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

PROJECT OBSERVATIONS

1. Follow the ant. Many ants lay chemical trails that other ants follow. A student can be a "foraging worker" making a trail with toilet paper for other students to follow. The "trail" can start at the nest and go to water or to a food source. Then real ants can be observed to determine if they lay chemical trails. The trail can also be mechanically disturbed to see how this section is treated by the ants. How do they re-establish the trail? Observe individual ants touching the tip of their gaster (abdomen) to the soil surface. Individual ants can be marked on the thorax or gaster with paint (Dope model enamel works well) for identification.

2. Biology. Remove sheets of paper placed into the ant container to observe the immature stages. What stages are present (eggs, larvae, pupae, adults). What do the workers do as the brood is uncovered? Ants that tend the brood are called nurses or nurse workers. What do these workers do if you lightly dust the brood with talcum powder? If a worker is dusted, what does it do? How long does it take for the ants to clean themselves? Ant larvae are covered with hairs that interlock many larvae together so they can be carried in groups. This principle is used in velcro fastenings.

3. Foraging. Add various foods to the feeding chamber of a nest to determine how long the workers take to find the food, what food is preferred, and how they bring it back to the colony. Calculate the speed of a traveling forager. Compare the speed of the initial forager to ants recruited to the food. If possible feed the ants colored food or dye marked food. Then sample ants that have not left the main container to determine if they have any dye inside them. Crush a worker on a white sheet. Ants usually feed each other (trophallaxis) within minutes of finding food.

4. Communication. These ants use formic acid as a trail material and as an alarm pheromone. Place some formic acid (purchased or crush 10 worker ants) on sheet of paper and introduce it into the colony by holding the sheet of paper with forceps. How do the ants respond? Do they have formic acid? Use indicator (pH) paper and let them spray it. Does it change color? How much does each ant contain? Roll a worker between your fingers then smell it. It should be very pungent.

5. Give workers various pieces of food that they cannot readily reduce in size. What is the largest piece they can transport? Do they cooperate to carry the food? What would happen if an ant grew to 200 pounds? Could it lift a building? Why not?