Improvements of the Formicarum

Aline

Aline wanted to improve the area of nutrition. 

The ants are responsible for transporting oat flakes, nuts, hazelnuts, and leaves to the Fungus, which will feed on them producing glucose, a nutrient eaten by the ants to survive.

These leaf-cutter ants have foraging behaviour, and they live in symbiosis with a symbiotic fungus that grows on plant material inside their nests in what is called the 'mushroom garden'.

In order to get food into the food chamber, the roof was removed, causing a loss of heat and moisture in the habitat. 

Aline purchased a 7-liter fish food dispenser, which puts food in automatically and regularly every 8 hours. 

The dispenser, which was originally intended to be in the small chamber connected to the main chamber, was placed in the big chamber where the plantation is also located. The Dispenser is connected to a funnel tube the food falls into a bowl, where the ants can catch it and take it to the Fungus. 

In addition, Aline carried out various investigations to find out the ideal foods (apart from leaves) for the Fungus to feed on.

Different types of seeds were selected, such as oat flakes, nuts, and hazelnuts.

In conclusion, it was showed that oat flakes are the food that is taken most by ants, also because of their oval and flat shape, which is easy to transport.

 

Andrea:

Materials and methods:

During the project, Andrea was dealing with the humidity. The previous Generation used a fog device which produces a fog with very small aerosol size. But this system had some problems. One of it was that the water tank was empty very quick (it had to be changed every two days). Another problem was that the system was running on a timer, which didn't take regard to the humidity in the formicarium.

Andrea and his colleagues decided to buy a new fog system. Andrea wanted to improve the humidity in the formicarium with a heating system of the water the fog machine uses. With this the fog would be warm and like this the air would reach a higher humidity quicker. In addition to that in the hot summer days it could be used to cool the water and with this the formicarium could be cooled down.

The other problem could be solved with a new regulator, which measures the humidity and in regard to that he turns on and off the fog machine. With this device the formicarium doesn't get too wet or too dry.

 

Results:

The new fog machine produced a fog which aerosols were much too big. Because of this Andrea weren't able to use it for the formicarium. Unfortunately the water heating system which Andrea planed to use with the new fog machine, wouldn't work with the fog machine the previous generation used, so he first had to make a new water tank for the old water system. Andrea worked together with his colleague Celia. At first they were trying to drill a hole in the bottle to connect a big water tank with the water bottle with a plastic tube. This unfortunately didn't work. After some new theories, which Andrea and Celia tried out they found out that there was a problem with the air pressure which unclear how to be solved.

 

Discussion:

With the bigger water tank, the supervisor of the formicarium wouldn't need to look for it as much as he had to do it before. With this also the humidity could have gotten more constant, which would be similar to the natural habitat of the ants (for example if someone forgets to fill up the bottle it could cause a drying out of the formicarium which could stress the ants). Unfortunately it is unclear to Andrea, how he could manage to enlarge the water tank without changing the pressure in the fog machine. Because he weren't able to make a water reservoir, where he could have heated or cooled the water, Andrea wasn't able to realize his idea.

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Celia & Mattia

Celia and Mattia wanted to improve the humidity in the Formicarium. The ants need a humidity of at least 80% for comfortable conditions, which was often not reached and fluctuated strongly. To control the humidity, the previous generation used a fog-producing device, but the amount of fog couldn't be regulated. This meant that once the humidifier was turned on, it ran continuously and only stopped when someone turned off the machine or when the water bottle (1L) became empty. This was also the reason why the humidity inside the Formicarium always varied and couldn't stabilize. To solve this problem, a device was ordered to control the activity of the humidifier.

Celia also wanted to increase the size of the water tank because the bottle of the humidifier can only hold a maximum of 1 liter and, therefore, has to be refilled daily. Celia's plan was to make a hole in the top of the bottle and connect it to a large water tank with a tube The aim of this method was that the water could flow through the tube, so that the water for the humidifier must get refilled much less. 

