An Ant named "Google"

[tocqueville]

November 28, 2005 5:50 PM PST

Google has already had a newborn child named after it. And now, -- a species of ant.

"Entomologist Brian Fisher named a new species of ant, Proceratium google, in honor of the mapping program Google Earth," according to an item on the Web site of Popular Science.

"Fisher, who chairs the entomology department at the California Academy of Sciences, was impressed with the support he got from the Google Earth team when he was integrating the online warehouse of ant data, AntWeb, with the search functions of Google Earth. Now scientists can plot ant habitats in three dimensions or search for ant species by location," the article said. "For the record, P. google lives in Madagascar and feasts exclusively on spider eggs."

The mash-up of Google Earth and ant species' can be seen at: www.antweb.org.

http://news.com.com/2061-10812_3-5974306.html?part=rss&tag=5974306&subj=news

[pnorman]

1. Cool!

I have an AntWork ant farm: http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/science/6fd6/ and I'll go through that webpage to see if I can learn something new about those fascinating little critters. They're probably the only insect on earth that's totally indifferent to the presence of humans. (They see right through my menacing bluff).

pnorman
PS: I also have a Google Toolbar, as well as a Google desktop Search. That too, is COOL!