In a twist that surprised UCLA researchers, starving ants were more cautious, not less, in their search for food. Argentine ants have been able to displace native ant species in large part because of their aggressive foraging for sugar and other carbohydrates. However, when they’ve been depr
An Argentine ant tending aphids, plant parasites that secrete a sugar-rich substance the ants consume. Credit: UCLA/Noa Pinter-Wollmanresearchers, starving ants were more cautious, not less, in their search for food.in large part because of their aggressive foraging for sugar and other carbohydrates.
, an invasive species that displaces native ant populations in California and elsewhere and has become a significant agricultural pest, the researchers said., suggest that the unwillingness of Argentine ants to expose themselves to danger when weakened by hunger could possibly give them a competitive edge over other species by helping to preserve their colonies’ foraging capabilities.
First author Bryce Barbee, who conducted the research as a UCLA undergraduate, expected that starving Argentine ants of either carbohydrates or protein would only increase their willingness to forage for those foods in high-risk environments because they had little to lose and everything to gain. In both high- and low-risk foraging scenarios, the ants were more willing to forage for carbohydrates than protein, which they only need to raise their brood. Since no eggs or pupae were present in the laboratory colonies, this finding might not be surprising, but it could also indicate that starving ants put their own energetic needs ahead of raising offspring, the researchers said.
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