Antz

AntzThe ants use an extensive system of tunnels which they distribute throughout the foraging territory. These tunnels go from about 2 to 7 cm belowthe surface and by having multiple ramifications with different exits that give the ants protection trough the 90 percent of the travel since theexits are close to the resources places. These tunnels are responsible for the activity of the ants to forage because they not only help them reach theresources but also protect them against predators, temperature changes and rain.
Studies on these ants revealed that they had evolved to be able tolive in lower latitudes where they would have less competition for resources. This can be done because the tunnels system they create let them foragefrom 12 through 51°C, while other types of ants can’t forage in temperatures over 42°C because they don’t have a system of tunnels that reduce the timeof the exposure to this temperature.

In seasonal changes the foraging behavior is described in the following graph where we can see that theactivity of forage is expressed through the whole year and have its peak at august.

Other observations shown that the ants prefer carbohydrates basedresources which are the ones that can be easily found on winter since the protein based resources decreased during that season. Other experiments withartificial nest had demonstrated that most of the protein food goes to the larvae and in some cases nest without larvae didn’t choose any protein food.