Virginia, please see the
“Insects” category at the Index link above (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html).
SOLS INFORMATION FOR
VIRGINIA TEACHERS
This episode may help with the following Virginia’s 2010 Science
Standards of Learning (SOLs):
Grades K-6 Earth
Resources Theme
4.9 - Va. natural resources, including watersheds, water
resources, and organisms.
Grades K-6 Life
Processes Theme
3.4 - behavioral and physiological adaptations.
Grades K-6 Living
Systems Theme
2.5 - living things as part of a system, including habitats.
3.5 - food webs.
3.6 - ecosystems, communities, populations, shared
resources.
5.5 - organism features and classification.
Life Science Course
LS. 4 - organism features and classification.
LS.6 - ecosystem interactions, including cycles and energy
flow.
LS.8 - community and population interactions, including food
webs, niches, symbiotic relationships.
LS.9 - adaptations for particular ecosystems’ biotic and
abiotic factors.
LS.11 - relationships between ecosystem dynamics and human activity.
Biology Course
BIO.8 - dynamic equilibria and interactions within populations,
communities, and ecosystems; including analysis of the flora, fauna, and
microorganisms of Virginia ecosystems.
Virginia’s SOLs are available from the Virginia Department
of Education, online at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/.