A Study on Humidity preference in Atta

[Acromyrmexbob]

Okay, this is interesting mainly because it is a scientific study but the findings seem extremely obvious to people who keep LCA's.

Humidity preference for fungus culturing by workers of the
leaf-cutting ant Atta sexdens rubropilosa
F. Roces and C. Kleineidam
Zoologie II, Biozentrum der Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany, e-mail: roces@biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de
First published in Insectes sociatus; 47 (2000), 4. - pp. 348-350


The hygropreference of gardening workers of
the leaf-cutting ant Atta sexdens rubropilosa was investigated
in the laboratory using a gradient of relative humidity.
Gardening workers were placed, together with pieces of
fungus garden, in small, interconnected nest chambers offering
four different relative humidities: 33%, 75%, 84% and
98% RH. Workers were allowed to move freely between
them and to relocate the fungus following their humidity
preference. While workers distributed themselves randomly
in the nest chambers, they located the fungus gardens in the
chamber with the highest humidity. These results indicate
that gardening workers are able to sense differences in
relative humidity, and that this ability is shown when they are
engaged in fungus culturing. Humidity is discussed as one
of the relevant variables that probably underlay the evolution
of regulatory responses for the control of fungus growth in
leaf-cutting ants.