Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Food preference and foraging of fire ant Solenopsis nitens

Food preference and foraging of fire ant Solenopsis nitens Experiments were carried out to note the preference of food viz. carbohydrate (sucrose, glucose, and fructose), saturated fat, unsaturated fat and protein (dead cockroach) by a breeding colony of Solenopsis nitens. The ants showed an increasing preference for liquid foods (glucose, sucrose, fructose, saturated fat, unsaturated fat) during initial 7–8 consecutive days of studies. In the next four consecutive days there was an increase in the preference for solid food (animal protein). The ascending order of preference of liquid food items was glucose, sucrose, fructose, unsaturated fat, and saturated fat respectively. A distinct trailing pattern of foraging was observed on placing the food item beyond a distance of 20 cm from the nest site. The length of these trails increased with the increasing distance of the nest site from the food item. The active period of foraging was confined to 15:00 hours to 8:00 hours. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Proceedings of the Zoological Society Springer Journals

Food preference and foraging of fire ant Solenopsis nitens

Download PDF
5 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/food-preference-and-foraging-of-fire-ant-solenopsis-nitens-8yztUaRiqB

References (11)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by Zoological Society, Kolkata
Subject
Life Sciences; Conservation Biology/Ecology; Biodiversity; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Animal Anatomy / Morphology / Histology; Zoology ; Life Sciences, general
ISSN
0373-5893
eISSN
0974-6919
DOI
10.1007/s12595-010-0010-8
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Experiments were carried out to note the preference of food viz. carbohydrate (sucrose, glucose, and fructose), saturated fat, unsaturated fat and protein (dead cockroach) by a breeding colony of Solenopsis nitens. The ants showed an increasing preference for liquid foods (glucose, sucrose, fructose, saturated fat, unsaturated fat) during initial 7–8 consecutive days of studies. In the next four consecutive days there was an increase in the preference for solid food (animal protein). The ascending order of preference of liquid food items was glucose, sucrose, fructose, unsaturated fat, and saturated fat respectively. A distinct trailing pattern of foraging was observed on placing the food item beyond a distance of 20 cm from the nest site. The length of these trails increased with the increasing distance of the nest site from the food item. The active period of foraging was confined to 15:00 hours to 8:00 hours.

Journal

Proceedings of the Zoological Society – Springer Journals

Published: Aug 15, 2010

There are no references for this article.