Optimal Foraging Strategies of Camponotus pennsylvanicus
Hypothesis
1.) Ants prefer food sources of a higher quality rather than of a lower quality.
2.) Ants are sensitive to foraging gains and predation risks.
Predictions
1.) Ants will prefer to forage for sugar water that is highly concentrated rather than water that is less concentrated.
2.) Ants will prefer to forage close to their home net site rather than farther away from their home nest site.
3.) Ants will balance the trade-off between the risk of predation and food quality. Ants will take greater risks for high quality food than they will for low quality food.
Methods
For the low quality food source, a 1% sugar solution was made by measuring 1 gram of sugar and mixing it with …show more content…
One foraging tray was filled with 1% sugar solution and the other with 20% sugar solution. The number of ants that came into contact with each of the foraging trays was recorded at one minute intervals for 20 minutes.
Experiment 2
Both of the foraging trays were filled with 20% sugar solution. One tray was placed 10 cm away from the colony entrance and the other was placed on the opposite side of the colony entrance 20 cm away. The number of ants that came into contact with each of the foraging trays was recorded at one minute intervals for 20 minutes.
Experiment 3
One container was filled with 1% sugar solution and placed 10 cm away from the ant colony. The other container was filled with 20% sugar solution and placed on the opposite side of the colony entrance 20 cm away. The number of ants that came into contact with each of the containers was recorded at one minute intervals for 20 …show more content…
The pattern of recruitment was expected because if the food sources were of the same quality, the ants would not increase their traveling time and expend more energy. In other studies, when given the option to forage for food equal in quality, Monomorium pharaonis ants were biased to travel to the feeder that initially had the most number of visitors based on the strong pheromone trails left behind (Sumpter and Beekman, 2003). Therefore, a foraging tray that was closer to the ant colony should in theory have more initial visitors than a foraging tray farther
Hypothesis
1.) Ants prefer food sources of a higher quality rather than of a lower quality.
2.) Ants are sensitive to foraging gains and predation risks.
Predictions
1.) Ants will prefer to forage for sugar water that is highly concentrated rather than water that is less concentrated.
2.) Ants will prefer to forage close to their home net site rather than farther away from their home nest site.
3.) Ants will balance the trade-off between the risk of predation and food quality. Ants will take greater risks for high quality food than they will for low quality food.
Methods
For the low quality food source, a 1% sugar solution was made by measuring 1 gram of sugar and mixing it with …show more content…
One foraging tray was filled with 1% sugar solution and the other with 20% sugar solution. The number of ants that came into contact with each of the foraging trays was recorded at one minute intervals for 20 minutes.
Experiment 2
Both of the foraging trays were filled with 20% sugar solution. One tray was placed 10 cm away from the colony entrance and the other was placed on the opposite side of the colony entrance 20 cm away. The number of ants that came into contact with each of the foraging trays was recorded at one minute intervals for 20 minutes.
Experiment 3
One container was filled with 1% sugar solution and placed 10 cm away from the ant colony. The other container was filled with 20% sugar solution and placed on the opposite side of the colony entrance 20 cm away. The number of ants that came into contact with each of the containers was recorded at one minute intervals for 20 …show more content…
The pattern of recruitment was expected because if the food sources were of the same quality, the ants would not increase their traveling time and expend more energy. In other studies, when given the option to forage for food equal in quality, Monomorium pharaonis ants were biased to travel to the feeder that initially had the most number of visitors based on the strong pheromone trails left behind (Sumpter and Beekman, 2003). Therefore, a foraging tray that was closer to the ant colony should in theory have more initial visitors than a foraging tray farther