tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27467204.post2223601062503208211..comments2024-03-29T03:35:38.541-04:00Comments on The Ant Room: Pirate ants (Polyergus breviceps) and sympatric hosts (Formica occulta and Formica sp. cf. argentea): host specificity and coevolutionary dynamicsKari T. Ryder Wilkiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00759385993269504640noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27467204.post-18114440824821448872008-01-11T09:11:00.000-05:002008-01-11T09:11:00.000-05:00hello, I'm from Kolkata, our team is a street chil...hello, I'm from Kolkata, our team is a street children team, and the children have choosen the name because their are very small but very furious, and onces they get the ball you can try anything you want, but you won't get it back. Nothing to see with the slaving or parasitings bugs that you are studying. I am a little bit disapointed I must say...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27467204.post-30547665076611121732007-12-14T16:44:00.000-05:002007-12-14T16:44:00.000-05:00Well, Anonymous: Polyergus, like human slave owner...Well, Anonymous: Polyergus, like human slave owners, are work-parasites of their hosts, but there the analogy ends. If you think about it, neither "slave-maker" nor "pirate" is a good analogy. Slavery and piracy are both intraspecific interactions, and the behavior of Polyergus, etc. is more like forced, heterospecific domestication (and sterilization?). Some folks, mostly non-myrmecologists except for Joan Herbers, have argued that the term slavery (and its Greek-derived rough equivalent, dulosis) are politically incorrect and insulting/hurtful/offputting to those who are, or whose ancestors were, subject to slavery, which may be true, but certainly this could be said for piracy, too. So that in a nutshell is why the terminology change, and I agree it's not a good or useful one, but still am not quite sure what to do with the long-traditional, but admittedly inappropriate term slave-making.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27467204.post-40210349862814538062007-09-10T21:45:00.000-04:002007-09-10T21:45:00.000-04:00These are not pirate ants; they are slave-maker an...These are not pirate ants; they are slave-maker ants, a term that has been used for over two hundred years. Why the term is being changed here is a big mystery.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com