Draft 2, Seasonal Ant Behavior

This topic submitted by Sai Yan Chu, Laura Broseke, Taryn Nye, Elizabeth Gerber at 10:31 PM on 9/19/02. Additions were last made on Wednesday, December 10, 2008. Section: Cummins

Natural Systems 1 Fall, 2002 -Western Program-Miami University

Seasonal Ant Behavior

Fall to Winter Transition

Army Ants on the Move in Corcovado National Park!

Research Question
- What are the reactions of ants to sugar substances as temperatures decline through the months of September, October, and November? Specifically we are searching for the rate in which they decrease and a specific temperature decrease (i.e. frost).

Specific Predictions
- We suspect the ants will decrease in number as they hibernate and progressively slow their attempts to consume the sugar substances as the temperatures decrease. We predict at the first frost there will be a significant change in the number of ants that we observe due to their hibernation.

Preliminary Research
Design - Each member of the group will designate three standard and diverse locations on Western Campus. These locations will contain different species of ants from different size colonies (species will not be taken into account, this is a general study of ants). Two of the three will be used to observe food consumption and the third will be an observation of behavioral patterns. The total amount of study sites will equal twelve. Each food consumption site will be observed twice a week for a reasonable amount of time. At these sites we will place a certain amount of sugar substance. Every two minutes we will count ants, using a digital camera, that have arrived within a specific radius of the substance. The ant samples within the radius will be recorded in a chart along with temperature, date, amount of sugar substance consumed, and weather conditions. Our presence is not expected to effect the behavior of the ants due to the everyday interactions with humans on Western Campus. The four observation sites will serve as a five minute period in which we record behavior of the ants in daily life. These observations will be qualitative data to refer to for furthur conclusions.

5 Journal and Library References -

Claire Detrain, Jean-Louis Deneubourg. 1995. Scavenging by Pheidole pallidula: a key for understanding decision-making systems in ants. Anim. Behav., 1997, 53: 537-547.

J. Meinze, B. Oberstadt. 1999. Worker age, size and social status in queenless colonies of the ant Leptothorax gredleri. Animal Behaviour, anbe. 1999. 1188: 751-759.

Adrian Denry, Johnathan Wright, Ben Griet. 2000. Forging efficiency in the wood ant, Formica rufa: is time of the essence in trial following? Animal Behaviour, 61: 139-146.

Anne-Catherine Mailleux, Jean-Louis Deneubourg, Claire Detrain. 1999. How do ants assess food volume? Animal Behaviour, anbe. 2000. 1396: 1061-1069.

Martin Burd. 2000. Forging behaviour of Attacephalote (leaf cutting ants): an examination of two predictions for load selection. Animal Behaviour, 60: 781-788.

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