Sagehen Creek Field Station

23 Jul, 08 AM - 29 Jul, 11 AM

Last year I worked on Polyergus slave raids at Sagehen Creek Field Station. I found what may be intriguing differences with behavior of these ants at Portal, Arizona as documented over the last twenty years by Prof. Howard Topoff. Most significantly, there was little evidence that Sagehen raids are being guided by scout workers. If true, this would mean the California variety of this species is behaving more like an army ant, raiding in a completely novel strategy without scouts. In June I visited Dr Topoff in Arizona and studied the behavior with him there. I now propose to return to Sagehen to test the differences through behavioral observation, photography, and simple field experiments in which potential scouts are isolated with bottles or screened off from polarized light orientation using wax paper.

Visit #10502 @Sagehen Creek Field Station

Approved

Under Project # 6901 | Research

Polyergus Slave Raids: A Comparison to Behavior at the Southwestern Research Station

research_scientist - NMNH (Smithsonian)

Reservation Members(s)

Mark Moffett Jul 23 - 29, 2006 (7 days)
Mark Moffett Jul 23 - 29, 2006 (7 days)

Reserve Resources(s) | Create Invoice

Johnson Cabin (Upper Camp) 2 Jul 23 - 29, 2006