2 replies to this topic

[DaveJay]

I came across this paper, sort of, I read the abstract, which included findings but I haven't found free access to the full paper yet.

"Greenhead ants Rhytidoponera metallica make trade‐offs between food temperature and food concentration
LACHLAN PETTIT TANYA LATTY
First published: 31 May 2016"
I'll copy and paste the abstract soon, with full credits but in short they found that when given two servings of identical foods at different temperatures these ants will choose a warm serve over a cold one but when the cold serve is 10 times more concentrated than the warm serve they will opt for the more concentrated serve.
It shows a temperature preference, warm food 'costs' less to utilise and may provide energy in the form of physical heat as well as the food value itself.
This might be a factor in whether ants will accept a food or not and perhaps explain in part why a food is rejected despite being accepted eagerly in the past.
Just food for thought, I'll try and find a free link for the whole text, but temperature might be something to consider when offering food, perhaps particularly when offering a new food.
What do you think?

[Boog]

I made small little grout feeders, around an inch cubed, that I was planning to test. I thought that soaking the grout feeders in hot water for a few minutes before putting my defrosted crickets on them would be a good idea. I just never attempted it yet but have thought that heat would draw them to the meal but was also worried that it would raise the humidity of the out world enough to degrade the fluon barrier. They already find their food no problem so didn't pursue this further yet. This post makes me reconsider my idea.

[ANTdrew]

Anybody else miss DaveJay? What became of him?