Volume 41, Number 1, January 1995:
Collection and Maintenance of Ants
and
Studying Ants: A Beginning
by Mark B. DuBois

Text-only version

ISSUE HOME PAGE

ABOUT THIS ISSUE
- about KSN
- about the author

IN THIS ISSUE
- introduction
- collection
- maintenance, observation ant farm
- maintenance, classroom use
- project observations
- literature cited
- books for children on ants

Studying Ants: A Beginning
by Mark B. DuBois
- males, queens and worker ants
- establishing a colony
- caring for young
- growth of an ant colony
- ant senses
- gardening ants
- harvester ants
- parasitic ants
- acrobat ants
- army ants
- questions, activities and investigations with ants
- further reading

SLIDESHOW
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Collection and Maintenance of Ants to Use for Teaching
by Roger D. Akre, Laurel D. Hansen, and Elizabeth A. Myhre

and

Studying Ants: A Beginning
by Mark B. DuBois

Collection and Maintenance of Ants to Use for Teaching
by Roger D. Akre, Laurel D. Hansen, and Elizabeth A. Myhre

INTRODUCTION

Insects are a readily available resource that should be used more in teaching so that the students can observe and manipulate live animals, an always exciting exercise. However, questions immediately arise. How do you collect insects? Then what must you do to maintain them? How difficult is the collection procedure, and how much and what types of equipment are needed? The purpose of this article is to show how simple it is to collect and maintain ants for classroom use. We also suggest several simple exercises using ants, but many books and pamphlets, including those listed in the reference list, cover many teaching exercises that use ants. Therefore, the main purpose of this article is to show you how to collect and maintain ants with the minimum amount of work and expense. The exercises you can do with these ants are limited only by your imagination.

Ants are the undisputed ecological dominants of the terrestrial world in the amount of biomass, and in energy used for foraging and maintenance. An often quoted statement form the books by Wilson (1971) and by Holldobler and Wilson (1990) states that the biomass of ants in the Amazon Basin is much greater than that of vertebrate animals. Presently there are 8,800 species of ants that have been described, but this number will ultimately be about 20,000.

Ants are so numerous and occur in so many habitats that it is unbelievable that more use has not been made of the many ideas and accomplishments that we can gain from even a brief study of them and their social organization. Ants have a social organization no matter what species is involved because there are no solitary ants. The basic features of all social insects include an overlap of generations (mother/offspring), the adults care for the young, and a reproductive division of labor.

Ants belong to 12 diverse subfamilies but we suggest collecting Formicine (subfamily Formicinae) ants as they are at the top of the scale in social behavior and they are easily maintained. They do not have a stinger so they pose fewer potential problems to children. However, they do squirt formic acid for defense.

We recommend that the ants Formica neoclara or F. podzolica be collected in the Pacific Northwest (PNW), and that F. montana be collected in the Midwest or East. These ants are mound builders, and they are polygynous (many queened). They are easily located, collected, and maintained (Figure 1 and cover). They are also relatively nonaggressive ants.

Figure 1. Close-up of the inside of the mound showing the ant tunnels. At about 15 centimeters deep into the mound the ants are aggregated into dense clusters that can be easily shoveled into plastic bags.

Figure 2-3. Workers of Formida poldzolica (above). The ants can be readily identified as Formica by the notch in the top (dorsum) of the thorax (below).

Formida podzolica workers are 4-6 mm and of a uniformly dark brown or black color (Figure 2). They will bite, but their attack is so weak that bites are not felt unless they are delivered in a sensitive area such as between the fingers. Formica neoclara workers are slightly larger, and the thorax usually has a reddish brown cast. These ants extend from the West into the Dakotas. Formica Montana is a prairie ant that makes large mounds, sometimes in natural hummocks. It is uniformly dark brown/black. Workers are 4-6 mm. All species of Formica have a notch in the top (dorsum) of their thorax as shown in the illustration.