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Field Diary on “Some Behavioural Study on

Ant”

-by, Arijit Dutta (Sree Chaitanya College, Habra)

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Introduction

Ants are social animal, so, as the rule of eusociality, they distribute their all works as per the caste. All species of the ants are known to be communal and their social evolution parallels in a very remarkable way. There are several species of ants in our local territory, such as, Tetraponera sp. and Camponotus sp. They are of different classes, such as-

Foraging ants Herding ants Stave-holding ants Agricultural ants Honey ants Thief ants Commensal ants

In our behavior study of ant, we will discuss about some of theirbehaviours.

Selecting place of the studyBackground of our collage as the place is not visited by

others frequent, so the place is free of any disturbance.

Purpose of the field worki. Watching their feeding behavior, mode of food

collection and most notably watching their food preference.

ii. Watching and noting their nest structure.

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Mode of study

Duration of study: 11.03.2011- 25.03.2011

Time: 11.30am onwards

Guidance:

1. Dr. Debasish Bandopadhay, Head of the department, Departmentof Zoology, Sree Chaitanya College, Habra.

Thanks to:

1. Dr. Manik Bhakta2. Dr. Sagarika Choudhuri3. Prof. Prasun Banerjee4. Dr. Saswati Ghose5. Dr.Lina Sarkar6. Mr. Prabir Banerjee

Requirements:

1. Iron rod2. Scale3. Bucket4. Mug

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5. Scale6. Plaster of Paris7. 10 ml Injection8. Camera9. Knife

Day 1:

Time: 11.30am

Date: 11.03.2011

i. Our study was started under guidance of Dr. Debasish Bandopadhyay of Sree Chaitanya Collage, Habra.

ii. All searches colony of ant which are different in shape and size and colour.

iii. Two suitable colonies are found about 6cm apart.iv. But no work proceeded as there were no food materials

with us to conduct the study.

Day 2:

Time: 11.45am

Date: 14.03.2011

i. Two ant colonies situated about 6cm apart, in previous day colonies was found but not provided food materials.

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ii. But due to rain on the previous evening, there was probably some disturbance of their nest today. So they are much keen to build nest instead of taking food.

iii. First biscuit is provided; there is not frequent gathering of ant around that.

iv. When sugar is provided, an ant came first and took a crystal of sugar and returned to nest.

v. After a few while, another ant came and took sugar crystal, after sometime it was quiet frequent to collect the sugar.

vi. After sometimes an big size ant with larger head came, inthe mean time the collection of sugar became less necessary than the nesting. They pluck soil particle and silica particle one by one through their jaw and keep it besides the hole.

Day 3:

Time: 11.30am

Date: 15.03.2011

i. In another colony of ant, it was also observed that the ants were plucking soil particle and silica particle one by one and making a mould near their nest.

ii. For watching their feeding behavior, sugar was provided.iii. About 15 min after, ants came out of their nest and they

settled themselves on the sugar.iv. After sometimes, one/two ants took the sugar into their

nest, but some of them remained there continuously.

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Fig: Ant carrying soil with jaw

Day 4:

Time: 11.30am

Date: 16.03.2011

i. The next attempt was to observe their nest.ii. A small ant colony is found and the nest is choosen for

our study.iii. To fulfill our study, we poured plaster of Paris in

liquid form into the nest frequently with the help of the10ml injection.

iv. After sometimes the level of the liquid plaster of Paris came into the upper most level.

v. The whole area was kept undisturbed.

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Day 5:

Time: 12 noon

Date: 18.03.2011

i. Another big ant colony was found in some distance of the first one.

ii. Liquid Plaster of Paris was also injected into the big nest.

iii. It takes a large quantity of Plaster of Paris as the nestis big and deep,

iv. When the nest was filled fully, the area was kept undisturbed for 2-3 days.

Fig: nest after injecting Plaster of Paris

Day 6:

Time: 11.30am

Date: 21.03.2011

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i. The near area of the first ant colony was dug very deep.ii. The nest structure was removed from the middle of the

digging area.iii. The excess mud was removed from the nest came out.iv. The nest was spiral shape with distinct chambers.

Day 7:

Time: 11.30am

Date: 22.03.2011

i. The big ant colony was dug.ii. A wide area besides the nest was dug.iii. In very deep position, the nest base of the nest was

found.iv. The nest is removed carefully.v. The excess mud is removed by knife and the approximate

structure of the nest came out.

Fig: connection between two any hole

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Digging ant nest Area after dug up

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Fig: Nest chamber

Day 8:

Time: 11.30am

Date: 25.03.2011

i. For testing their food behavior and food preference, we had tested them with sugar, biscuit and sugar coated ground nut.

ii. When biscuit was provided, no reaction came out from the ant.

iii. When sugar crystal was provided the number of ant was more frequent than previous.

iv. But when sugar coated ground nut was provided, the numberof ant was the most frequent among others.

Chapati & sweet provided Sugar crystal provided

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Sugar crystal provided Sugar crystal provided

ConclusionOn nest building:-

The ant hole near the water tap was with somewhat raised edges indicating that this was in order to prevent flooding of the hole with water.

The underground trenches may have a branched appearance.

The soil particles excavated from deep inside the ground aredeposited away from opening because it will help to bring more soil up to the ground.

On Feeding behavior:-

As that season was just before the rainy season, the ants were busy to build the underground trenches probable to gather food. This seems to us that this season was not for reproduction.We could not found any ant carrying eggs. They were busier in building their trenches.

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So far, as their food preferences were concerned, it was observed that the ants were more interested in sugar than other form of carbohydrates. They were using their powerful mandibles to carry and cut larger pieces of food

On studying the ant burrow:-

We found narrow passages going deep into the soil and opens up into a fairly large chamber, another narrow channel was going up to another chambers. We could not find anything stored into those chambers. The burrow went deeper in the fashion but did notexpand horizontally.