Introduction
Ants are excellent at finding new sources of food. They have to be in order to find enough food to feed the whole colony. Worker ants randomly explore a new site until they find something that can be consumed (Deneubourg 1990). A chemical trail is then laid down by the pioneer ant to recruit other ants from the nest to the site of the food (Deneubourg 1990). There are three types of recruitment: tandem recruitment, mass recruitment and group recruitment (Beckers et al. 1989). Both mass and group recruitment uses chemical trails to lead nest mates to food items(Beckers et al. 1989). Chemical trails allow the colony to remember where rewarding food sources are, to choose between locations of different food qualities and even to regulate total foraging activity (Jackson & Ratnieks 2006). The objective of this study was to determine food preference and recruitment time in garden ants. How quickly do ants find rewarding food sources, how long it takes them to recruit more ants and which food sources they prefer?
Materials and Methods
Two experiments were conducted, one using different tasting solutions and one using peanut butter. The peanut butter experiment was done fist so as to recruit ants for the next experiment. 3 petri dishes with peanut butter on slices of bread were placed at 20, 40 and 60 cm’s from an ant nest. The time of discovery, recruitment time and number of ants at each dish was then recorded. The experiment was then repeated. Next, 4 marked petri dishes with bread were placed at equal distances from the ant nest. Sweet, sour, salty and water (control) solutions were separately placed on the pieces of bread with droppers. The amount of ants attracted to each dish was then recorded over a 5 min period. T...
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We observed Sowbugs in multiple environments to determine which environment they preferred. The observational chamber was a rectangle box split equally in half. One side of this rectangle was filled with dry sand that had been heated for five minutes by a lamp, and the other side was filled with damp soil that did not receive the lamp heat. We placed each sowbug on the middle boarder of the cool, damp soil and the hot, dry sand. We each chose one sowbug to track, and made a record of its placement each minute for five minutes total. We repeated this process three times. After each repetition, we removed the sowbugs, and replaced them with new sowbugs to observe. After this observation, we shared, and recorded our results. The sowbugs spent
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The inspiring documentary film, E.O. Wilson—Of Ants and Men, showcases biologist Edward Osborne Wilson’s passion for preserving the biodiversity of our natural world. E.O. Wilson not only values the fascinating creatures (particularly ants) that he comes across during his research and in his daily life, but he also takes action and participates in the Gorongosa Restoration Project at Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, Africa. The destruction of Gorongosa demonstrates the call for us—Homo sapiens—to realize how critical it is to concern ourselves with protecting the very ecosystems that have molded us into the complex species that we are; according to E.O. Wilson, “We adapted over millions of years to wild environments…We really need them” (CITE?). The better effort we make to understand that we are a part of this large, interdependent ecological community, the better equipped we become in not only being
Abstract: The house cricket, Acheta domesticus, was used to test whether food and potential mates drive aggressive behavior. Male crickets were randomly selected in pairs and place into a cage to observe aggressive behaviors in the presence of no food, food, and female. The cage provided a confine area for the crickets to fight one another while the variables of food and female were used in attempts of increasing aggressive interactions between the male crickets. There was no significance found through this experiment due to a lack of data. It was discovered that the experiment would have to be done at a larger scale to be able to see any significance in the two variables.
The ants of the colony can be seen as beings who have had their “individuality and personhood” trampled because of the grasshop...
Niman, Nicolette H. "The Carnivore's Dilemma." Food. Ed. Brooke Rollins and Lee Bauknight. 1st ed. Southlake, TX: Fountainhead, 2010. 169-73. Print.
Hoover, S, et al. (2003) The effect of queen pheromones on worker honey bee ovary
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Elizabeth Cashdan addresses the question of territoriality among human forager groups, specifically comparing four Bushman groups. She argues that territoriality should occur only in places where the benefits will outweigh the costs. Introducing the scientific definition of territoriality in animals, she first claims that animals tend to be the most territorial when they have adequate food and other resources. It is when there is a severe lack of or abundance of resources that animals are not territorial. With a lack of food, territoriality tends to waste too much energy. In the case of an abundance of food, it is not worth defending that which is plentiful for animals. She points out predictability as another environmental factor: if a resource is unpredictable, then it is not economical to defend it. It is only worthwhile to defend a territory if there is high probability that the resources will still be available when they are wanted. However, the costs and benefits of being territorial not only depend on the environment, but also on the species and its characteristics.
Vergano, D. Scientist scratch the surface of chimp communication. USA Today. April 6. 2006. Retrieve Mar 20 from
Another way some ants can communicate with one another is by sound.
Myrmecology has been around since the late 18th and early 19th century. Myrmecology is derived from the Greek word Murmek, which means ant. There are three main names that are most noteworthy: Linne who produced “Systemae Naturae” which he describes eighteen species of ants. Fabricius created five more genera and further described other species. Latreille was the most significant, he collected and studied the ants of Europe and described many species overlooked by his predecessors. In 1967 a fossil was found that was preserved in amber fossil which showed an extinct species of an ant dating as far back as the Cretaceous Age, near eighty million years ago (as cited in Ant Nest, 2005).
Seventh, in some groups of insects, truly social behavior has evolved. Social behavior will allow a large population to survive through difficult periods via cooperation in food gathering, food storage, temperature control, and colony
Behavioural hypothesis centres on protection of nest and the forming of the mating bond. (Mueller (1990) p. 553-585). This has similarities with the male mating theory.