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VOL. 8, ISSUE 7 (2023)
Ants’ cooperative food retrieval: A review
Authors
Khokan Naskar, Srimanta Kumar Raut, Sangita Maiti Dutta
Abstract
Ants' food retrieval behaviour has drawn the attention of various
workers. It is now well established that ants forage at large, individually
here and there in their foraging area. An individual forager when comes
across a food item which is self-manageable to carry the same to the nest then
she finds no problem to procure the same to the nest. But, if the food item is
heavy and unmanageable for her to procure the same to the nest then she looks
for the arrival of the nest-mates. Depending upon the available food source
they apply trail pheromone along their pathway to and fro from food source to the
nest. They apply different food carrying strategies, depending upon the nature
of food, that is, either liquid or solid. Following decision the nest mates retrieve
the targeted food item either individually or cooperatively as such, and/or cut
the same into pieces to ensure procurement of these fragments either individually
or in small groups. But, earlier reviewers though have paid due attention on
the decision making processes and cooperative food transportation no
analysis have been done in respect to fragmentation of food item and retrieval
behaviour of the same. Also no attention has ever been paid to analyze the
retrieval mechanism of liquid and semi liquid foods. Thus, this review presents
a holistic approach of ants' food retrieval mechanisms highlighting the
possible trends of development of the process.
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Pages:62-68
How to cite this article:
Khokan Naskar, Srimanta Kumar Raut, Sangita Maiti Dutta "Ants’ cooperative food retrieval: A review". International Journal of Entomology Research, Vol 8, Issue 7, 2023, Pages 62-68
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