Notes

Outline

Formica Ant (The Obscuripes Species )

Table of Contents Page 2   Table of Contents                       Page 3   Table of Contents- Part 2 Page 4   Project Information Page            Page 5    Formica Ants Page 6   Body Parts                                   Page 7    Ant Diagram Page 8   Habitat                                         Page 9    Queen Page 10  Female Ants                                Page 11  Male Ants Page 12  Life Cycle                                   Page 13  Food for Ants Page 14  Dangers                                       Page 15  Nest Page 16 Formica Ants Nest - Drawing      Page 17  Repairing the Nest Page 18  Below the Nest

Table of Contents -  Part 2

Project Information Page Grade Category: grade (4-6) Team Size: (1)        Subject Area: Earth Science         Project Type: Descriptive  Language: English Hardware tools used:  Pentium IV PC, Scanner, Sony digital Cyber-Shot camera. Software tools used:  Microsoft Power Point, and Word 2000, ACD photo management and device aquire software. I got the source for my idea for doing a project on ants from seeing the actual nest at my grandparent’s house while playing outdoors.        I used my drawing skills , my knowledge and experience with digital photography downloading to edit and insert the many pictures I took with the camera. Project Summery I will be studying Formica ants, the species Obscuripes that live on lower Vancouver Island. My area study will be an ants’ nest on my grandparent’s property. I will observe the growth of the ants’ nest and the behavior of the ants. I will do three simple science experiments on the ants and tell you about my successes and maybe you could do them. I will be researching and writing a report on ants.       Table of Contents

Formica Obscuripes Ants There are over 30 different species of Formica ants.  Some kinds of Formica ants shoot poison from their abdomen to kill big insects they want to eat. They use poising to protect the anthill. Their poison is strong enough to make a person faint. Some kinds of Formica ants can pick up things 20 times heaver than themselves. Formica ants live everywhere except they don’t live in polar places. All Formica ants make ant hills; some make them in dead tree trunks or make nests under the trees. The Formica ants I will be observing are the Obscuripes species. Formica Ants usually bite hard, after they bite you they will spray acid into your wound. They do sometimes bite people and poison them to protect themselves or their nest. If a person gets a lot of bites they can get red welts and get very sick. These ants are also known as the Ants of Colorado.        Table of Contents

Body Parts Ant body parts include antennas, head, thorax, abdomen, eyes, maxilla, mandible, feet, claws, legs, stomach, social stomach and stinger. Ants are an insect because they have six legs and an exoskeleton (a exoskeleton means that the skeleton is on the outside of their body instead of the inside) and they have three main parts to their body. The main parts of them are the head , the chest and the abdomen. Ant antenna are like our senses, with them they taste, touch and smell.  Ant eyes are not very good, they can not see well because they see through what looks like a smashed up mirror. Ants have two mandibles, they work as hands. They use their mandibles to fight, carry things and dig with. Ants have a maxilla that used to chew their food.  The mandibles are in front of the maxilla. The thorax is in an ant’s chest. It is in the middle of the ant. All six legs are attached to the thorax, three on each side. Their feet have two claws attached. They use the claws for climbing and walking upside down. The abdomen is the biggest part of the ant’s body; they store their food in it. The ant’s abdomen has two stomachs in it, the social stomach and the regular stomach. It also has the stinger on the end.       Table of Contents

Ant Diagram- Drawing by Victoria Lloyd

Habitat Ants have lived on the earth for many thousands of years. Ants live everywhere except in extremely cold places.  Some ants can live in trees, they weave leafs together using silky threads made by the younger ants. Ants that live together form a colony.  A colony can be two dozen to a million ants. They use almost anything to build their nest. Formica ants use pine needles and twigs. The species Obscuripes live in Valdez, Anchorage, Alaska, Manitoba, Alberta and B.C. This type of ant number in the millions. They live in gravel, sand, clay, loam, under rocks, under boulders, mason forms, hatch nests and decaying logs.        Table of Contents

Queen The Queen has wings when it is first hatched. She gets rid of her wings after she has mated. The Queens fly in the air followed by the males. They stay in the air for awhile and try not to get eaten by birds. The Queens and the males that survive mate. After the queen mates she either goes back to her old colony or starts a new one. She goes deep down inside the ant hill, then the queen starts laying tiny little eggs. She lays a few every day. The queen is bigger than all the other ants.       Table of Contents

