How Intelligent Are Ants?
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2015 5:29 pm
I live in central Indiana, so there have been nuptial flights of many species in my area including Tetramorium caespitum , Lasius niger, and some Camponotus ants. I have found only one Camponotus queen, and when I caught her, I didn't have a test tube setup prepared for her. When I found her, she was right in front of my garage, and she ran and hid inside a little hole in the brick that was slightly larger than her (I was able to see her inside but I didn't try to get her out in case I hurt her in the process). She eventually crawled back out, and I caught her and put her in a cup with a cloth over it for a temporary setup while I ran inside to prepare a test tube. I placed the temp. setup in the back of my garage about 20 or so feet from where I caught her. I came back out in about five minutes, and she had escaped the temp. setup. I was upset, but something compelled me to check where I caught her (like I said, the temp. setup was 20 feet from where I caught her), and I found her inside the same little hole in the brick! I carried her in my hand (she was inside my fist so she couldn't escape) to the temp. setup so there was no way she could have left a scent trail on the ground. She had previously torn her wings off so there was no way she could've flown. I scoured everywhere in my garage for the queen to make sure there weren't two of them. I didn't find her in my garage, and I hadn't seen any Camponotus queens anywhere in my neighborhood except that one. There is a slim chance that they were not the same queen, so this makes me really wonder how smart they are.
The queen died two weeks ago in her test-tube setup, so I cannot do any experimenting with the same queen. Perhaps some of you could try this with queen ants you catch?
Thanks for reading!
The queen died two weeks ago in her test-tube setup, so I cannot do any experimenting with the same queen. Perhaps some of you could try this with queen ants you catch?
Thanks for reading!