Ants feel the weather

shalinisharma98 · December 6, 2023, 6:59pm

Discussion has been started with @Enas curiosity, she is in govind Puri, delhi these days and not observing any ants in her surroundings.

What could be the reason of it? Does winter in delhi is influencing the hiding of ants?

Does ants go in hibernation for some time to escape from winter season?

****Do we expect similar case in other parts of the country as well where the temperature is quite high as compared to delhi, for eg:- Mumbai, Kerala? @Amritha CUBE @Theertha CUBE Kerala

Let’s look for ants at your place everyone and build up the story of ants with your curiosity

How does ants regulate their body temperature? Do they adapt themselves in the environment?

What do we understand by the term cold-blooded (ants) and warm-blooded animals (mammals)?

Now the We had two hypotheses that ants can be found in govindpuri, delhi despite having cold weather and other was that ants cannot be located in Delhi these days due to cold weather.

To verify or falsify this hypothesis, we need to look for places where ants are generally seen in summer season.

(Delhi), We have chosen potted plant as our one of the setup where ants has been located during summer, now in winter we can check if ants are still present there. Similar observation will be performed by @~Dhanraj in Badlapur, Maharashtra.

Now, we assume that before winter season these ants are accumulating their food in the deeper soil of the potted plant which can be utilized during winter.

Does ants go in hibernation in winters? And how we understand terms like hibernation and aestivation?

Do adult ants die in the winter, leaving just their eggs and larvae in the deeper soil? Or adult ants are also present in deeper soil?

@Theertha CUBE Kerala @Kiran Ma’am Cube, @~Dhanraj @Abhijeet CUBE Mumbai @Smiti CUBE Mumbai and others

In parallel, other places in India can also be checked if they are observing ants in their place. @Amritha CUBE @Theertha CUBE Kerala @~Dhanraj @Lakshmy CUBE Kerala @Sakshi Cube Mumbai @Smiti CUBE Mumbai @CHARVI Shukla CUBE National Meet @~Susanta Tanti sir, and others.

dhanraj7 · December 8, 2023, 11:06am

Can we still say that ants are not present in Govindpuri, Delhi based on Enas’s observation? Evidence for all our claims are necessary, to convince the audience. What do you think ? @shalinisharma98

Arunan · December 8, 2023, 2:11pm

What is the status of Ant based Hypothesis? @shalinisharma98
Do we still not have any evidence, either way? @Enas @shalinisharma98 @dhanraj7

KiranKalakotiR · December 8, 2023, 3:23pm

Here are some pictures from the HomeLab which shows the presence of ants. As per these observations, our hypothesis is falsified or we have to see it from different angle?

Does some ant have an adaptation strategy to cope with the change in temperature?

Do they hide themselves when the temperature is extremely low as compared to what are we experiencing these days in Delhi (25°/12° C)?

Or they might be coming out in the day time to collect the food for them when the temperature is high?

Date :- 7th Dec 2023
Time:- 02:20 pm
Place:- Noida, Uttar Pradesh
Data collector :- Shalini Sharma, CUBE DSC