Foraging Behavior
Using ants to explore ecology
Foraging behaviors
Organisms should have behaviors which minimize – Search for food– Food handling
• Ants are insects
• Six legs
• 3 body parts– Head, Thorax and
Abdomen
Chemical sensors/communication
• Ants have more than 20 different chemicals they can use for sending information to one another
Leaf cutter ants have enlarged heads for leaf cutting
Males for mating only
Examples of Ant foraging
• Symbiotic/mutualism + +• Herbivory -
+• Predation + -• Parasitic + -• Competition - -
Mutualism:Ants and Acacias
• Acacia provides:– Food– Home
• Ant provides– Protection– Competitive
advantage
Mutualism: Ants and Scale
Mutualism: Ants and Butterflies
Herbivory: Leaf cutter ants
Leafcutter harvesting fungus
Predators: Ants killing worm
Parasites: Slaver ants killing queen
Parasites: Enslaving ants
Parasites: Slaver ants with enslaved worker ants
Conclusions
• Ants are ideal study organisms– Small– Ubiquitous– Truly fascinating
Scientific report • Introduction
– State hypotheses tested
• Methods– Explain how you composed the experiment
• Results– Include graphs and figures
• Discussion– Explain the relevance of the study