scientists describing a new species of ant, strumigenys ayersthey, have broken with conventional naming traditions and used the pronoun “they” instead of the traditional male or female form to promote nonbinary gender inclusivity.

the new ant, described in a recent paper in zookeys, was named after the late artist and human rights activist jeremy ayers. traditionally, a species named after a person would have an “i” appended at the end of the name for males, or “ae” for females; in this case, ayersi or ayersae. instead, the researchers went with ayersthey.

they did this to honor ayers and the large number of people who do not identify with either the male and female genders, according to study author douglas booher, a yale postdoctoral researcher, and co-author philipp hönle, a doctoral student at the technical university of darmstadt, germany.

“in contrast to the traditional naming practices that identify individuals as one of two distinct genders, we have chosen a non-latinized portmanteau honoring the artist jeremy ayers and representing people that do not identify with conventional binary gender assignments, strumigenys ayersthey,” the authors wrote in the study.

ayers was an eclectic artist, publishing photography books, authoring a column in andy warhol’s interview magazine, and writing lyrics for both r.e.m. and the b-52s. indeed, r.e.m. lead singer and songwriter michael stipe joined booher in writing the etymology section of the paper explaining the decision to use the pronoun “they” to honor the artist. ayers is remembered today as a fixture of the athens, georgia, art community, according to a local paper.

hönle first encountered the ant while working on his doctoral thesis at darmstadt, researching ant communities in the chocó area of ecuador. of the specimens he looked at, one stood out for its unique shiny exoskeleton, for which hönle couldn’t find a matching species. hönle then contacted booher, an expert on the ant genus strumigenys, also known as trap-jaw ants for their trap-jaw mandibles. booher quickly identified the specimen as a potentially undescribed species, kicking off the work to describe the new ant.

what sets s. ayersthey apart from other ants in the genus is its signature shiny and smooth outer “skin,” or cuticle, as well as its long trap jaws, described by the researchers in the paper as a “biological mousetrap.”

the strumigenys genus itself is quite diverse. the various species’ trap-jaw mandibles can range from short to long, with the newly described species having large mandibles; some species lack the trap jaw entirely. one common identifying feature of the genus is a sponge-like structure toward the base of the abdomen. according to booher, the function of the sponge structure remains a mystery to scientists.

in a study published in plos biology in march 2021, booher explores the evolution of the trap-jaw mechanism and its gradual increase in length. the trap-jaw mechanism itself is one of the fastest movements in any living creature, with the jaws snapping shut at a rate of up to 1.2 million meters per second squared.

the newly described species is found in the chocó region of ecuador, a biologically rich and diverse coastal rainforest that is simultaneously understudied and under threat due to human activities. logging, mining and oil palm plantations have resulted in a 61% reduction of the chocó region’s forests.

“[the chocó] features a plethora of endemic species. there is one critically endangered subspecies of [brown-headed] spider monkey, ateles fusciceps fusciceps, that only lives in the forests of this part of ecuador,” hönle said. “however, the insect fauna and especially the ants there are poorly known, as only very few researchers did sample the area.”

the region is so understudied that last year hönle and other scientists described another species of native ant, odontomachus davidsoni, calling this one “large and conspicuous.”

hönle’s fieldwork collecting specimens in the chocó takes place on land preserved by jocotoco, an ngo that buys threatened land to conserve it.

“the fact that no one has described this species before highlights how much else might be out there. the new strumigenys is just one more little piece toward a more complete understanding of the fauna,” hönle said.

––

citations:

booher, d. b., gibson, j. c., liu, c., longino, j. t., fisher, b. l., janda, m., … economo, e. p. (2021). functional innovation promotes diversification of form in the evolution of an ultrafast trap-jaw mechanism in ants. plos biology, 19(3), e3001031. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3001031

booher, d. b., & hönle, p. o. (2021). a new species group of strumigenys (hymenoptera, formicidae) from ecuador, with a description of its mandible morphology. zookeys, 1036, 1-19. doi:10.3897/zookeys.1036.62034

hönle, p. o., lattke, j. e., donoso, d., von beeren, c., heethoff, m., schmelzle, s., … blüthgen, n. (2020). odontomachus davidsoni sp. nov. (hymenoptera, formicidae), a new conspicuous trap-jaw ant from ecuador. zookeys, 948, 75-105. doi:10.3897/zookeys.948.48701

lets take a closer look at how scientists at the george washington university are studying the effects of agricultural runoff on the development of eastern oysters.

despite increased awareness and concern surrounding climate change, a recent study from the pew research center shows that the issue remains highly divisive and political. ninety-four percent of democrats and left-leaning independents consider climate change a major threat to the nation while only 19% of conservative republicans believe the same.

though naperville is a rather conservative city, most of the teachers at neuqua valley ended up using the donated books as doorstops, according to rhonda stibbe, a biology and horticulture teacher there.

while this incident proves that there are climate change deniers in the area, stibbe has not seen that in the classroom. she acknowledged that there might be things that students have heard at home or seen on social media but said that her students are actually very excited to learn about climate change.

