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A single transgenic clonal raider ant pupa is surrounded by wild type pupae. Credit: Taylor Hart
Ants have a specialized communication processing center that has not been found in other social insects. A new study reveals that ants communicate danger through specific pheromones which activate a particular part of their brains, triggering complex responses like nest evacuation and offspring protection. The response varies depending on the colony size, and future research aims to delve into how different ant groups process the same signals. Have you ever noticed an ant in your home, only to find that a week later the whole colony has moved in? The traps you set up catch only a few of these ants, but soon, the rest of the colony has mysteriously disappeared. Now, a study published in the journal Cell on June 14 explores how certain danger-signaling pheromones—the scent markers ants emit to communicate with each other—activate a specific part of the ants’ brains and can change the behavior of an entire nest. “Humans aren’t the only animals with complex societies and communication systems,” says lead author Taylor Hart of The Rockefeller University . “Over the course of evolution, ants have evolved extremely complex olfactory systems compared to other insects, which allows them to communicate using many different types of pheromones that can mean different things.”
This research suggests that ants have their own kind of communication center in their brains, similar to humans. This center can interpret alarm pheromones, or “danger signals,” from other ants. This section of their brain may be more advanced than that of some other insects such as honeybees, which prior work has suggested instead rely on many different parts of their brain to coordinate in response to a single pheromone. “There seems to be a sensory hub in the ant brain that all the panic-inducing alarm pheromones feed into,” says corresponding author Daniel Kronauer of The Rockefeller University. The researchers used an engineered protein called GCaMP to scan the brain activity of clonal raider ants that were exposed to danger signals. GCaMP works by attaching itself to calcium ions, which flare up with brain activity, and the resulting fluorescent chemical compound can be seen on high-resolution microscopes adapted to view them. When performing the scans, the researchers noticed that only a small section of the ants’ brains lit up in response to danger signals, but the ants still showed immediate and complex behaviors in response. These behaviors were named the “panic response” because they involved actions such as fleeing, evacuating the nest, and transporting their offspring from the nest toward a safer location. Species of ants with different colony sizes also use different pheromones to communicate a variety of messages. “We think that in the wild, clonal raider ants usually have a colony size of just tens to hundreds of individuals, which is pretty small as far as ant colonies go,” says Hart. “Frequently, these small colonies tend to have panic responses as their alarm behavior because their main goal is to get away and survive. They can’t risk a lot of individuals. Army ants, the cousins of the clonal raider ants, have massive colonies—hundreds of thousands or millions of individuals—and they can be much more aggressive.”
Regardless of the species, ants within a colony divide themselves by caste and role, and ants within different castes and roles have slightly different anatomy. For the purpose of this study, researchers chose clonal raider ants as a species because they are easy to control. They used ants of one sex within one caste and role (female worker ants) to ensure consistency and therefore make it easier to observe widespread patterns. Once researchers have a clearer understanding of the neural differences between castes, sexes, and roles, they may better be able to comprehend exactly how different ant brains process the same signals. “We can start to look at how these sensory representations are similar or different between ants,” says Hart. Kronauer says, “We’re looking at division of labor. Why do individuals that are genetically the same assume different tasks in the colony? How does this division of labor work?”
Reference: “Sparse and stereotyped encoding implicates a core glomerulus for ant alarm behavior” by Taylor Hart, Dominic D. Frank, Lindsey E. Lopes, Leonora Olivos-Cisneros, Kip D. Lacy, Waring Trible, Amelia Ritger, Stephany Valdés-Rodríguez and Daniel J.C. Kronauer, 14 June 2023, Cell. This work was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National Science Foundation, and the Kavli Neural Systems Institute.

