Glivery G. Gayahana and Walter R. Tschinkelb Department of

Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee

Presented by: Vivi Yunisa Harahap

1. The storage of food is an

obvious strategy against

future shortages

2. Food storages occurs

sporadically among animals

3. Among social insects, long-

term, internal storage of

liquid foods has evolved

among ants, giving rise in

the extreme case to

honeypot ants such as the

desert-dwelling species of

the genus Myrmecocystus

in which a replete caste

stores liquid food in the crop

for months.

To see how the fire ants in the

food store that will be used for the future

To ask whether the ants similarly

stockpile dried insect prey pieces in their

natural nest.

Cultivation of beetle larvae

(Zophobus atratus)

Dyed in a solution of 0.5%

Rhodamin B is mixed with the

water

Fire ant colonies in the field and

in the laboratory

Beetle larva was

cut with half

elongated

Given in wet

condition

Given 10 gr of dye

Zophobus atratus on

fire ant colonies in the

field

Petri dishes were

closed on both

sides

Measured the reduction in

weight of larvae that had

been collected by fire ants

After 24 hors

Excavated nest of fire

ants to seen the storage

of food by using

ultraviolet light

For one day of feeding,

the chloroform was

sprinkled on the top of a

fire ant nest

Photographic trays used

as a fire ant colony nest

in the laboratory

fed with sugar water and beetle larvae

maintained in damp

conditions at a temperature

of 280 C

A B

The researcher was observed evolution from the

behavior of fire ants maybe associated with the different

manner in which ants collect and transport liquid and

solid food

Liquids are taken into the distensible crop and shared by

trophallaxis, whereas solids are transported in the

mandibles.

The larva covers the pellet with salivary secretion,

which partly converts it into a liquefied product, which

is then collected and distributed around the colony by

worker trophallaxis

This tendency to separate the liquid food stream from

the solid may underlie the evolution of the preparation

of jerky.

The storage of food is an obvious strategy againstfuture shortages.

The result of insect prey obtained will be broughtto their nest and transformed into small pieces(Insect jerky)

The form of the result prey that is solid food andliquid food.

The worker ants transported the solid food in themandible whereas the liquid food are taken intothe distensible crop and shared by trophallaxis