Question: Does the odorous smell of Tapinoma Sessile, more commonly known as Blue Cheese Ants or odorous house ants, decrease the rate of predation from predators such as toads?
In context: Tapinoma Sessile are common pests in our everyday environment. They vary in size from 2.4 to 3.2 mm and can take shelter both outdoors and indoors. They feed on sugary snacks like honeydew, a glucose-filled fluid produced by small arthropods like aphids. They also feed on dead insects and spiders.
To most people, the odorous house ants may seem like any other ant. However, if you squish one Tapinoma Sessile ant, it will give off a blue cheese/ coconut smell that works to fend off predators and acts as a pheromone, defined as a semiochemical used to affect …show more content…
These ants can easily be found around the UC Davis campus. We can tell the Tapinoma Sessile Ants apart from other ants by the location of its anal opening. For Argentine ants and other ants, their anal opening is located distally, at the very rear end of the ant. Tapinoma Sessile Ants are the only known ants to have an anal opening located ventrally, next to the abdomen. The Tapinoma Sessile ant is also the only known ant to have twelve antennas. Next, we will divide the 300 Tapinoma Sessile Ants into six groups of 50 in six different mini ant farms: 150 Tapinoma Sessile Ants for three control groups and 150 Tapinoma Sessile Ants for three experimental groups. Aftwards, we will place the six groups of ants into the refrigerator. This is important because ants, due to their cold-blooded nature, tend to become sluggish at temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit as their body temperature adjusts to that of the environment. At temperatures between 40 degrees Fahrenheit and 50 degrees Fahrenheit, Tapinoma Sessile Ants will tend to hibernate. At lower temperatures, the ants will use up less energy and do not need to consume food or water when hibernating. However, we should not place the ants in temperatures colder than 32 degrees Fahrenheit or they will freeze and …show more content…
We will put a 0.01mL of paint on each ant's anal petiole. As with before, we will try to get this done within 30 minutes. Painting the ant's anal petiole will block the secretion of the pungent odor smell that is released by the ant's anal glands. To ensure the paint dries, we will place these ants back into the refrigerator as soon as possible, and retain them there for another 24 hours. We will repeat this process with the four remaining ants. For the third and fourth groups of ants, we will use the bottle of plaster instead. We mark these two groups as "Control group- Plaster" and "Experimental group- Plaster." For the fifth and last groups of ants, we will use the bottle of glue. We mark these two groups as "Control group-Glue" and "Experimental group-Glue." The reason that we are applying the substances on both groups of ants is to ensure that the chemical does not make a difference in the rate of predation. The reason that we use three different types of substances on the ants is because some substances may be more efficient at blocking odor secretion from the ants than
In context: Tapinoma Sessile are common pests in our everyday environment. They vary in size from 2.4 to 3.2 mm and can take shelter both outdoors and indoors. They feed on sugary snacks like honeydew, a glucose-filled fluid produced by small arthropods like aphids. They also feed on dead insects and spiders.
To most people, the odorous house ants may seem like any other ant. However, if you squish one Tapinoma Sessile ant, it will give off a blue cheese/ coconut smell that works to fend off predators and acts as a pheromone, defined as a semiochemical used to affect …show more content…
These ants can easily be found around the UC Davis campus. We can tell the Tapinoma Sessile Ants apart from other ants by the location of its anal opening. For Argentine ants and other ants, their anal opening is located distally, at the very rear end of the ant. Tapinoma Sessile Ants are the only known ants to have an anal opening located ventrally, next to the abdomen. The Tapinoma Sessile ant is also the only known ant to have twelve antennas. Next, we will divide the 300 Tapinoma Sessile Ants into six groups of 50 in six different mini ant farms: 150 Tapinoma Sessile Ants for three control groups and 150 Tapinoma Sessile Ants for three experimental groups. Aftwards, we will place the six groups of ants into the refrigerator. This is important because ants, due to their cold-blooded nature, tend to become sluggish at temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit as their body temperature adjusts to that of the environment. At temperatures between 40 degrees Fahrenheit and 50 degrees Fahrenheit, Tapinoma Sessile Ants will tend to hibernate. At lower temperatures, the ants will use up less energy and do not need to consume food or water when hibernating. However, we should not place the ants in temperatures colder than 32 degrees Fahrenheit or they will freeze and …show more content…
We will put a 0.01mL of paint on each ant's anal petiole. As with before, we will try to get this done within 30 minutes. Painting the ant's anal petiole will block the secretion of the pungent odor smell that is released by the ant's anal glands. To ensure the paint dries, we will place these ants back into the refrigerator as soon as possible, and retain them there for another 24 hours. We will repeat this process with the four remaining ants. For the third and fourth groups of ants, we will use the bottle of plaster instead. We mark these two groups as "Control group- Plaster" and "Experimental group- Plaster." For the fifth and last groups of ants, we will use the bottle of glue. We mark these two groups as "Control group-Glue" and "Experimental group-Glue." The reason that we are applying the substances on both groups of ants is to ensure that the chemical does not make a difference in the rate of predation. The reason that we use three different types of substances on the ants is because some substances may be more efficient at blocking odor secretion from the ants than