Female Ants Female ants are the worker ants. Females do everything, they feed the other ants, protect the nest, care for the eggs and larva, make and fix the nest and hunt for food. They can not lay eggs or fly. Each female gets a job, then has to keep that job for the rest of her life. The female can’t see very well so they use their antennas to smell their food and they leave a scented trail so they can find their way back to the nest. The worker ants of the Obscuripes species I am studying are just less than a centimeter long and have a red bright head, darker red thorax and a black abdomen.       Table of Contents

Males Ants Male ants are slightly larger than worker ants. Male ants have wings, but they only fly once in their short life. They hatch in spring so they are ready for the mating flight. They do not have to gather food or feed themselves and they stay hidden in the nest till the mating flight. Worker ants look after males. Some of the male ants die during the  mating flight with the queen and after the mating flight all the other males die. I have not seen any male ants in my nest site.        Table of Contents

Life Cycle There are four stages to an ants life. The first stage is the egg. The egg is no bigger than a grain of sand after the queen lays it. The worker ants lick the eggs to keep them clean and growing. It stays an egg for 14 days then it turns in to  larva, it looks like a tiny little worm. The worker ants feed and care for the larva. The skin gets tighter as it grows, it peals and sheds 4 or 5 times. Larva makes it self into a cocoon. Now it is a pupas and it grows and changes inside the cocoon. The pupa turns into adult. Ant workers bite the cocoon open and a pale ant crawls out.  It gets strong , dark and ready to work  fast. This is called metamorphosis.       Table of Contents

Food For Ants They eat seeds, other insects, spiders, bits of food left by people, and worms. Some ants are farmers, they farm aphids. They get a sweet liquid from the aphids by tapping and stroking them. They move the Aphids on a plant and farm more to get more of this liquid called honey dew. The ants I am studying are farmers. They farm aphids on a small holly bush near the nest. When I took a close look at the bush, there were a lot of ants on it. They were moving and sucking the juice from the aphids. They put the aphids on the underside of the leaves and on the small branches. My grandfather said he cannot plant cabbage or broccoli in the garden near the nest because there is always aphids and ants galore.       Table of Contents

Dangers Ant dangers include birds, spiders, centipedes, beetles, other types of ants and other animals that break into nests. They protect themselves by using their jaw. People do not like nest because as from those nests often destroy houses slowly so they get rid of ants by poisoning them or burning nests. My grandma’s dog thinks the nest we are studying is an old stump so she walks over it and that could damage the nest.        Table of Contents

Nest The species Obscuripes of Formica ants I am studying have  built their nest in an old tree stump. The stump can not be seen anymore because the ants have mounded up dirt and pine needles. This is typical of this type of ant to build up their nest in mounds. My grandfather said it can grow up to three feet high by the end of a hot summer. The worker ants are seen out fixing and making the nest bigger on most days, but there is always more out on warmer days. I have observed that the ants go into the nest at night and when it is cold.        Table of Contents

Formica Ant Nest –Drawing by Victoria Lloyd

Repairing the Nest The ants’ nest may be damaged by birds. Worker ants spread around to find the predator that attacked the nest. They carry the eggs in their mouths to safety, then move grains of sand or pine needles in their mouths to the hole to repair it. In the  nest I am studying they are using pine needles and leaves to repair the nest.      Table of Contents

Below the Nest- Drawing by Victoria Lloyd

Nest Site -1 First day  of observing Ant Nest March 9. 10:00 A.M. First Observation.-   It snowed  the night before and there was not an ant in site. The weather was cold and wet and the ants have been seen before, but they do not like this cold weather. Temp.: 5 degrees C Weather: cold and wet Nest size at start of science project: 30cm high, diameter across top-65cm Diameter across bottom-1m Table of Contents- Part 2

Nest Site -2 Day 2 March 12, 1.00 p.m. Second Observation- It is hot and there are hundreds of ants out repairing the nest from the birds picking at it and making large holes all winter. Temperature: 15degress C Weather: Sunny and warm Table of Contents- Part 2

Nest Site-3 Day 3 March 21, 2006   12:00 p.m. Third Observation: It is a cool day and there are ants still fixing the worst hole that the birds have made. The other holes have already been repaired. Table of Contents- Part 2

Nest Site- 4 Day 4 March 26th 1:00 P.M. Temperature: 18 degrees c Weather: warm Observation: Many ants are out rebuilding up the nest. It appears they only like to come out when it is nice weather. They seem to be adding to the height of the nest slowly. The ants are spreading out in the diameter off the top of the nest to make it stronger and higher. Table of Contents- Part 2

