Transcript Ants At Work by Deborah Gordon

Ants At Work
by Deborah Gordon
Paige Johan
Anthropology 179A
Dr. White
UCI: Fall 2002
Various Networks of Ants
 Networks and connections within the ant
colony.
 Networks of trails and paths to food
outside the colony.
 Networking and connections with
neighboring ant colonies.
3 Distinct Levels of Ants
 Queen Ants
 Winged
 Only ants that can reproduce
females
 Male Ants
 Winged
 Life Span: Only a few weeks
 Only live for reproduction
 Sterile Female Ants
 Worker Ants
 Can reproduce males (do not
need sterilization)
Life Cycles
 Colony Life Cycles
 Form when a New Queen mates with a Male from
another parent colony, and then forms her own colony
 Generally last about 15 years
 Can exist as long as the Queen can continue
reproducing female workers
 Individual Ant Life Cycles
 Queen: 15- 20 years
 Males: A few weeks (long enough to reproduce)
 Female Workers: About 1 year
Working Ants and Daily Chores
 Interior Workers

Tend to the Queen and brood (eggs, larvae, and pupae)
 Nest Maintenance
Open and close entrances to the nest
 Maintain all structures and pathways within the colony

 Patrollers

Designate the foraging paths for the day
 Foragers

Follow paths designated for them to gather food for the
colony
 Midden Workers

Manage the refuse pile, also known as the Midden

The Midden also seems to have a significant relation to how
the ants find their colony.
Allocation of Tasks
 No source of leadership
 Queen is only there to reproduce, not to control the
colony
 As conditions change emphasis on certain jobs
change

Workers are moved from one task to another
depending on the need for workers


Ex. If there are serious issues with nest maintenance, some
foragers will switch to nest maintenance until the problem is
solved.
Foraging is the most important task and will call for
workers before any other task
Foraging Paths and Trails
 Mature colonies can have
up to 8 customary foraging
trails
 However, patrolling ants
generally do not send
foraging ants to the same
trail as the day before
 Younger colonies are more
likely to send their foraging
ants to a rich food source
they had once found
Foraging Paths (continued)
 Larger colonies don’t
necessarily cover larger
areas, but get more food
because they have more
workers
 Paths are very adaptable


They grow into more
intricate paths with the
growth of the workforce
A small workforce changes
the paths to a more
standard construct to cover
area more effectively
Connections with Other Colonies
 Workers can recognize ants
from their own colony by a
colony specific scent
 When foragers from
different colonies meet,
those foraging trails will be
used less and less, and seen
as space lost to competition
 Certain foragers specialize in
fighting, and are usually not
let out unless large number
of foragers are out
Older Colonies vs. Younger Colonies
 Older colonies are more likely to interact
with other colonies
 Colonies

remain about the same size
Once colonies reach the 2-year mark they are
likely to keep the size of their nest the same
 More
ants are sent out from the older colony
 Older colonies also send their foragers out
farther distance
Natural Response to Strangers
 Ants respond to the rate of interaction with non-
nestmates
 Sight not good, use contact rate to determine the
density of non-nestmates
 Ants will try to maintain density through
clustering when they feel contact rate is low
 Contact rate directly correlates with density of
nestmates


Low contact rates indicates high numbers of mates
present
High contact rates indicate low number of mates
present
Sources Used
 Gordon, D. (1999). Ants at work. New
York, NY: The Free Press.
 Foster, D. (2001) An ant’s life.
Retrieved from the World Wide Web
on November 13, 2002.
 Library.Thinkquest.org. (?). Insects.
Retrieved from the World Wide Web
on November 13, 2002.
 The University of Georgia College of
Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences. (2000). Managing imported
fire ants in urban areas. Retrieved
from the World Wide Web on
November 13, 2002.