The team also knew from their own experiments that if an ant meets a fellow nestmate before meeting a non-nestmate, it was more likely to fight.Ī colony war involving thousands of pavement ants. These include the odor of other ants they meet, the size of the ant’s colony, and the season. The team started by reading lots of research articles and learned that there are several factors that may affect an ant’s decision to fight. Worker ants don’t have a leader, so the scientists wanted to know how large wars are organized. They were curious to learn more about the triggers that lead to colony wars. This results in huge sidewalk battles that can include thousands of ants fighting for up to 12 hours! These ant wars often involve worker ants grabbing body parts of non-nestmate ants.Īndrew, Jazmine, John, Mike, and Ken all work together to study the social and chemical cues that drive behaviors in animals. If an ant finds a non-nestmate, it organizes a large war against the nearby colony. Neighboring colonies often compete for food, leading to tension. Nestmates are ants from the same colony, and non-nestmates are ants from other colonies. Certain chemicals tell them if the ant is from their colony or a different colony. Worker ants use their antennae to touch the bodies of other ants. A colony lives together inside a nest, a physical structure. They live in groups called colonies, which are made up of a few queens and many worker ants. The ants crawling into and out of cracks along sidewalks are called pavement ants. Student activity, Graph Type C, Level 3.Student activity, Graph Type B, Level 3.Student activity, Graph Type A, Level 3.Three pavement ants touch antennae to determine if they are nestmates.
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