 

Results:

Thanks to the controller, the humidity in the Formicarium can now be maintained within the desired range, neither going too low nor too high. However, Celia was unable to successfully  connect the humidifier to a larger water tank. She drilled a hole in the bottle and managed to connect the bottle to the water canister using a tube. The water flowed into the humidifier, but ran out before the fog could be produced. Celia tried several methods such as changing the tube, making the hole smaller, taping the water bottle, repositioning the water tank and adjusting the angle of incidence of the tube on the bottle. Unfortunately, none of these attempts worked.

 

Discussion:

A more consistent humidity means that the ants in the Formicarium are exposed to the same conditions as they would experience in their natural habitat. Additionally, a stable humidity leads to more consistent activity.

The fact that the attempt to increase the size of the water tank and improving the humidity did not work is due to a physical problem. The water bottle, without a hole, is precisely designed to match the humidifier in terms of pressure, preventing water from leaking out. By making a hole in the bottle, the pressure of the bottle on the humidifier changed. The pressure increased due to the weight of the tube, resulting in water leaking out.

For Celia's idea to work, the pressure of the bottle with the hole and the bottle without the hole must be equal. However, it is unclear how this can be achieved.

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Dea

Dea tried to create a new lid to improve the maximum capacity of heat and humidity in the formicarium. The problem was that Dea did this with a plexiglass panel, that was too short. Mr. Padrutt provided the plexiglass itself and he also cut it for Dea. He only had one that was 70cm x 80cm wide and long, and on Deas request, he cut it to 60cm x 80cm. Dea decided on this, so it wouldn’t be too bulky and to be able to take it off the formicarium easily. It was the longest plexiglass he had available at that moment, so Dea was okay with it. The brevity of the new lid also brought up new questions: Where should Dea put it to achieve maximum humidity and warmth, because there would always be a gap to let cold air in and humidity out? The class suggested that this would be solved by putting it on the middle of the formicarium. It was sensible, because now the humidity would have to travel the longest distance to escape a smaller opening and only a little bit would be able to escape through the hole over the humidity dispenser, because it is directed at the ground. In the end, no one really needed a big modification of the lid, everyone just kind of found a solution themselves.

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Jasmin

Jasmin wanted to build a new chamber for her individual research, which she did with the help of Mr Padrutt. The chamber itself is made of Plexiglas and was stabilised twice with metal, as it did not really withstand the pressure. The position was also changed 2 times as it needed to be easily accessible for research. For the new chamber, the old death chamber, which was not used, was removed and a new one was connected with a hose. With the planning of the chamber came some problems, as initially a custom-made one was the favourite, but this was too expensive.  After the construction of the chamber, it was not really used for several days, which was solved with food as attractant. When the food was put in, it took less than a day to dig the first well. Afterwards, the digging speed was determined (individual research: Jasmin) and the influence of UV light on their activity was investigated (individual research: Dea). The chamber itself is not heated or moistened separately, but is nevertheless used diligently and the contents are transported towards the nest entrance. After a few weeks with partial UV light as an attractant and nothing else, the soil was almost completely transported out of the chamber and the activity remained rather high, for it did not serve to supply the fungus. It would be interesting to know and study what they do with the soil and how they use different types of soil, sand and gravel. Jasmin suspects that they use the pea to stabilise the nest, as they build specifically shaped and partly lined nests in the wild. The chamber itself is now used as an occupation for the ants, because they don’t have long distances to walk or any enemies, which occupy them.

 

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Lara & Rafael

Material & Methods:

Lara and Rafael improved formicarium by improving the temperature. Atta sexdens need a temperature of around 25 to 28 °C, which was initially too low.

The previous generation used a heating pad not adapted to a formicarium, which did not heat up enough nor could it be controlled.

To solve the problem, Lara and Rafael bought three heating pads suitable for the formicarium and a thermostat, which, thanks to a sensor that is inserted into the ground, measures the ground temperature and can control the temperature down to the target.

Lara and Rafael attached the three heating pads to the back wall and the heating pad of the previous generation to the side wall of the formicarium.

They also set the maximum ground temperature to 28°C with the thermostat.

 

Results:

Thanks to the new heating pads and the thermostat the temperature rose, reaching the target (30.04.23 for the first time).

