This inevitably leads to a reflection on Pompeii, whose inhabitants the poet compares to a colony of ants crushed by a falling apple: "Nature has no more esteem / or care for the seed of man / than for the ant".
In our microarray experiment, swarm center and swarm tip bacteria were compared to a control colony grown on the same media solidified for a slightly longer drying period, thus avoiding gene expression differences specific to the surface vs. broth lifestyles.
The Symbiodinium ITS2 composition in Montipora capitata in Kāne'ohe Bay from all colonies (3 7 clones from 52 colonies) compared to the six colonies with additional clones (35 55 clones from 6 colonies) was assessed to determine whether a similar sequence diversity (not distribution) could be recovered using these two approaches.
This was not the case with the smaller aggregates tested; the costs of maintenance of bi-chimeras (BC) and tri-chimeras (TC) at the genotype level were low compared to SG colonies, ranging from a benefit of 12% in the first month to a cost of 22% in the seventh month in BC colonies, and costs of 8%46%% in TC.
Withdrawing the chop stick after aphids started to twitch resulted in a significantly higher proportion of twitching colony members in U. hypochoeridis colonies compared to A. nerii colonies (mean ± SD: 76.3±12.0% vs. 61.0±14.7%, p<0.05, Student t-test, 35 CTKRs of A. nerii colonies and 17 CTKRs of U. hypochoeridis colonies).
In such encounters a significantly higher proportion of active colony members twitched at the same time in A. nerii colonies compared to U. hypochoeridis colonies (78±11% vs. 53±3%; p<0.001; Mann-Whitney U test).
For instance, when tested with a 100 individual population and families of 5 individuals, SibJoin rendered a VI of 0.201 compared to COLONY 2.0's VI of 0.086.
In the near of aphid colonies every movement of larvae was able to evoke CTKR that lasted significantly longer in U. hypochoeridis colonies compared to A. nerii colonies (mean ± SD: A. nerii: 630±165 ms, N = 8, U. hypochoeridis: 2140±357 ms; N = 6, p<0.001; Mann-Whitney U test).
In such aphid-parasitoid interactions a significantly higher proportion of twitching individuals were active at the same time in A. nerii colonies compared to U. hypochoeridis colonies (mean ± SD of 8 CTKR responses: 83±14% vs. 64±3%; p<0.05; t-test).
Among twitching aphids, the proportion of simultaneously active individuals was significantly higher in A. nerii colonies compared to U. hypochoeridis colonies (mean ± SD: 85.1±16.6% vs. 59.1±11.7%, p<0.001, Mann Whitney U test).
