Submitted by Neil Tsutsui on
Argentine ants (Linepithema humile), infamous invasive pests of California, are tiny brown ants that likely every Berkeley student has seen in their home. In addition to California, these ants have invaded every continent (except Antarctica), dominating the native insect communities of many habitats due to the highly competitive “supercolonies” they form. Comprised of billions (if not trillions) of ants all showing no aggression towards each other the supercolony is an impressive social phenomenon, made possible only because all the ants share the same “colony identity” with queens and workers freely mixing across nests. The ants all share the same identity because they all share the same smells, which are mainly comprised of cuticular hydrocarbons on the surface of their exoskeletons. Understanding colony identity helps us understand the secrets to the success of invasive ants around the world, and is the central focus of the Tsutsui lab. This project, more specifically, explores a related tangent, following interesting questions that arose from witnessing Argentine ants seemingly change their colony identity over a short amount of time in the lab.
To the student who accepts this project, you will help us investigate how ants might “update” their perception of colony identity when new smells are experimentally added onto their bodies. Under the co-advisement of three lab members (two grad students and one post-doc) who will conduct the chemical experiments, you will take charge of the behavioral experiments, pairing ants with each other in assay arenas, observing if changes to their colony identity affects their behavioral response to ants from rival supercolonies. While the results of this work will offer fascinating insights into the social psychology of ants, it also has implications for the study of invasive biology. If we can understand more clearly how colony identity and territorial behavior changes over time, we can foresee a future where giant invasive supercolonies - held together by their shared identities - might fragment and collapse over time, decreasing the harmful impacts their invasion has had on habitats around the world.
Lab work. Beginning with preliminary tasks and helping us troubleshoot experimental designs, we will teach you valuable methods of chemical ecology before having you focus on independent work, e.g., conducting aggression assays, filming behaviors, and analyzing videos of ant interactions.
Independent and enthusiastic. The ideal candidate will have genuine enthusiasm for the fascinating social lives of ants, will be interested in a scientific understanding of the battles they fight with each other, and is willing to dive into their chemical language to understand why aggression occurs. Valuable experiences include credits in animal behavior courses, or previous research opportunities in animal behavior.