“when you put the information in their hands, i think they can reason it out,” stibbe said. “this generation is very, very visual. there’s a lot of data out there, there’s a lot of maps, there’s a lot of things that you can see.”

students’ receptiveness to learning about climate change in areas such as naperville may simply be explained by a generational difference but could also be attributed to a change in political climate.

anna kraftson, a biology teacher and learning support coach at naperville north high school, said that the political alignment has shifted dramatically since she first moved to the area around 15 years ago. though she initially thought it was conservative and religious, she now finds it to be rather moderate. 

“i first started teaching a couple decades ago,” kraftson said. “kids were like, ‘i don’t believe in evolution.’”

in a study from the pew research center in 2007, 51% of americans said that humans have evolved over time. that number has since increased significantly and is up to 81% as of their study earlier this year.

kraftson has seen drastic changes in students’ receptiveness to evolution, and now finds little problem teaching the subject. however, she said that she faces similar frustration toward the idea of “believing” in climate change.

“it’s just a statement,” kraftson said. “there’s data. it’s not like ‘i believe in this’ or ‘i don’t believe in this.’ it’s more like, ‘this is the evidence.’”

paul vandersteen, an environmental science teacher at neuqua valley high school, has experienced similar issues when teaching evolution and has tried to approach climate change in the same way. he said his responsibility as a science teacher is to present his students with evidence and allow them to make their own conclusions. 

“i think it’s important that teachers address what science is before they venture into climate change,” vandersteen said. “you take down the defenses when you present to them the nature of science. and once you present the nature of science, there really is no defense.”

while teachers in more conservative areas must find specific tools and approaches for teaching climate change, they don’t always have too much time to employ them. 

according to biology and environmental science teachers at naperville north, neuqua valley, and wheaton north high schools, climate change is built into the curriculum. however, according to five teachers we interviewed from those schools, the time spent on climate change varied between just two and three weeks, almost a quarter of the time evanston township high school teachers spend on the subject on average.  

vandersteen said that he teaches climate change for five to six class periods, around two weeks, in his ap environmental science class. he said he spends enough time on the subject. 

“i have adequate time to do it justice,” vandersteen said. “any more time and i think they might get bored with it.”

while vandersteen fears his students will get bored after a few days, some biology teachers at evanston township high school, located in the neighboring liberal district of cook county, say they spend weeks to months of the year teaching climate change in their introductory biology courses. 

the county board is currently controlled by the democratic party with a 15 to two margin.

adriane slaton, a biology teacher at evanston township, spends roughly 12 weeks on climate change with her freshman and sophomore students. for their final project, her students take statements that deny climate change and refute them with scientific evidence. many of her students become rather passionate about climate change after this unit and some have even become vegetarians as a result, slaton said. 

“i thought this was a really important subject to talk about and make sure that students could argue against climate change denial using evidence and reasoning,” slaton said. “it’s been kind of cool to see what their personal changes have been and the personal decisions that they start to shift when they are realizing that they themselves can do something.”

while slaton and many other teachers at evanston township do choose to put so much time and care into teaching climate change, there really isn’t a curriculum for it, slaton said. instead, the time spent on climate change is up to each individual teacher. according to slaton, there are still a few biology teachers at evanston township who don’t teach climate change at all.

“biology is growing exponentially,” slaton said. “so there’s always something important, another important topic to still address. if i had my way, biology would be three years or four years long, and then maybe we would start hitting (climate change).”

evanston township science department chair terri sowa-imbo said their commitment to teaching climate change is not about political alignment, but a growing urgency. 

“it’s something that everyone needs to know, they need to be able to decipher real news and data from fake news and data. and it’s — there’s a lot of that out there,” sowa-imbo said. 

check out my experience in the galápagos below!

come learn about gianna haro’s motivation to study biology, starting with her childhood on the galápagos islands.

click on the story below to learn more.

