how ants communicate

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ants are an amazing creature they are unique and an interesting one to know

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Page 1: How ants communicate
Page 2: How ants communicate

The Group Members

•Utkarsh Kumar – GROUP LEADER

•Shubham Suday•Mohit Singhania•Roshan•Ramnik Ujjwal•Nikhil singh

Page 3: How ants communicate

Index• Introduction• Ants• Pheromone• Experiment (Materials Required)• Preparation• Experiment• Observation • Conclusion• Relation with biodiversity.

Page 4: How ants communicate

Introduction

• Ants are very humanlike creatures, like us, they live in colonies (societies) , hunt together for food ,protect their homes from enemies , mate and also communicate .

• This communication makes it possible for them to live together and is probably the reason why they flourish all over the earth.

• We decided to do an experiment to find out whether and how ants communicate.

Page 5: How ants communicate

MATERIALS REQUIRED

Transparent Pipes Transparent Sheet

Shoebox

Sugar

Small Cardboard box

Chart Paper

Page 6: How ants communicate

Preparation• The shoebox was taken and two

holes were made in it, near the bottom.

• The same was repeated for the butter box

• The top of each of the boxes was removed and a plastic sheet was stuck on top.

Page 7: How ants communicate

• The pipe was cut into two halves , one longer and the other shorter.

• Both the boxes were placed some distance apart and the shorter pipe was placed in a straight line to one hole on each box.

• The longer pipe was placed in a zigzag manner to the remaining hole in the boxes.

• The bottom of the boxes was covered with white chart paper.

Page 8: How ants communicate

Experiment• Sugar was placed in both the boxes.• Ants were then released in the bigger box.• Then the behaviour of the ant were

observed.• The experiment was repeated several times

with the following changes :-1. All old ants were removed and new ones were

introduced2. The entire apparatus was shifted to a new area,

also the air was sucked out through a vaccum cleaner

Page 9: How ants communicate

TIME OBSERVATION INFERENCE 2 sec. There was one ant going

by each pipe.Both the ants sensed the food and travelled to the food

30 sec. The ant from the shorter pipe reaches the food faster while the other ant is still mid-way.

The first ant took the shorter path.

1 min. The second ant reaches the other end which took the longer path while the other ant had reached back. Till now equal ants were going by both ants.

This shows that ants are not able to find the shorter path until an ant had returned back .

Page 10: How ants communicate

TIME OBSERVATION INFERENCE2-5 min. Now ant are travelling by both

paths.This shows that ant release pheromone while coming back.

30 min. Most of the ants travel through the shorter path.

There was more pheromone on the shorter path.

1 hr. The number of ants travelling the shorter path was 18 times the number of the ants travelling by the longer path.

This was because less pheromone was released in the second path became weaker while it became stronger in the longer path. Any ant will take the shorter path ,as it knows that the shorter pipe is safe and short.

Page 11: How ants communicate

Conclusion• Ants must release some substance to communicate with each other as one ant does not have to be present for it to communicate with the first ant.

• This substance must be transmitted via the ground as change in surroundings do not affect it.

Page 12: How ants communicate

• Ants are insects belonging to the family Formicidae.• They are between 110 to 130 million years old• Their body is divided into head, alitrunk , petiole and

gastor.• They are found in all parts of the world excluding

Antarctica and a few remote places.• They are 22,000 species of ants and they form 12 % of

the planet’s total animals• Ants have division of labour among them – workers.

soldiers. drones queens etc. Ants are truly amazing creatures .Don’t you

agree?

Page 13: How ants communicate

• Ants communicate using pheromones. Pheromone come from the Greek word “phero” meaning “to bear” and hormone.

• Pheromone is a secreted or an excreted chemical that causes a social response among members of the same species.

• These pheromones are sensed by the thin, wiry projections on the heads of the ants called antennae.

• There are several different types of pheromone:– Pheromone used for finding where food is located– Propaganda pheromone which confuses ants of other

colonies– Attack pheromone which is released by dying ants ,

causing others ants to go into a frenzy.

Page 14: How ants communicate

CONNECTION WITH BIODIVERSITY

• Ants may seem like alien creatures with their antennae and strange eyes.

• But through this experiment we came to know that they are very simmilar to us .

• Like us they communicate. This shows the power of evolution even though we my look very different, we all share the same basic set of features.

• Now before killing any animal , however small it may be ask yourself “Will you kill a fellow human if it were in place of this insect ?”

Page 15: How ants communicate

BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD !!!