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Posted: 29th August 2012

Tags to shed light on protected species of ant
Researchers plan to gain insight into ants’ behaviour

A team from the University of York are planning to fit tiny tags to a protected species of ant in order to gain insight into the insects’ behaviour. The researchers plan to fit 1,000 northern hairy ants – the UK’s largest ant species – with the devices.

The project will be the first to attempt to track the movement of the creatures in the wild and it will take place on the National Trust’s Longshaw Estate in Derbyshire. The site is home to more than 1,000 nests and an estimated 50 million worker hairy ants.

Sam Ellis, from the University of York, said the study would help answer questions about how the colony of ants organise themselves. He explained: "The ants have this behaviour where one colony is spread among multiple nests. This behaviour is really interesting because there are some places where they exhibit this behaviour, yet in other places within Europe they do not do this. It is unknown how why they maintain this multiple nesting."

The tags, which measure 1.0mm by 1.6mm, will act like a barcode, allowing the researchers to track the movements of the tagged insects. The scanner is like a barcode reader; if you position yourself on one of the trails between the nests, as the ants run past, you scan it to see which ant it is.

The learning officer for the National Trust at Longshaw Estate, Jenny Gerrans, said that the research would help shape the trust's conservation work that was being carried out at the property. "We are doing some tree removal and felling over the next few years. As part of that, we will be mapping the ants' nests, and we will be able to give the information from this study to the contractors that will be carrying out the work. They will then be able to make sure that they do not ruin the tracks or paths that the ants use."

The tagging is set to get underway during the summer of 2013.



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