Published: Nov. 16, 2016
Longhorn Crazy Ants carry a morsel of food around a horseshoe-shaped Lego obstacle.

EBIO grad student Helen McCreery's research into group problem-solving strategies among longhorn crazy ants has been featured in the New York Times. Using a variety of Lego barricades (straight walls, cul-de-sacs, and traps) to block the paths of ants carrying a payload of tuna fish back to their nest, McCreery and her colleagues observed several methods the ants would use to find their way around. Their results were reported in the Journal of Experimental Biology.