Nest Site - 5 Day 5 April 2, 2:00 P.M Temp.: 14 degrees c Weather: cool and wet Observation: The Ants are still out working on the nest but not as many because it is colder. Table of Contents- Part 2

Nest Site - 6 Day 6 April 12th Temp.: 16 degrees Weather: Cool and windy, some sun on nest Observation: Hundreds of ants out working on nest. The nest is getting more green growth on it. It is getting more of a mound instead of being flat on top. Table of Contents- Part 2

Nest Site - 7 Day 7 April 17th Temp.: 18 degrees c Weather: Warm and Sunny Observation: Hundreds of ants out working on nest. There are lots of plants growing on the nest. Nest size at end of science project: 36cm high, diameter across top-65 cm diameter across bottom-1m Table of Contents- Part 2

Nest Site Conclusions I learned that the ants like to go  in their nest at night. I learned that there is a stump under the nest. I learned also that plants can grow on the nest and  I learned that the nest gets smaller in the winter and gets built up in spring. It is fun to observe the nest growing and changing. I will be watching it all summer and  I will watch it get smaller in winter.I will take some pictures and add to this web site for others to watch my ants’ nest. Table of Contents- Part 2

1st Experiment  Branch in the Way Purpose: I will be finding out what the ants will do when something big is put on the ant nest in their way. Prediction: I think they will move the branch. Materials; One branch Procedure: I put a small leafy branch on top of the ants’ nest and leave it there and see what they will do with it. Table of Contents- Part 2

Experiment 1- Part 2 Observation: When I first put the branch on the ants, a few of them slowly explored it. When I came back a few day later they appeared to have removed the pine needle of the branch. When I went back 10 days later the needles were all gone. Conclusion: Ants will use the natural obstruction for building their nest. Table of Contents- Part 2

2nd Experiment – What people food do they like Purpose: I want to find out what people food they like best. Prediction: I think they will like the bread crumbs the best. Materials: A plate, apple core, bread, banana and a piece of cheese. Procedure: I will put all four foods on the plate and get my mom to put some  ants in a jar then dump out the ants on to the plate and see what food they like to eat best. Table of Contents- Part 2

2nd Experiment – What people food do they like Part 2 Observation: They didn’t like the  banana or the cheese. They liked the bread a little bit and they loved  the apple. Conclusion: The ants like the apple best. Perhaps It is a naturally occurring food in the area Table of Contents- Part 2

3 rd Experiment - What will they with to the Apple? Purpose: To find out if they will eat the whole thing. Prediction: I think they will eat the whole thing. Materials: One apple core Procedure: Throw the apple core on the nest and watch what happens. Table of Contents- Part 2

3 rd Experiment - What will they do with the Apple? Part 2

My Study Conclusion This has been a fun project. I have learned a lot about Formica ants. I have learned that some ants are farmers. I’ve learned that there are many different kinds of ants. I learned that they shoot poison. I didn’t know before that worker ants were females and that males only lived a short time. I would like to thank my Grandparents for letting me come over and study the nest on a regular basis. I would like to thank Dr. A Canning, R.P.Bio. from the Royal BC Museum for helping me find out the species I was studying were Obscuripes Formica ants. Table of Contents- Part 2

Bibliography Web sites: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0031(197704)97%3A2%3C390%3AEOTMNO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-7\     ©2000-2006 JSTOR Visited  April 16th Web Images: http://lis.epfl.ch/research/projects/SocialAnts/images/ForObs3-myrmecos-AlexWild2004.jpg  Visited April 8, 2006 http://www.painetworks.com/photos/ii/ii1966.JPG Visited April 13, 2006 Table of Contents- Part 2

Bibliography –Part 2 Books: An Introduction to the Behavior of Ants, by John H. Sudd Text copyright 1967 John Sudd Ant, by Stephen Savage, Illustrated by Clive Pritchard Text copyright 1995 Wayland (publishers) Ltd Ants, by Deborah Hodge, Illustrated by Julian Mulock Text copyright 2004 Deborah Hodge Photo copyrights 2004 Julian Mulock Ants, by Ruth Berman, illustrations by William Munoz Text copyright 1996  By learner Publications Company Photo copyrights 1996 by William Munoz Table of Contents