All of the transplanted greenhouse colonies have been thoroughly reassessed on their patrolling behavior and responses to vibrational disturbance, leafcutter intruders, army ant intruders, and leaf damage. A terabyte of videos await analysis, so stay tuned for the colony comparisons of how much they've changed since the transplant last year and if their behavior was affected by their host plant's soil nutrients.
Watch a patroller recruit to leaf damage
Patrolling Azteca ants that discover freshly damaged leaf material recruit their nestmates to the damaged site to fend off any offenders (or even make a meal of them if they can). This robust, fascinating behavior is one of my favorites to watch unfold. However, it is very difficult to film this interaction in its entirety because tracking such small, fast individuals while maintaining a decent focus takes practice and luck. Recently, I was lucky enough to follow the discoverer from the damage site, along the leaf vein to the petiole junction, all the way across the petiole to the main stem, and back. If you look closely you can see her dragging her abdomen as she runs to lay a pheromone trail that her nestmates follow. She also seems to release an alarm pheromone at the leaf-petiole junction that activates all the poised workers waiting there.
Stretching to the Treetops
After 5 years of dreaming about what Azteca colonies are like in the tops of the tallest Cecropia trees, my collaborator Karla Moeller and I have made it a reality by renting a boom lift and taking it into the jungle. Now we have answers to some very simple questions - are there separate colonies in these large branching trees? are giant colonies more or less aggressive? do they show variation in collective behavior like smaller trees? do they respond to leaf damage like younger colonies? do they colonies all branch tips, or just a few? what's the colony connectivity like between branches at opposite ends of the tree? Results are forthcoming, stay tuned.
No army ants allowed
My most aggressive greenhouse colony will not tolerate the presence of a single army ant (Eciton hamatum). Watch this colony's impressive response.
5 months later, the greenhouse thrives
Five months after their initial extraction, most of the transplanted colonies took to their new Cecropia plants and are thriving quite well! The plants are responding strongly to the nutrient treatments and the tallest is taller than me. Phase III, behavioral reassessment of the colonies, is imminent. Stay tuned.
Phase II Commenced
We have harvested and implanted all the colonies to the greenhouse. It's amazing to see them take so well to their new home! I have left them in good hands and returned to Arizona. The colonies will grow and develop in their new hosts and different soil treatments until they are ripe for behavioral reassessment in early 2016. Will they maintain their personalities from the field? Will they be influenced by soil phosphorus? Stay tuned.
Happy 6 months
My babies are 6 months old today! I wouldn't have expected how much care, attention, patience, and love it took to be a parent of 79 Cecropia obtusifolia saplings. Next week, they will graduate from their solitary lives and receive their very own ant colony to nourish - colonies that I will transplant from trees in the jungle that I have been monitoring for months. This delicate moment has been over a year in the making.
Food bodies grow fast
Food bodies grow on Cecropia trees to provide nutrients to their resident ant colony, but I never knew how fast they grow because workers clear them away so efficiently. I was able to find a tree that had not been colonized by ants yet and was pumping out food bodies like a factory. Watch them grow in real time in this video I took.
Phase I Complete
The flickomatic 3.0 in action. Also, pictured are 3 out of 4 of the common Cecropia species here in Soberania. Can you identify them?
After a productive morning, Coline and I have finished flicking all my field trees. This means that Phase I (all field behavior trials) of this grandiose experiment has been completed! Now we have some planning and prepping to do for the harvest as we wait for the greenhouse plants to get big enough. Phase II will be harvesting the field trees, extracting the colonies, and implanting them into the greenhouse trees.
Dark stem light stem
The greenhouse Cecropias are growing nicely! A mystery I'm currently looking into - approximately half of them have dark stems, and the other half light. It is a very clear distinction and that is the only difference I can tell between them after a first pass. I will contact the experts.