Panic at the Ant Hill: The Specialized Pheromone Response in Ant Brains

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Online mattress and furniture company Koala has diverted 1400 units of returned stock from landfill into a $2 million-plus side-hustle catering to cost-conscious consumers at a time when retailers face significant headwinds . It’s been a year since Koala launched its Second Home brand, selling returned stock at discounts of between 20 and 70 per cent operating out of an old Bunnings outlet in Campbelltown in Sydney’s south-west. Australian cricketer Steve Smith Smith paid $100,000 for a 10 per cent stake in Koala in 2015. Getty
Today, the Koala Second Home subsidiary generates 3 per cent of group revenue which is enough to cover warehousing, eight staff and a modest amount of marketing, according to vice president financial control Belinda Judd. “It’s making sure that all of our products have a really good end of life solution,” Judd says. Koala’s generous 120-day, no questions asked returns policy is a key differentiator in the competitive home furnishings segment. However, with a return rate of less than 5 per cent the company found itself paying over $500,000 a year to warehouse stock that has sometimes been in someone’s lounge room for less than a day. “It’s not in our brand philosophy to landfill stuff. We were paying for this [stock] to sit in a third-party warehouse until we worked out a solution. It was a problem we knew was there and it was growing,” Judd says. Koala has altered its operating model to keep returned stock in peak condition. It now controls the reverse logistics process rather than outsourcing it to third parties. “We get to quality control all of those products as they come back in,” Judd says. Advertisement
Koala aims to reuse or repurpose 100 per cent of returns by mid-2026. “We’ve created some jobs and we’re moving that product – it satisfies our sustainability goals and we’re not losing money on it. It’s a really good story for us around people, product and planet,” Judd says. Koala has been battening down the hatches from an operating perspective. Koala Mattress founders Mitch Taylor and Dany Milham. “We aren’t doing our forecasts with any level of optimism. We’re being very realistic about the current situation,” Judd says. Despite the economic headwinds plaguing the retail sector, sustainable business practices remain a non-negotiable part of Koala’s ethos. “We might talk more about it to create more value but we’re not going to stop,” Judd says. Judd says a strong track record in environmental, social and governance has become a ticket to play for businesses hoping to attract institutional investors, big funds and even some of the smaller outfits. “[Funds] will only be able to place investments in places that have ESG plans and are demonstrating delivery against those plans,” Judd says. Advertisement
While valuations in some segments are subdued, she says the ability to create competitive tension by talking to a broader pool of potential investors can drive up asset prices. Although ESG sits under the finance function within Koala, the company has a sustainability guild with representatives from product, quality control, engineering, customer service and marketing. This prevents disconnects in key performance indicators within the business. Farmer’s Pick posts record sales
Thrifty environmentally conscious consumers have delivered a bumper year to imperfect veggies subscription service Farmer’s Pick. The video exposing the extent of food waste had nearly 2 million views in three days and resulted in more than 10,000 boxes of veggies flying out the door. Farmer’s Pick co-founders Josh Ball (left) and Josh Brooks-Duncan. Justin McManus
Farmer’s Pick expects sales to hit $8 million for the 12 months to June 30 after particularly strong uptake in rural hubs such as Bendigo and Ballarat in Victoria, and Wollongong and the Central Coast in NSW. The company has expanded its network of farmers to about 50, creating a market for the 30 per cent of fresh produce left on farms because it doesn’t meet the aesthetic or procurement standards of big supermarket chains. Farmer’s Pick delivers these direct to consumer’s door at a discount of up to 30 per cent. Advertisement
Plans for a Series A funding round have been postponed until capital markets “readjust”, according to Farmer’s Pick co-founder Joshua Ball. He says the company is contemplating a bridging round to expand into Queensland and make itself more central to a household’s buying decisions by adding other grocery items. “We’ve uncovered a similar waste problem in long-life products caused by different forces, and also gluts of products over-ordered during COVID,” Ball says. Natural Evolution ramps up manufacturing in QLD
Meanwhile, Queensland-based food manufacturing company Natural Evolution is upping the ante in its war on food waste by opening another two manufacturing plants in partnership with other farming families. It’s been 12 years since Walkamin banana farmers Krista and Rob Watkins realised the potential of fruit that was being thrown away and started making products from powdered bananas for people looking for gluten-free and healthy alternatives. It now has two plants running full-time to feed demand, has diversified beyond bananas and licenses its trademarked and patent pending NutroLock dehydrating technology to other producers. “It’s taken a long time to get bigger customers to trust us and what we do,” Krista says. “Now they’re coming to us asking for a weekly batch of broccoli power rather than just once a year. We’re really broadening our horizons with the type of produce we’re processing,” she says. The two new facilities – one in the south-east corner of Queensland and the other north-east of Brisbane – are expected to be operational by June 2025. Advertisement
At the same time, Natural Evolution will add three or four new products to its own range. Krista says international sales, which dried up during COVID-19, have started recovering in the last three months. Exports accounted for roughly 40 per cent of sales pre-pandemic. “That very sudden drop off frightened us a lot, it was a big shock. We’re incredibly happy that there’s overseas orders again,” Krista says. Evercleaner flags new product blitz
Evercleaner co-founder Benjamin Seer wants to self-fund rapid growth. Plastic-free cleaning products company Evercleaner also plans to accelerate new product development and will rejig its procurement to free up capital faster and supercharge growth. “The more products we sell, the more single-use plastics we take out of circulation. We can only achieve that by introducing new products,” Evercleaner co-founder Benjamin Seer says. The Melbourne-based start-up is targeting annual income of $10 million in the next 18 months, a four-fold increase on its current run rate. “If our customer retention rate stays as good as it is right now the $10 million is not that hard to achieve,” Seer says. Advertisement
He says ESG-conscious consumers are demonstrating a level of resilience to cost of living pressures. Evercleaner’s new dishwashing detergent, launched earlier this month, generated $30,000 in sales within the first two days. A quarter of its three-month stock reserve disappeared in a week. Evercleaner’s eco-friendly packaging has avoided more than 300,000 bottles from entering the global supply chain. The company also pays a third party to collect one plastic bottle for every product sold. Coles sees 94pc surge in carbon-neutral beef sales
While consumers’ environmental conscience is growing, ESG-led purchasing is a long way from being normalised and systemic. Demand for Coles’ carbon-neutral beef products has surged by 94 per cent in the year since it first hit supermarket shelves . More than 95 per cent of Coles stores nationally stock it. Coles’ Maria Crawford (left) with a carbon neutral beef supplier
However, even in its Tooronga store in south-east Melbourne, which sells the most carbon-neutral beef, Coles is averaging 130 units a week. Coles’ livestock innovation and sustainability manager Maria Crawford is not deterred by this number. “We have been really impressed by the response to the range,” Crawford says. She says it is a great example of supply chain partners working together to achieve better sustainability outcomes and address changing consumer preferences. Belchy bovines are notorious contributors to global warming and remain one of the hairiest aspects of large retailer’s scope 3 CO2 emissions profile. Coles uses a combination of reductive measures and buys Australian carbon offsets to achieve carbon neutrality in its beef range. Save

Koala leads retailers in battling the war on waste

Krista is a developer of conversational robotic process automation (RPA) platform designed to make automation a conversation between people and systems. The company's platform is built with proven expertise in enterprise software, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity. It is based in Dallas, Texas.

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