Homework 1 Bio 3840

Based on the Documentary “ANTS- Nature’s Secret Power” answer the following short answer questions.https://youtu.be/Z-gIx7LXcQM

1. Only Ants and Humans have domesticated other species. What two species have ants domesticated? Why? Species 1: mealybugs, which they use to collect honey dew out of plants-

supply ants with food and the mealybugs get protection against predators from the ants

Species 2: Aphids also provide ants with honey dew in return for protection against predators

Carnivorous plants: ants live in the stem of the carnivorous plant and when the victim falls inside, using their adaptation of swimming in water and ability to walk on the rim, use them as a food source in return for protection of the plant from herbivores.

2. What Type of insects did ants evolve from? Wasps

3. Ants communicate primarily through what sensory modality? How are new nest sites chosen by ant communities? Ants touch the ground with their bodies leaving a scent trail. The scout

ants originally start this trail and the site is chosen based of their trails. The workers follow the trails. The site of nest is chosen by a process of “ chemical democracy,” meaning that the scent’s strength by the determines the site.

4. What are the different castes of Grass cutter ants? What are the specific jobs of each caste and how has the body structure adapted to each role? They have cutters and transporters

o Cutters: using their powerful jaws, cut through the tough grass leaving and the measure the length of the cut to take back to the ground

o Transporters: runner like physique, lightly built, used to carry the pieces of sticks or grass about 50 meters each and then pass on to other transporter for a total of about 300 meters.

Female Antso Big ants are workers

o Medium sized ants are transporterso Small sized ants are gardeners and also tend the brood

Queen lays the eggs Her scent is the indicator for her health When queen dies, a worker takes its place and becomes fertile

5. What do grass cutter ants eat? Where do they get it from? These types of ants harvest the leaves obtained from the plants, which

grow the fungus when the leaves are chewed up into a pulp. The pulp decomposes along with the ant feces, creating spores and then fungus. The ants then consume the fungus.

6. If a queen dies, how is a new one chosen? (i.e. give an example of a species where the queen is replaced and how)

After the queen dies, few of the workers in the colony become fertile and fight with each other using their antennae and jaws to replace the queen. This is especially prominent in the ponerine ants, which have no caste system.

7. How many times its own Body weight can a weaver ant hold suspended upside down from a glass surface?

100 x its own weight