Small, fun projects [ants]
When I left Arizona in 2018, I carried along with me a small batch of Palo Brea seeds thinking and hoping that I'd eventually be able to grow some small plants here. (I should note that Palo Brea are fast-growing TREES, so I'd have to cull them after a point or turn them into bonsai). The seeds are still sitting in a small Mason jar here on my desk, at work. I'm not entirely certain of their germination requirements; I believe that, in the wild, they typically germinate during the hot summer monsoon months.
The trouble is, I have run out of dried Palo Brea leaves to feed the two leafcutter colonies here. So, what to do?
Some of the projects from Scientific Writing this past fall gave me an idea. This species seems to enjoy harvesting leaves from leguminous plants. So, maybe I should try growing a leguminous plant or two, and feed the shoots to the ants.
I used my lab's fancy drill press to drill more holes in the bottom of more yogurt tubs, and took advantage of my lab's nice, deep windowsill, plus a set of my favorite green seed trays that I discovered in the supplies I inherited with my lab space, to begin my ExPEAriment, as I am calling it:
Take that, Winter!
Initial popularity test:
Not the greatest macro photo setup, but hopefully if you squint you can see that the ants are, indeed, adding green leaf chunks to the fungus garden:
A couple hours later, and the evidence is clear: they like it!
The pea plants continue to grow:
So I gave them a bunch more today.
A bonANTza, as my PhD advisor would say!
They like to get internal storage depots going sometimes before adding stuff into the fungus garden:
It's fun to watch them at work.
There's actually even more backstory to this. Way back during my PhD I tried to grow and feed wheatgrass to some leafcutter ant colonies, based on the suggestion of one of my PhD advisors who primarily works with grasshoppers. But I could never seem to get the logistics right for the wheatgrass. Instead of a lush carpet of wheatgrass I only ever managed to grow a few spindly blades, and even when I tried giving colonies a handful of wheatgrass hacked from a storebought container, it just didn't seem like I got much plant material. I think that wheatgrass might just be too watery and insubstantial for the ants.
So the pea shoots are looking MUCH more promising, which is even more satisfying in the context of those wheatgrass failures from so long ago. This entry was originally posted at https://rebeccmeister.dreamwidth.org/1439593.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
The trouble is, I have run out of dried Palo Brea leaves to feed the two leafcutter colonies here. So, what to do?
Some of the projects from Scientific Writing this past fall gave me an idea. This species seems to enjoy harvesting leaves from leguminous plants. So, maybe I should try growing a leguminous plant or two, and feed the shoots to the ants.
I used my lab's fancy drill press to drill more holes in the bottom of more yogurt tubs, and took advantage of my lab's nice, deep windowsill, plus a set of my favorite green seed trays that I discovered in the supplies I inherited with my lab space, to begin my ExPEAriment, as I am calling it:
Take that, Winter!
Initial popularity test:
Not the greatest macro photo setup, but hopefully if you squint you can see that the ants are, indeed, adding green leaf chunks to the fungus garden:
A couple hours later, and the evidence is clear: they like it!
The pea plants continue to grow:
So I gave them a bunch more today.
A bonANTza, as my PhD advisor would say!
They like to get internal storage depots going sometimes before adding stuff into the fungus garden:
It's fun to watch them at work.
There's actually even more backstory to this. Way back during my PhD I tried to grow and feed wheatgrass to some leafcutter ant colonies, based on the suggestion of one of my PhD advisors who primarily works with grasshoppers. But I could never seem to get the logistics right for the wheatgrass. Instead of a lush carpet of wheatgrass I only ever managed to grow a few spindly blades, and even when I tried giving colonies a handful of wheatgrass hacked from a storebought container, it just didn't seem like I got much plant material. I think that wheatgrass might just be too watery and insubstantial for the ants.
So the pea shoots are looking MUCH more promising, which is even more satisfying in the context of those wheatgrass failures from so long ago. This entry was originally posted at https://rebeccmeister.dreamwidth.org/1439593.html. Please comment there using OpenID.