—

when he was a teenager, celso montalvo crawled quietly through the volcanic ash on the island of santa cruz with his three cousins and uncle, victor hugo, armed not with firearms, but with rope. he was either 14 or 15 years old. “i’m not 100% sure, but i remember i was bold and careless for adventure,” he says.

the naturalist and his family usually ate fish on the island. “but sometimes we would have a really honorable highlight to go and hunt the goats,” he says.

the goat that the party had chosen to hunt was an alpha male, surrounded by a harem of females, somewhere near cerro dragón, or dragon hill.

“i did not know, but it was my initiation,” he recalls. “my right of passage, and this changed my life forever.”

montalvo did not know that he was responsible for the catch. he had just gotten off a plane from mainland ecuador hours before and was already very tired. suddenly, he found himself creeping through the brush and his uncle whispered to him: “son, you see the alpha male right there? well, i think you can bring this guy down.”

“there was no excuses allowed,” montalvo says of a childhood in which he and his cousins were all given chores that would help the community at large. “your responsibility, whatever they gave you, was to be committed and you will grow into others as you become better.”

only a teenager and fresh out of the ecuadorian naval academy for the summer, montalvo was undeterred by the goat. he hunkered down into a burrow while his cousins moved to the other side of the herd and whistled. this scared the goats and the alpha male galloped in his direction.

“i was on the ground and when this goat appeared on the crevice, this thing was not smaller than me anymore,” he says with a laugh. “this thing was huge!”

the goat butted montalvo right in the chest with its massive horns and montalvo was immediately in severe pain. the goat then ran away, escaping its capture.

when his cousins asked him what happened — why he was unable to capture the goat for dinner — montalvo says he cried and made too many excuses. “immediately, my cousins started to shut down,” he says. “they did not speak to me.”

the hunting party trekked the two hours back to camp empty-handed. no one spoke. his uncle went into the ocean to catch fish for dinner. “the shame that i felt so bad. i did not provide for my family.”

he went to bed that night and had nightmares about goats.

**

the goats that montalvo and his family hunted were not native to the islands; they were brought over in the 1700’s by english settlers.

in those hundreds of years they inhabited the islands, they devastated them.

“we knew that goats did not belong to the galápagos,” montalvo says. and still, he had to watch them daily devouring all of the vegetation on the islands. “of course, it breaks your heart. of course, you want that to be over.”

in 1959 when the islands became a parque nacional, the government took inventory of the islands and their species.

“we needed to see what were our assets to protect and what were the problems,” montalvo says. the assessment concluded that goats were not only eating all of the native plants, but they were leaving none for other native animals. the goats had become invasive.

goats will “eat anything if there’s nothing else to eat, but if there’s everything to eat, they’re very selective,” says karl campbell, program director for island conservation, an organization dedicated to removing invasive species from islands. “it’s like letting a kid go in a supermarket. somehow, they manage to gravitate toward the candy section.”

in the plant world, ‘candy’ means endemic species in an area with no natural predators. the flora have adapted in a way that loses defenses like spines and toxins.

struggling to manage the goats on their own, the ecuadorian government sent out a distress call. “hunters of the world: come over!”

but that plan backfired. “they shot each other,” montalvo says, “they got lost and there was finally a heart attack because it was really hot.” 

then the army gave it a go. but that was unsuccessful because they could not find all of the goats. and if you don’t kill all of them, montalvo says, the population will bounce right back quickly.

“we were able to control them, but not to eradicate them.”

“it’s very easy to get the first 95% because they’re naive,” campbell says. “and you try to keep them naive as long as you can, but that’s not always possible.”

**

campbell now lives on the island of santa cruz where he works out of the charles darwin research station. he is the world’s leading goat eradication expert, having completed his ph.d. in the subject. he is interested in what he calls “active conservation efforts.” many efforts in the field have results that won’t be seen until years down the line, but invasive species eradication produces results that can be felt in real time. 