 

Discussion: 

With the improvements the problems were solved perfectly with the new heating pads. And with the new control device the formicarium is also prevented from overheating in the summer when the outside temperatures rise higher. As the maximum ground temperature was set to 28°C with the thermostat, the actual temperature in the ground is around 27°C. If the temperature is between

25°C - 28°C the ants can be most productive, which now can be achieved.

The heating pads have many advantages against a regular heat lamp. Frist a qualitative good heat lamp is quite expensive in comparison to the heating pads. Also do the heating pads heat up the ground which is the same in nature, as the sun heats up the ground and the ground save the heat. Like this the ground is warm in the day and at night. Another advantage of the heating pads is that they only heat up parts of the formicarium. This way the ants can decide where they want to build their tunnel because of the heat.

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Milla & Sara

Material & Methods: 

Milla and Sara improved the Fromicarum with a new feeding chamber. Thanks to this new chamber, where two raspberry bushes grow, the Atta sexdens of our Formicarium have a more natural habitat. Milla and Sara built this chamber during the SPF-lessons from March to May. It is made out of wood sticks, plexiglass and aluminium frames. All the material was provided from Mr. Padrutt, who also gave some useful instructions while building the chamber. 

The soil was organised from Milla and Ms. Manser bought the plants.

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Results:

Up until today (11.06.23) we didn't have any results but the first ant has made it over to the new chamber a few hours ago. Since the connection to the old feeding chamber has been closed the ants got more active because they're searching for a new source of leaves. Currently we're hoping that all the worker ants will arrive at the new chamber.

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Discussion: 

Milla and Sara thought that the chamber will improve the life-quality of the Atta sexdens. These ants normally live in South America near the equator, where they have unlimited access to food for their fungus. With the old feeding chamber we had to feed them almost every day and still there were times, when the ants didn't have any food. Because this isn't natural for them, Milla and Sara had the idea to build this chamber where plants grow. With this chamber we don't have to feed them constantly and they can decide by themselves, how much food they want to carry to the main chamber. We just have to water the plants every second day. The first two bushes of raspberries died quickly because they didn't have the right conditions to live. Those plants were removed and two new bushes were planted. To better the conditions six earthworms were put in the new chamber because they increase the fertility of the soil. Now the raspberry bushes should have a greater chance of survival.

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Tobia

Tobia wanted to create an automatic and efficient system that would continuously monitor and log air and soil humidity and temperature. The overarching objective was to achieve a climate within the formicarium that promotes growth of the colony while also providing valuable data for climate control purposes. It became evident that purchasing a wireless logger that fit our specifications was quite a challenge. Tobia did find a logger with our specifications, but sadly there were difficulties with the customs between the US and Switzerland which made the purchase too expensive for our budget After this setback, Tobia started to work with the endoscope camera which we had purchased. Initially, the cable of the camera was too stiff for our purposes, which proved to be dangerous around the nest. To fix this issue, a steel wire was tied around the cable to fix it in the desired shape. After that Yara, Mr. Peduzzi and Tobia made some test runs with the endoscope camera to try to capture footage of the inside of the nest which proved to be difficult and dangerous to the nest. Outside the work with the endoscope camera, Tobia worked on the documentation of all kinds of footage for the Website.

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Yara

Our ants are called atta sexdens or leavecutter ants. Because their name represents their main function or talent, Yara wanted to film the ants during the process, where they cut the leave. Yara made a film “the way of food“, so that everyone can understand why the ants got this name. In this film she filmed all the scenes from when the ants entered the tubes to get from the main chamber to the food chamber, then how the ants start to find the suitable place to cut the leaf, then how they cut the leaf, take it away and carry it to them in their nest. When I had all the videos to cut the film, she started cutting the main scenes on imovie, premiere rush and cap cut my film together. Yara had a few complications because she couldn't find an app that had all the features she needed, so it took her 3 different apps to get the movie the way she wanted it. Since the students in our school only see the main chamber but not the food chamber, she set up an iMac. On this iMac my film is running continuously so that everyone can see how they do their work.

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