Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Feb. 19, 2006). Advisor: Dr. Walter R. Tschinkel, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Biological Science. Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-58).

Not available / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Toledo, 2010. / Typescript. "Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Biology (Ecology track)." "A thesis entitled"--at head of title. Title from title page of PDF document. Bibliography: p. 38-42 and 51.

So, Wai Yan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 244-270). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.vi / Table of contents --- p.viii / List of figures --- p.xii / List of tables --- p.xiv / List of plates --- p.xvii / List of appendices --- p.xviii / Chapter Chapter 1 --- General Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- General Information of Hong Kong Climate and Vegetation --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.1 --- Grasslands in Hong Kong --- p.3 / Chapter 1.1.2 --- Shrublands in Hong Kong --- p.4 / Chapter 1.1.3 --- Woodlands in Hong Kong --- p.5 / Chapter 1.1.4 --- Plantations in Hong Kong --- p.7 / Chapter 1.2 --- Quarries and Landfills in Hong Kong --- p.9 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- Quarries in Hong Kong --- p.9 / Chapter 1.2.2 --- Landfills in Hong Kong --- p.13 / Chapter 1.3 --- Ants as Bioindicators --- p.16 / Chapter 1.3.1 --- The Use of Bioindicators --- p.16 / Chapter 1.3.2 --- The Use of Ants as Bioindicators --- p.19 / Chapter 1.3.3 --- Ant Functional Groups --- p.21 / Chapter 1.3.4 --- Ants in Hong Kong --- p.22 / Chapter 1.4 --- Research Objectives --- p.24 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Ant Communities in Natural and Semi-natural Habitats in Hong Kong --- p.25 / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.25 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Abiotic Factors --- p.25 / Chapter 2.1.1.1 --- Habitat complexity --- p.25 / Chapter 2.1.1.2 --- Elevation --- p.26 / Chapter 2.1.1.3 --- Soil properties --- p.27 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Biotic Factors --- p.30 / Chapter 2.1.2.1 --- Interaction with plants --- p.30 / Chapter 2.1.2.2 --- Interaction among ants --- p.31 / Chapter 2.1.2.3 --- Interaction with other fauna --- p.32 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Objectives --- p.33 / Chapter 2.2 --- Materials and Methods --- p.34 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Study Sites --- p.34 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Ant Sampling --- p.41 / Chapter 2.2.2.1 --- Pitfall trapping --- p.42 / Chapter 2.2.2.2 --- Litter extraction --- p.43 / Chapter 2.2.2.3 --- Visual search --- p.44 / Chapter 2.2.2.4 --- Baiting --- p.45 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Ant Examination --- p.46 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- Other Samplings --- p.46 / Chapter 2.2.4.1 --- Soil sampling --- p.46 / Chapter 2.2.4.2 --- Vegetation measurements --- p.47 / Chapter 2.2.5 --- Data Analysis --- p.47 / Chapter 2.3 --- Results --- p.50 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Vegetation and Soil Properties --- p.50 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- "Species Diversity, Abundance and Frequency of Occurrence" --- p.63 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- Ant Community --- p.72 / Chapter 2.3.4 --- Ant Species Analysis --- p.75 / Chapter 2.3.5 --- Functional Group Analysis --- p.78 / Chapter 2.3.6 --- Correlation of Ant Community with Vegetation and Soil Properties --- p.81 / Chapter 2.4 --- Discussion --- p.84 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Ant Species Richness in Different Habitats --- p.84 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Relationship of Ant Community and Vegetation and Soil Properties --- p.89 / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Indicator Species --- p.91 / Chapter 2.4.4 --- Changes in Community Structure --- p.92 / Chapter 2.4.5 --- Ant Functional Groups --- p.93 / Chapter 2.5 --- Conclusions --- p.95 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Ant Community on Rehabilitated Lands in Hong Kong --- p.97 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.97 / Chapter 3.1.1 --- "Restoration, Rehabilitation and Reallocation" --- p.97 / Chapter 3.1.1.1 --- Restoration --- p.97 / Chapter 3.1.1.2 --- Rehabilitation --- p.97 / Chapter 3.1.1.3 --- Reallocation --- p.98 / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Ants as Biodiversity Indicators and Ecological Indicators of Disturbed Lands --- p.99 / Chapter 3.1.3 --- Factors Affecting Ant Community Structure on Rehabilitated Lands during Succession --- p.102 / Chapter 3.1.3.1 --- Dominance-controlled and founder-controlled model --- p.103 / Chapter 3.1.3.2 --- Time since last disturbance --- p.104 / Chapter 3.1.3.3 --- Proximity to undisturbed sites --- p.104 / Chapter 3.1.3.4 --- Habitat created --- p.105 / Chapter 3.1.3.5 --- Presence of invasive and weed species --- p.105 / Chapter 3.1.4 --- Objectives --- p.106 / Chapter 3.2 --- Materials and Methods --- p.107 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Study Sites --- p.107 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Ant Sampling --- p.111 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Other Samplings --- p.116 / Chapter 3.2.3.1 --- Soil sampling --- p.116 / Chapter 3.2.3.2 --- Vegetation measurements --- p.116 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Data Analysis --- p.116 / Chapter 3.3 --- Results --- p.119 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Vegetation and Soil Properties --- p.119 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- "Species Diversity, Abundance and Frequency of Occurrence" --- p.140 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Ant Community --- p.153 / Chapter 3.3.4 --- Ant Species Analysis --- p.159 / Chapter 3.3.5 --- Functional Groups --- p.161 / Chapter 3.3.6 --- "Correlation of Ant Communities with Vegetation, Soil Properties and Rehabilitation Age" --- p.162 / Chapter 3.4 --- Discussion --- p.167 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Patterns of Ant Richness on Rehabilitated Quarries and Landfills --- p.169 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Ant Communities on Rehabilitated Quarries and Landfills --- p.173 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Species Analysis --- p.176 / Chapter 3.4.4 --- Functional Groups --- p.177 / Chapter 3.5 --- Conclusions --- p.178 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Ant Community Study-A Cost Effectiveness Analysis --- p.180 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.180 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Ant Sampling Methods --- p.181 / Chapter 4.1.1.1 --- Pitfall trapping --- p.181 / Chapter 4.1.1.2 --- Litter extraction by Winkler sack or Berlese funnel --- p.183 / Chapter 4.1.1.3 --- Baiting --- p.184 / Chapter 4.1.1.4 --- Direct sampling/Visual search --- p.185 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Increasing the Cost Effectiveness of Inventory --- p.185 / Chapter 4.1.2.1 --- Simplifying ant identification --- p.186 / Chapter 4.1.2.2 --- Other simplification methods --- p.187 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- Objectives --- p.188 / Chapter 4.2 --- Materials and Methods --- p.188 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Study Sites --- p.188 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Ant Sampling --- p.189 / Chapter 4.2.2.1 --- Pitfall trapping --- p.190 / Chapter 4.2.2.2 --- Litter extraction --- p.190 / Chapter 4.2.2.3 --- Visual search (direct sampling) --- p.191 / Chapter 4.2.2.4 --- Baiting --- p.191 / Chapter 4.2.2.5 --- Ant examination --- p.192 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Data Analysis --- p.192 / Chapter 4.3 --- Results --- p.193 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Genus and Species Richness --- p.194 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Ant Community Structure --- p.204 / Chapter 4.4 --- Discussion --- p.212 / Chapter 4.5 --- Conclusions --- p.224 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- General Conclusions --- p.225 / Chapter 5.1 --- Ant Fauna on Natural Habitats --- p.225 / Chapter 5.2 --- Ant Fauna on Man-made Habitats --- p.227 / Chapter 5.3 --- Simplification of Ant Sampling --- p.229 / Chapter 5.4 --- Ants as Bioindicators --- p.230 / Chapter 5.5 --- Further Studies --- p.232 / Appendices --- p.233 / References --- p.244

This study examined the ant communities of several grasslands of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and their relevance to the pink-tailed legless lizard, Aprasia parapulchella (Pygopodidae). A. parapulchella is a fossorial species that shares burrows with, and eats the brood of, several grassland ant species. Foraging ants were collected from sites by pitfall trapping throughout one calendar year and comparisons of ant communities made between seasons and sites of differing vegetation structure. Competition between ant species for artificial nest sites and the effects of temperature on selection of nest site selection were also studied. The role that ants play in the distribution of A. parapulchella was investigated by (i) comparing ant faunas from several sites throughout the geographic range of the lizard, including sites in New South Wales and Victoria, (ii) performing feeding preference experiments with A. parapulchella, and (iii) investigating the seasonal nature of brood production and nest establishment by ants in ACT grasslands. Major findings were used to make recommendations to assist in the management, including rehabilitation, of A. parapulchella grassland sites. Low insolation appears to significantly affect the ant species composition of grassland sites in the ACT relative to other Australian vegetation types. In the ACT grassland sites, large species of the Dominant Dolichoderinae functional group were absent, or present only in very low numbers. The communities were species-poor relative to other Australian studies with only 60 species being recorded across all sites studied, with no more than 21 species recorded at any site on any sampling occasion. Whilst ant species community structure was highly variable between seasons and sites, more than 95% of ants were from the three functional groups, Dominant Dolichoderinae, Generalized Myrmicinae and Opportunists. The communities were numerically dominated throughout the year by the ubiquitous species groups Iridomyrmex 'rufoniger' and Rhytidoponera 'metallica'. Almost all taxa increased in foraging abundance during summer months and Pheidole spp., Monomorium spp., Crematogaster sp. Paratrechina sp. and Notoncus ectalomoides were occasionally locally abundant. There were no significant relationships between ant and vegetation community structures, but Solenopsis sp. showed an alliance with sites that had a high abundance of Themeda australis (kangaroo grass), whilst Crematogaster sp. and Paratrechina sp. are potential bioindicators of disturbance from grazing or pasture improvement. Iridomyrmex 'rufoniger' were the numerically dominant foraging ants, making up 50% of all captures, but they held only 80% of their nest sites when faced with competition from other species. R. 