An army ant raid passes peacefully through a trail of Atta cephalotes leafcutters.

We interrupt Army Ant Week to announce that a paper describing the Atta cephalotes leafcutter ant genome has just been published. I’ll report more on this research next week, once we take leave of the army ants.

source:
Suen G, Teiling C, Li L, Holt C, Abouheif E, et al. (2011) The Genome Sequence of the Leaf-Cutter Ant Atta cephalotes Reveals Insights into Its Obligate Symbiotic Lifestyle. PLoS Genet 7(2): e1002007. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002007