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When searching for food, primary orientation is when ants are exploring a new terrain without the guidance of odor trails. Secondary orientation is when terrain has been explored, and there are pre-existing odor trails which ants use to orient themselves. When T. sessile ants are orienting themselves for the first time they often rely on ...
Ants communicating through touch. Ant communication in most species involves pheromones, which is a method using chemical trails for other ants or insects to find and follow. [1] However, ants of some species can communicate without using pheromones or chemical trails in general.
As predators, scavengers, and herbivores, ants have a variety of food sources, for which they may journey as far as 200 meters from their nest, spraying a scent trail as they go. [3] To lead their kin to new food sources, ants demonstrate one of the few examples of interactive teaching outside of the mammalian class.
Image credits: ZZGooch #3. I didn't know people can't smell ants, bugs, and other scents. First time I walked into a friend's apartment I said "whoa dude you got an ant problem!"
Ants can produce a trail of defensive secretions that trigger an alarm response within their nestmates. [7] In regards to foraging, an ant can communicate the quality of a food source to its colony; the more rewarding a food source is, the higher the concentration of the trail produced. [8]
Many ant-dispersed seeds have special external structures, elaiosomes, that are sought after by ants as food. [180] Ants can substantially alter rate of decomposition and nutrient cycling in their nest. [181] [182] By myrmecochory and modification of soil conditions they substantially alter vegetation and nutrient cycling in surrounding ecosystem.
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However, this species can fire/shoot a formic acid spray from its abdomen when under attack by other insects or attacking other insects. When the longhorn crazy ant (Paratrechina longicornis) bends its abdomen while aiming at an enemy insect, it is typically shooting its hard-to-see acid. These ants can be touched safely, similar to the ghost ants.