Elsa Youngsteadt's paper in PNAS
Elsa Youngsteadt, a graduate student in Entomology at NCSU, has a paper in PNAS entitled "Seed Odor Mediates an Obligate Ant-Plant Mutualism in Amazonian Rainforests". Elsa and co-authors Satoshi Nojima, Coby Schal, Christopher Haberlein and Stephan Schulz have been studying the behavior of arboreal ants who collect seeds of specific plants for use in constructing their nests. This paper explains recent work showing how ants use smell to determine the appropriate seeds for collection.
Elsa Youngsteadt has worked with the NESCent EOG group to develop Evolution in the News stories and podcasts. She is currently doing a science journalism internship at AAAS.
The paper can be found on PNAS Online.
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