@article{lucky_savage_nichols_castracani_shell_grasso_mori_dunn_2014, title={Ecologists, educators, and writers collaborate with the public to assess backyard diversity in The School of Ants Project}, volume={5}, ISSN={["2150-8925"]}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84905233273&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1890/es13-00364.1}, abstractNote={Citizen science can generate data that would not exist otherwise while increasing public scientific literacy. However, the quality and use of citizen science data have been criticized in the recent ecological literature. We need an approach that advances eco‐evolutionary understanding, achieves education goals and incorporates public participation into as many aspects of the scientific process as possible. We collaborated with public participants to make new discoveries about the distribution and ecology of ants while informing the next studies that participants and scientists might perform together. We implemented the School of Ants (SoA) program in which participants sample ants that are identified by taxonomic experts. Using a comprehensive framework that meets the needs of multiple agents, we also developed outreach materials about ant biology, collaborated with educators to incorporate SoA into classroom science, and launched an international SoA module in Italy. In the first 17 months, SoA volunteers collected ants at 500 unique sites across the USA‐including all 50 states and Washington, D.C. To address concerns about the validity of citizen scientist‐derived data, we conducted a ground truthing trial that confirmed that trained and untrained volunteers were equally effective at collecting ants. Data from SoA samples indicate that ant diversity varies across wide geographic scales and that there can be high levels of native ant diversity where people live. SoA volunteers collected 7 exotic and 107 native ant species. Although exotic ants were common, ants native to North America occurred in ∼70% of all sites. Many of the ants common in backyards were species that tend to be very poorly studied. For example, citizen scientists documented a range extension of more than 2000 miles for the Asian Needle Ant, Pachycondyla chinensis. Using SoA data as a starting point, we collaborated with a science writer to produce a free, interactive iBook about the common ants in North America; the book included distribution maps such as that for P. chinensis informed by participant collections. Moving forward, we plan to leverage this existing framework to address more complex ecological and evolutionary questions in partnership with our public participants.}, number={7}, journal={ECOSPHERE}, author={Lucky, Andrea and Savage, Amy M. and Nichols, Lauren M. and Castracani, Cristina and Shell, Leonora and Grasso, Donato A. and Mori, Alessandra and Dunn, Robert R.}, year={2014}, month={Jul} }
 @article{lucky_trautwein_guenard_weiser_dunn_2013, title={Tracing the Rise of Ants - Out of the Ground}, volume={8}, ISSN={["1932-6203"]}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84891337406&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1371/journal.pone.0084012}, abstractNote={The evolution of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) is increasingly well-understood due to recent phylogenetic analyses, along with estimates of divergence times and diversification rates. Yet, leading hypotheses regarding the ancestral habitat of ants conflict with new findings that early ant lineages are cryptic and subterranean. Where the ants evolved, in respect to habitat, and how habitat shifts took place over time have not been formally tested. Here, we reconstruct the habitat transitions of crown-group ants through time, focusing on where they nest and forage (in the canopy, litter, or soil). Based on ancestral character reconstructions, we show that in contrast to the current consensus based on verbal arguments that ants evolved in tropical leaf litter, the soil is supported as the ancestral stratum of all ants. We also find subsequent movements up into the litter and, in some cases, into the canopy. Given the global importance of ants, because of their diversity, ecological influence and status as the most successful eusocial lineage on Earth, understanding the early evolution of this lineage provides insight into the factors that made this group so successful today.}, number={12}, journal={PLOS ONE}, author={Lucky, Andrea and Trautwein, Michelle D. and Guenard, Benoit S. and Weiser, Michael D. and Dunn, Robert R.}, year={2013}, month={Dec} }
 @article{hulcr_latimer_henley_rountree_fierer_lucky_lowman_dunn_2012, title={A Jungle in There: Bacteria in Belly Buttons are Highly Diverse, but Predictable}, volume={7}, ISSN={1932-6203}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047712}, DOI={10.1371/journal.pone.0047712}, abstractNote={The belly button is one of the habitats closest to us, and yet it remains relatively unexplored. We analyzed bacteria and arachaea from the belly buttons of humans from two different populations sampled within a nation-wide citizen science project. We examined bacterial and archaeal phylotypes present and their diversity using multiplex pyrosequencing of 16S rDNA libraries. We then tested the oligarchy hypothesis borrowed from tropical macroecology, namely that the frequency of phylotypes in one sample of humans predicts its frequency in another independent sample. We also tested the predictions that frequent phylotypes (the oligarchs) tend to be common when present, and tend to be more phylogenetically clustered than rare phylotypes. Once rarefied to four hundred reads per sample, bacterial communities from belly buttons proved to be at least as diverse as communities known from other skin studies (on average 67 bacterial phylotypes per belly button). However, the belly button communities were strongly dominated by a few taxa: only 6 phylotypes occurred on >80% humans. While these frequent bacterial phylotypes (the archaea were all rare) are a tiny part of the total diversity of bacteria in human navels (<0.3% of phylotypes), they constitute a major portion of individual reads (∼1/3), and are predictable among independent samples of humans, in terms of both the occurrence and evolutionary relatedness (more closely related than randomly drawn equal sets of phylotypes). Thus, the hypothesis that “oligarchs” dominate diverse assemblages appears to be supported by human-associated bacteria. Although it remains difficult to predict which species of bacteria might be found on a particular human, predicting which species are most frequent (or rare) seems more straightforward, at least for those species living in belly buttons.}, number={11}, journal={PLoS ONE}, publisher={Public Library of Science (PLoS)}, author={Hulcr, Jiri and Latimer, Andrew M. and Henley, Jessica B. and Rountree, Nina R. and Fierer, Noah and Lucky, Andrea and Lowman, Margaret D. and Dunn, Robert R.}, editor={Moreau, Corrie S.Editor}, year={2012}, month={Nov}, pages={e47712} }
 @article{guenard_mccaffrey_lucky_dunn_2012, title={Ants of North Carolina: An updated list (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)}, number={3552}, journal={Zootaxa}, author={Guenard, B. and Mccaffrey, K. A. and Lucky, A. and Dunn, R. R.}, year={2012}, pages={1–36} }
 @article{lucky_2011, title={Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of the spider ants, genus Leptomyrmex Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)}, volume={59}, number={2}, journal={Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution}, author={Lucky, A.}, year={2011}, pages={281–292} }
 @article{guenard_lucky_2011, title={shuffling leaf litter samples produces more accurate and precise snapshots of terrestrial arthropod community composition}, volume={40}, number={6}, journal={Environmental Entomology}, author={Guenard, B. and Lucky, A.}, year={2011}, pages={1523–1529} }
 @article{lucky_ward_2010, title={Taxonomic revision of the ant genus Leptomyrmex Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)}, number={2688}, journal={Zootaxa}, author={Lucky, A. and Ward, P. S.}, year={2010}, pages={1–67} }