Stable Isotope Analysis of the Meat Ant (Iridomyrmex purpureus)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58987/mc8ntm05Keywords:
Meat Ants (Iridomyrmex purpureus), Colony of Meat Ants, Stable IsotopeAbstract
Stable isotope technology has greatly contributed to our understanding of the food web ecology of social insects, and can determine the dietary history of organisms. Furthermore, this method has been utilized successfully to study nutrient fluxes enriched with carbon and nitrogen isotopes. The aim of this study is to show if there is a relationship between δ13C and δ15N of meat ant nests and comparing the ration with soil adjacent to the ant nests. This study was carried out on 62 nests of meat ants (Iridomyrmex purpureus) and 62 samples of soil located adjacent to the nests in Armidale in New South Wales, Australia. The first ants nest was sampled at UNE, Armidale, and the following 61 nests were sampled in a northerly direction away from UNE on a wide road verge/ travelling stock route. There were no significant differences between the C and N stable isotopes collected from soil and ants nests and distance that nests were located away from one another; and there were no significant differences between δ13C and δ15N and the size of the ants nest (based on the N-S nest length). Finally, the δ15N levels of meat ants were not correlated with their surrounding soil. Future study of measuring δ13C and δ15N levels to investigate particular interactions among ants and surrounding soil with other resources that ants may feed on will be necessary to observe ants in a wide range of environments and that it will increase our understanding of ants‘ food webs.
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Copyright (c) 2023 Mahboba Aldareh (Author)
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