“if you look at islands, you’ve got less than 5% of the worlds surface area, but you’ve got around 40% of species that are heading toward extinction,” he says. “if you want to prevent extinctions, have a close look at islands. if you want to prevent extinctions on islands, you should get pretty good at removing invasive species.”

once an invasive species is removed, a threatened species can come back from the edge of extinction — provided they still have a sustainable environment.

that posed the biggest challenge for the eradication effort. how do you eliminate not just the majority of the goats, but also the ones in hiding, the ones that can rejuvenate the entire population if they’re not also killed?

eventually, the un and unesco connected ecuador with new zealand, which had had some small scale success with goat eradication.

enter the “judas goats,” which campbell describes as “horny but sterile.”

goats are gregarious by nature and are good at finding others. so in the late 1990s, scientists sterilized about 600 goats on isabela island, fitted them with radio collars and let them loose. then they trailed the judas goats in a helicopter, rifles in hand, until they were led to the smaller, harder-to-reach populations. from there, they could take out the smaller, stealthier populations.

they were named them judas goats because they “betray their own kind,” montalvo says.

“we’re a very catholic country,” he adds. “they chose that [name] so that we’d understand that that guy is going to work for us.”

the effort had been wildly successful. “we are proud, very proud, and honored to say that we have totally eradicated goats from santiago island. and it’s a very large island. also, we have totally eradicated goats from this northern part of isabella.

“we fought and we raised millions of dollars. we thought it would take forever. it took probably like three years and one-third of the money we raised.” the total effort cost $1 million.

montalvo laughs. “the truth is we thought it was just another project that would fail.”

**

eradicating an invasive species has more challenges than just with the animals.

“when you start working on inhabited islands, suddenly you start interacting with communities and politics,” campbell says. “how do you engage with them? how do you fit in with their vision and their goals or actually even help them establish what is their vision and their goals because sometimes there’s disparities within communities.”

for example, some people in a community may look at an invasive species as an important food source. so while eliminating that species may help many, others may not directly see any of those benefits.

“this is a bit that, instead of harmony, actually continues division between communities,” campbell says. “you want to structure your projects so that the benefits seem to be — and truly are — well divided among the community.”

campbell says a more holistic approach should be taken when creating an eradication plan, one that puts community members into a leading role. 

“you might have the best idea in the world,” campbell says, “but if the idea is not coming from them or their ideas haven’t been heard… you’re pretty quickly being told, ‘there’s the door, mate.’”

island conservation therefore seeks to establish itself as more of a “technical assistance” program on the islands — one that takes on a supportive role rather than a leading one.

this approach worked on the island of pinzon in 2012 when they helped eliminate invasive rats. in the 90’s, the california academy of sciences hadn’t been unable to collect any giant tortoises due to the rodents’ aggressiveness, but by working with communities to eliminate them, they were able to bring back the giant tortoise population for the first time in 150 years.

“this is a bright spot for conservation,” campbell says. “we can basically recover species that are on the brink of extinction and get them back to healthy populations so that they’re ready for the next threat — whether it’s a major cyclone or el niño or la niña or whatever affects you negatively in these large cyclical patterns.

“it doesn’t matter whether you’re in the u.s. or europe or anywhere else, your life is impacted by invasive species. if you’re a baseball fan, you’re impacted. why? because the trees that are used for your bats are now impacted by abora. those trees are no longer available and you can’t get bat-length pieces that haven’t been bored (by insects).”

**

at 5 a.m., the morning after his failed hunt, montalvo woke up to a tapping on his shoulder. it was his uncle, victor hugo. 

“you can do anything you put in your mind as long as you believe in yourself,” he told montalvo. “i believe you can stop this alpha male.”

montalvo says that the story played out much in the same way — the trek to cerro dragón, hiding in the crevice — except this time, his cousins made him wait longer before they scared the goats. maybe to increase the intensity, to build up montalvo’s adrenaline.

“i was not the same kid the day before,” montalvo says. “that was another kid. i was ready for that goat.”

and finally, he heard his cousins whistling and the goats stampeding. again, the alpha male trampled its way in montalvo’s direction. “i needed to embrace the situation, so i run towards the guy,” he says.

again, there was a painful struggle. montalvo wrestled with the goat exactly as his uncle taught him: by grabbing onto its horns and heaving it up into the air.

“so i’m rolling on the ground with this,” he says. “this guy’s kicking and everything. i would not let go. i didn’t even care.”

suddenly, victor hugo stopped him and told him to let go of the goat. once the pain subsided, montalvo heard his cousins cheering for him. the goat ran away, though this time, it was by montalvo’s choice, not because he couldn’t capture it.

“this is why you have no excuses,” victor hugo said. “we’re here to assist as a family. you have to believe in yourself. today, you’re providing.”

