8 replies to this topic

[FeedTheAnts]

I wanted to feed my ants a mealworm I had just caught, but I had disconnected their outworld the day before because I needed the container. So I first got a new container and connected it to the tubes on the left half of the nest, but the ants never came through these tubes because they were  too busy trying to pull the cotton plugs from the tube on the right side of there nest that used to lead to a different outworld that had also been disconnected. To get the ants to find the mealworm in there outworld despite the fact that they weren't foraging in it, so I came up with an idea. After unplugging the dead ended tube on the right side of their nest I crammed the mealworm into the end of the tube. As soon as a worker grabbed onto it I pulled it out and with the ant holding on dropped it into the outworld I had hooked up on the right side of the nest, hoping the ant would find the exit, walk back to the nest leaving a pheromone trail, and tell the colony members to come through the once trafficked tube into the outworld that was just connected. Soon enough the ant did just that... she found the exit, walked into the nest, but no ants came to the outworld. Instead, a swarm of ants came through the dead ended tube expecting to find the mealworm there! But this made no sense because if the ant really left a pheromone trail on the way back to the tube then they would have come through the tube that she came returned to the nest from. It's almost like the ant entered the nest without leaving a trail, and then just told her sisters to follow her to the place she actually originally found the mealworm from! It's like she never even realized it when I took her and the mealworm when she was holding on to it and dropped it into the outworld. Did she use her brain and not her pheromones? I guess one explanation for this occurence is that the ant caused a ruckus in the nest because of her find and they just went in all directions. But the again, there was only like one ant that came through the correct tube, and it took at least about five to ten minutes for them to rediscover the mealworm in the outworld, but they swarmed the dead ended tube immediately.

 

Thanks for reading this ridiculously long post

Have any thoughts?

Edited by TennesseeAnts, March 28 2018 - 4:30 PM.

[Ants4fun]

So, if I am not mistaken, you are wondering why the ants did not use the secondary tube that led into the outworld, and instead tried to use the tube that dead-ended into a cotton barrier after an ant found the mealworm in the outworld. 

 

I assume the worker did leave a pheromone trail to the nest. However, there were many workers on the other end depositing pheromones and communicating that there was food there, because, if I'm not mistaken, you did put the mealworm there before. The ants don't know which worker has the food, whether the lone scout or the mass of workers at the tube entrance. So, the ants choose to follow the majority because, in ant society, majority rules. Then, when food wasn't found, ants followed the scout trail to find the mealworm, and eventually, that pheromone trail became stronger than the pheromone trail leading to the dead end. 

[Serafine]

Ants communicate mostly by using pheromones and these have a certain life time. This means that ant communication isn't instant but takes several minutes, sometimes even longer, to deliver a message. At some point the workers at the "wrong" port will realize that there is no food and when all pheromones have decayed they will start to follow the new trail to the other port.

 

Ants communicate and navigate with a wide variety of tools like pheromone trails, stridulation (vibration), optical flow, path integration, eyesight and some others. Which of these are used is different from species to species (Dorylus army ants are blind, Myrmecia bull ants and Cataglyphis silver ants don't lay down pheromone trails, etc.) but all ants use more than one way to "talk" and get around (except maybe the super primitive species like Nothomyrmecia/Prionomyrmex where the workers barely interact at all).

[FeedTheAnts]

So, if I am not mistaken, you are wondering why the ants did not use the secondary tube that led into the outworld, and instead tried to use the tube that dead-ended into a cotton barrier after an ant found the mealworm in the outworld. 

 

I assume the worker did leave a pheromone trail to the nest. However, there were many workers on the other end depositing pheromones and communicating that there was food there, because, if I'm not mistaken, you did put the mealworm there before. The ants don't know which worker has the food, whether the lone scout or the mass of workers at the tube entrance. So, the ants choose to follow the majority because, in ant society, majority rules. Then, when food wasn't found, ants followed the scout trail to find the mealworm, and eventually, that pheromone trail became stronger than the pheromone trail leading to the dead end. 

The ant did not find the mealworm in the outworld, she found it in the dead end tube but then I moved her immediately to the outworld. 

 

The tube that dead ended could not have had any pheromones in it because only one ant was there when I put the mealworm there, and it was the ant who grabbed it.

 I also took the mealworm with the ant grabbing onto it away from the tube the second the ant made contact to the mealworm, so the chances that the ant dropped a pheromone before i took her and the mealworm away are very slim. There was also no trail made because she never reentered the nest after finding the mealworm except for through the tube leading to the outworld that I dropped her in. There were also no ants that went crazy swarming into the dead end tube until after the ant reentered the nest from the tube on the other side of the nest.

[Serafine]

Since there was only one way out of the nest before it is possible that there was a quasi-permanent trail or that the ants just assumed that the food was that way because, well... it's the only way out of the nest they knew of (so obviously the food HAD to be somewhere in that direction).

Edited by Serafine, March 28 2018 - 6:29 PM.

[FeedTheAnts]

Since there was only one way out of the nest before it is possible that there was a quasi-permanent trail or that the ants just assumed that the food was that way because, well... it's the only way out of the nest they knew of (so obviously the food HAD to be somewhere in that direction).

You have a ggod point, but wouldn't the ants expect to find the food the by going back through the tube that the ant who reported the food just entered the nest through(especially considering pheromones)?

Edited by TennesseeAnts, March 29 2018 - 5:11 AM.

[skocko76]

I guess they are using some sort of memory. My Messors know their seed stocks and don't get excited when they stumble upon them. They recognize that place as a "place of food" in their ownership. My L. nigers, on the other hand, don't have pantries, but still frequent some locations more than others. You guessed it, locations where their food dish is. Well, that can be explained by pheromone trails, however it often seems like more than that. I guess, the locality of more food has more ant traffic. That in turn means more pheromones. Even if the food is not there, the scouts attracted by the previous trail will "freshen it up some". So I guess pheromones have relatively long evaporation times... which could explain what you saw... They were following a stale, but previously potent pheromone trail. ...and a bit of memory perhaps

Edited by skocko76, April 24 2018 - 12:19 PM.

[skocko76]

Oh, just to compliment the theory of ant memory, here is an image of ant brain from the great book "Journey to the Ants" by Bert Holldobler & Edward O. Wilson.
The description states that the ant brain is capable of learning "... the location of several places outside the nest".
I recommend the book to anyone, truly a great read.

 

Edited by skocko76, April 25 2018 - 1:12 PM.

[FeedTheAnts]

Oh, just to compliment the theory of ant memory, here is an image of ant brain from the great book "Journey to the Ants" by Bert Holldobler & Edward O. Wilson.
The description states that the ant brain is capable of learning "... the location of several places outside the nest".
I recommend the book to anyone, truly a great read.

 

You mean a scientist had to dissect an ant and remove it's brain... reason #78 why I am a hobbyist and never let my interest turn into a profession...