Comparative assessment of foraging strategies in ants: A preliminary experimental study

The study of foraging behaviour in ants is a special challenge to entomologists and insect biologist as they usher a lot of distinct phenomenon modulations like food preferences, competition, bait monopolization, memory of trail track, etc. Therefore, in this study a short experimental method was used to check and verify the different types of ants present in the surroundings of the college premises and the type of food these varied types of ants preferred. Further, competitive strategies were also evaluated during the course of the study. Results clearly revealed that five different types of ant species were found of which the most abundant and dominant species being Camponotus compressus followed by Solenopsis geminata, Paratrechina longicornis, Diacamma sculpratum and Tetraponera rufonigra showing strong inter-specific competition. Further, the monopolization of C. compressus was also noted for honey and avoidance for neem extract by all types of ants was addressed in the course of this work. Thus, this preliminary work calls upon further research for evaluating the inter-relationship of genes regulating monopoly and food preferences in foraging ants in future.