Foraging
The overriding goal of every foraging ant is to spend the least amount of energy to obtain and deliver the greatest food value to the colony. As long as enough foragers are successful, the colony can maintain the energy flow to continue reproducing indefinitely.One major deciding factor as to foraging technique takes into account the external dangers presented to ants while foraging. They are constantly under attack by predators and competitors. When an ant is lost to predation or injury, the whole colony loses a small energy packet. Predators may influence whether a colony hunts with packs of ants going off at a time or if the colony uses individuals to hunt on their own. Will they hunt out in the open or will they hide under some sort of canopy?
If competition is a problem, ants may expend a larger amount of energy to retrieve a food source quickly, rather than to go slowly and allow other colonies to take the food.
Temperature and humidity are two important environmental factors effecting foraging. Desert ants are adapted to higher temperatures and lower humidity, while cold weather species do better in higher humidity, cooler temperatures. Some ants forage before sunrise and after sunset when the temperatures are not too hot. Others forage only after sunrise and before sunset to take advantage of the warmer temperatures. Some ants may forage at unseemly times of the day to avoid predators. Foraging may be controlled by the time of availability of the food source. High humidity seems to present a higher temperature window as to when ants will forage. Most ants will not forage during or shortly after a rainfall.
When foraging, ants seek a variety of materials depending on the needs of their colony. At different times, the colony may need protein or may need carbohydrates. Ants can be predators, omnivorous, seed specialists, or fungus gardeners. There are no known ants that actually eat leaves, but there are ants that use leaves for different purposes.
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Science Education Connection Department of Biochemistry The University of Arizona Tuesday, April 29, 1997 warder@u.arizona.edu
http://biology.arizona.edu/sciconn/lessons/shindelman/ |