Abstract

Leaf-cutter ants (Atta cephalotes) forage for leaves, buds and flowers on mango trees. Ants transport these food resources to their nest using the trails they have set up. An artificial trail with laserphototransistor units was used to measure ant activity and speed. An embedded system based on the SAM21 microcontroller-controlled illumination intensity and measured ant speed. Continuous and pulsed light using L300 LED linear arrays were applied to the trail to study ant stimulation. Under continuous nocturnal light changes, ants walking speed remained constant, unless their leader moved quicker. It was found that blue light at different intensities did not affected ant’s speed. Ants collided with pulsed illumination (7 on- 7-off) even during the day, when it was scattered through natural illumination. With the help of mirror inserted in the trail to focus light pulses to the ant eyes, ant collisions increased to 23%.

Keywords: Illumination control; Atta cephalotes; Ant speed counting; Artificial trail; Ant collisions