Foraging Strategy for Leaf Cutting Ants

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Acromyrmexbob
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Foraging Strategy for Leaf Cutting Ants

Post by Acromyrmexbob » Thu Dec 03, 2015 8:50 pm

OK, so heres some logical science which applies to our husbandry of these ants. So you are a colony of ants and you are based in a fixed location. And you are likely to be there for a number of years, possibly up to 15 years if you are Atta. If you start to strip a particular plant and you keep taking leaves from that plant every day because its close and you like it, then that plant will eventually die. If you then go to the next and the next, eventually there will be no plants left close to your nest and you will have to travel further and further away from the nest to find suitable leaves. The :Leaf Cutters have solved this problem by developing an anti over exploitation mechanism which means, in essence, that they will hit a plant hard one night and then, the next night, they will attack a different plant. In this way, by rotating their target plants from one location to the next each night, they avoid killing any plants around them. This is obvious in the tropics where, even although the ants may have a massive, tennis court sized nest, the plants immediately surrounding it are healthy and growing well. Its another example of sustainability where they have evolved a perfect approach to their environment. The implication of this in captivity are very interesting. If you give your ants a leaf type for two consecutive days their interest will decline on the second day markedly. So you have to develop a list of say 6 or 7 different food offerings and cycle through this before returning to the original leaf type on day 7 or 8. In public displays, where activity is the currency of a viable exhibit, I always stress the importance of variation to maintain the activity on the walk way and feeding table. Feeding the same food for an extended period results in a slow growing, unexciting colony.
Let me know if this is borne out in your observations.

Atta solider
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Re: Foraging Strategy for Leaf Cutting Ants

Post by Atta solider » Wed Feb 10, 2016 10:50 pm

Nice info there great I'll try this out and see

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