Formicarium Biology Spf 2023

This project is worked on in the SPF biology class. Since they started the whole project, they had to build everything from scratch.  The first generation’s class was a lot bigger, so they had to organize the project well that everything works out just right.

They divided the class into four groups to set focus on specific parts.

Firstly, they had an organization group consisting of four people, who were responsible for organizing the process and communicating between groups.

Then they had a finance group also consisting of four people. They had to manage all of the purchases referring to the materials needed. Since this job was done quite quickly, they decided to turn this group into a biological specialist group. They had to gather information about A. sexdens and then share their knowledge with the class.

The biggest group was the building group, which was further divided into four subcategories.

There was the fungus chamber category, it was the most complex job to be done because they had to decide on the right shape of the chamber, so the fungus could thrive. And they had to find out a way to achieve the perfect temperature and humidity. They went for a rectangular shape of the chamber because they figured the fungus will adapt its shape. The temperature was already right because of the outside temperature (26°C) and for the humidity they had to install a fog system.

Then there was the soil subcategory, they had to choose the right layers to fill the chambers. The death chamber that functions like a graveyard has to be dry, so they only filled it with rocks. A high humidity is required for the fungus, so they layered the fungus chamber with Seramis, which retains and releases moisture and for a suitable surface they covered it with sand. The main chamber’s ground should resemble a forest, it was mostly filled with regular soil and a few wooden sticks, rocks and mosses were added.

Another subcategory was the manual work, they had to drill holes in the chambers to install the tube, which served to a connecting trail from chamber to chamber.

Lastly, they had a special subcategory for organisation & coordination.

For the brochure they founded another group. They had to communicate with the other groups to have the required information to write the brochure.

After the first colony died, they created an investigation group in terms to find out why the ants died. This group dealt with the problems, which occurred during the process. The reason why the first colony died may have been a too low humidity. Another reason may have been the placement of the fungus. When the colony arrived, the fungus was placed by the builders. Set back in time they ordered a new colony of the same species. In preparation they installed a new fog system for the humidity. As a solution they let the second colony place their fungus by themselves.

The didactical purposes of the formicarium are that you can learn from it. Therefore it’s transparent and easily accessible.