**

as an adult, montalvo is no longer wrestling goats. but he provides in a different way: as a galápagos naturalist, he gives tours of the islands to visitors from all over the world, telling them about the important measures the government takes to mitigate the threat of invasive species.

however, he says these efforts could not be successful without tourism.

“many places, people don’t like tourism,” he says. “we are not going to throw open the door, but tourism is greatly involved. conservation would not work without tourism, that’s for sure. it works here in galápagos.”

we interviewed him to learn more about the initiative and the impacts the work can have on the environment and policies surrounding it.

q: how was the concept of the headwaters initiative formed?

a: i think one of the impetuses was trying to think of ways the domain is a unique asset to the university. it’s really important for them to try to establish and grow their imprint in their environmental programs among liberal arts universities. from a research perspective, the domain offers a lot of really unique opportunities because we own it and it’s so unimpacted by upstream effects; and because it all goes downstream it offers stewardship opportunities as well.

q: so, how are you monitoring these water systems? are you looking at their health? what are the impacts you’re protecting them from?

a: what we’re doing right now is laying the groundwork for more nuanced research in the future. no one has really in the past done a thorough characterization of the streams’ baseline data. we have censors in streams to log light, temperature, and tell us when the streams dry out. we have leaf litter bags to see how the environment is breaking down leaf litter and cycling carbon. what we were doing yesterday was bottling samples to get a snapshot of the stream water chemistry. it’s necessary if anyone wants to do anything more nuanced, like studying the effects of global warming: you have to know your baseline.

q: the southeast is, within north america, this big hotspot for freshwater biodiversity. why is it critical that sewanee look at its biodiversity and freshwater ecosystems?

a: well, because that makes it culturally important. it’s the salamander capital of the world right there in southern appalachia. but it’s also because animals all play their own role in their ecosystem here. if we decrease diversity there’s a good chance you can wreak havoc on some of these ecosystem services that we rely on animals for.

q: such as?

a: things like nutrient cycling, soil health, forest regeneration, trophic levels. if anyone around here is interested in hunting, those animals have to have something to feed on. like i said, soil health and forest regeneration: some of the little critters that hang out on the floor play a big role in seed dispersal and leaf litter breakdown that becomes fertilizer for the plant that grows that allows the deer to eat. the health of all of these systems, none of them are independent. it’s easier to compartmentalize them to study them, but they’re all interconnected.

q: a minute ago you called the southern appalachians the “salamander capital of the world”—

a yeah, they like to put that on coffee mugs in the smokies.

q ha! well, can you explain what bsal is and why sewanee is concerned about it?

a: yeah. bsal is essentially a form of chitrid, and a lot of people who are at least somewhat acquainted with amphibians know of chitrid came through and killed a lot of frog species, particularly in south america.

q: so, is this a viral disease?

a: no, it’s a fungal pathogen. all amphibians can breathe through their skin, and though some also have lungs, they all assimilate moisture and other things through their skin. because their skin stays wet the fungus will colonize it and cause them a lot of physiological stress.

more recently, i think it was 2014, they actually documented bsal in western europe that had been brought over from asia. a lot of animals coevolved with pathogens in their environment, but if you pick up a pathogen and move it somewhere—like in this case from asia to europe—it can completely wipe out whole populations.

because we have so many species here and the international pet trade is so thriving in atlanta, there’s big time concern among most scientists that its’s really a “when” not “if” situation for bsal to get introduced to the southern appalachians. it can cause all kinds of problems for the ecosystem services i talked about before… most people are preparing already for that. it would be sad for people like me, who are just big salamander fans, but it would be terrible for the ecosystem.

q: because the introduction of bsal is a “when” not “if” situation, how do you expect shi to contribute to monitoring bsal and preparing for its arrival?

a: well, we do the stream surveys. if certain species are found to be more vulnerable than others, we will know where they are and will recognize the areas that we’ll have to focus in on.

***

the beloved atlantic puffin is a symbol of conservation success. by the end of the 19th century, atlantic puffins disappeared from islands along the coast of maine as victims of feather hunters. almost a century later, a biologist named stephen kress decided to reintroduce puffins to those islands using innovative techniques, restarting colonies of puffins and eventually other seabirds on eastern egg rock and other area islands, leading to the formulation of a novel species reintroduction method now used around the world.

see the full story below.

luckily, we may have found the hero to this problem — and you would’ve never seen it coming. click on the story below to learn about how the research project of recent college graduate morgan vague may help combat our plastic waste: