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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.
Trail pheromones are semiochemicals secreted from the body of an individual to affect the behavior of another individual receiving it. Trail pheromones often serve as a multi purpose chemical secretion that leads members of its own species towards a food source, while representing a territorial mark in the form of an allomone to organisms ...
Fire ants use track pheromones to mark the path from the colony to feeding sites. Trace pheromones are mainly known in insects living in colonies, which mark their paths with low-volatile substances such as higher molecular weight hydrocarbons. Ants in particular often mark the path from a food source to the nest in this way. [77]
Pheromones can be used instead of insecticides in orchards. Pest insects are attracted by sex pheromones, allowing farmers to evaluate pest levels, and if need be to provide sufficient pheromone to disrupt mating. Chemical communication in insects is social signalling between insects of the same or different species, using chemicals.
In the natural world, ants of some species (initially) wander randomly, and upon finding food return to their colony while laying down pheromone trails. If other ants find such a path, they are likely to stop travelling at random and instead follow the trail, returning and reinforcing it if they eventually find food (see Ant communication).
Ants use pheromones for more than just making trails. A crushed ant emits an alarm pheromone that sends nearby ants into an attack frenzy and attracts more ants from farther away. Several ant species even use "propaganda pheromones" to confuse enemy ants and make them fight among themselves. [91]
The returning worker ants have also been found to emit more pheromones than those leaving the nest, causing the difference in concentration of pheromone in the trails. [21] The pheromones will allow foraging to be much more efficient by allowing the army ants to avoid their own former paths and those of their conspecifics. [ 19 ]
Pharaoh ants utilize three types of pheromones. One is a long-lasting attractive chemical that is used to build a trail network. It remains detectable even if the ants do not use the trail for several days. Pharaoh ants cease activity at night and begin each day of work at around 8 am, yet parts of the trail network are identical each day. [11]