Optimal Feeding Diet and Rate of the Ant Species Lasius Neoniger

Indianapolis, IN

Ants are among the most successful organisms on Earth, being dominant competitors in nearly every terrestrial habitat. Because ant colonies function as superorganisms, with the foraging workers in the colony acting as a filter of what nutrients are brought to the nest, it is difficult to connect foraged nutrients with what nutrients actually translate into optimal growth. In this experiment we manipulated the protein and carbohydrate ratio and quantity available to colonies and measured colony growth. We used colonies of Lasius Neoniger, which is a species of ant that is found across the United States and Canada, and is one of the most abundant ant species on the continent. We provided food treatments of 1:2, 1:4, 1:8 and 1:16 (Protein:Carbohydrate), and fed colonies at three separete rates, twice weekly, once a week and once every two weeks. Every month, a census was taken of the number of workers in a colony, the main dependent variable we were analyzing with our treatments. We found that we have data that indicates that there are superior diets and feeding regiments in Lasius for overall colony health and growth. We are currently working to find whether habitat type (including habitat modification for development or agriculture) affect the nutrients available to colonies, and what colonies feed on in the field.