'metallica' and Pheidole spp. on the other hand, gained 80% more nests than they lost to other taxa. I. 'rufoniger' and R. 'metallica' both preferred nest sites with warmer temperature regimes when given the choice, and this assisted them to tend brood throughout the year. All ant species in ACT grasslands had summer peaks in brood production. Most nests were inactive throughout the cooler months and nest founding was predominantly between September and November. The common species, Iridomyrmex spp., Paratrechina sp. and R. 'metallica' held winged reproductives in their nests from April and all ant taxa had released all alates by mid- November. Although there were differences in ant community structure throughout the range of A. parapulchella, the ubiquitous R. 'metallica' and I. 'rufoniger' were always abundant, whilst again, Dominant Dolichoderinae and associated subordinate taxa were absent or present only in relatively low numbers. The lizards consumed brood from all the common ant species in ACT grasslands and showed preference for consuming brood of, and living with, small Iridomyrmex spp. The range of the small Iridomyrmex spp. preferred by A. parapulchella extends far beyond that of the lizard. Its distribution is apparently not restricted by the range of its ant prey species. For rehabilitation of A. parapulchella sites in the ACT, it is recommended that a significant ground cover of native grasses is established to ensure the low abundance of large and territorial ants from the Dominant Dolichoderinae functional group. Along with a high abundance of shallow surface rocks, this will ensure the establishment of ant communities that are numerically dominated by small Iridomyrmex spp., which are preferred by A. parapulchella for homesite sharing and as a food source.

Thesis (M.S.) -- Mississippi State University. Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Ants are fascinating creatures - not so much because they are intelligent on their own, but because as a group they display compelling emergent behaviour (the extent to which one observes features in a swarm which cannot be traced back to the actions of swarm members). What does each swarm member do which allows deliberate engineering of emergent behaviour? We investigate the development of a language for programming swarms of ant agents towards desired emergent behaviour. Five aspects of stigmergic (pheromone sensitive computational devices in which a non-symbolic form of communication that is indirectly mediated via the environment arises) and message passing ant agents (computational devices which rely on implicit communication spaces in which direction vectors are shared one-on-one) are studied. First, we investigate the primitive behaviours which characterize ant agents' discrete actions at individual levels. Ten such primitive behaviours are identified as candidate building blocks of the ant agent language sought. We then study mechanisms in which primitive behaviours are put together into XSets (collection of primitive behaviours, parameter values, and meta information which spells out how and when primitive behaviours are used). Various permutations of XSets are possible which define the search space for best performer XSets for particular tasks. Genetic programming principles are proposed as a search strategy for best performer XSets that would allow particular emergent behaviour to occur. XSets in the search space are evolved over various genetic generations and tested for abilities to allow path finding (as proof of concept). XSets are ranked according to the indices of merit (fitness measures which indicate how well XSets allow particular emergent behaviour to occur) they achieve. Best performer XSets for the path finding task are identifed and reported. We validate the results yield when best performer XSets are used with regard to normality, correlation, similarities in variation, and similarities between mean performances over time. Commonly, the simulation results yield pass most statistical tests. The last aspect we study is the application of best performer XSets to different problem tasks. Five experiments are administered in this regard. The first experiment assesses XSets' abilities to allow multiple targets location (ant agents' abilities to locate continuous regions of targets), and found out that best performer XSets are problem independent. However both categories of XSets are sensitive to changes in agent density. We test the influences of individual primitive behaviours and the effects of the sequences of primitive behaviours to the indices of merit of XSets and found out that most primitive behaviours are indispensable, especially when specific sequences are prescribed. The effects of pheromone dissipation to the indices of merit of stigmergic XSets are also scrutinized. Precisely, dissipation is not causal. Rather, it enhances convergence. Overall, this work successfully identify the discrete primitive behaviours of stigmergic and message passing ant-like devices. It successfully put these primitive behaviours together into XSets which characterize a language for programming ant-like devices towards desired emergent behaviour. This XSets approach is a new ant language representation with which a wider domain of emergent tasks can be resolved.