Pbi varsity don bags Rs 36 lakh research project on ants

Tribune News Service

Patiala, March 23

The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) of the Ministry of Science and Technology has sanctioned a research project on natural history and phylogeography of carpenter ants to a professor of Punjabi University.

The project worth Rs 36 lakh will be lead by Dr Himender Bharti, head of the Department of Zoology and Environmental Sciences, Punjabi University. The project will focus on evolutionary history, origin, formation of species and how ants have diversified in Asia and India.

“They have been grouped in the same cluster. We will elucidate on the relationship among the species on the basis of their DNA. There are about 15,000 ant species in world,” said Dr Bharti.

 Popularly, known as Ant Man of India, Dr Bharti is credited with the discovery of new species of ants, including two rare red list species.

“The rare red species are different from all species known around the world. While ants generally have a territorial nature, they do not live the same way. They live in nests of other ants and have a chemical mimicry in their bodies with which they mimic other ants, who do not find their difference,” he said.