Keeping tabs on a busy little kingdom (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Researchers at York to study ant movements

8:00am Saturday 25th August 2012 in News By Hannah Chapman, Assistant News Editor

NORTH Yorkshire researchers are fitting 1,000 hairy wood ants with tiny radio receivers to find out how they communicate and travel between their nests.

The three-year research project by the University of York, which is a world first, will take place on the National Trust’s Longshaw Estate, in Derbyshire, which is a hotspot for the internationallyprotected creatures.

The site contains more than 1,000 nests and is home to up to 50 million worker ants.

Experts will catch the ants and attach a radio receiver one millimetre long to each one.

Researchers, who say the procedure will not harm the ants in any way, will then examine how they communicate with each other in their colonies, which are housed in several nests connected by a network of ant highways, with multiple ant queens spread between the nests.

The findings from the research will then be used by National Trust staff on the Longshaw estate to manage the ancient woodland, made up of oak and birch trees, where the ants can be found.

Samuel Ellis, a biologist from the University of York, who will be carrying out the research, said: “This research is about trying to find out how the ants communicate and commute between the vast network of nests and how they travel in this environment.

“The radio receivers act like a barcode to mark out each individual ant. A single ant is not particularly clever, but is part of an elaborate system that is clearly performing very effectively at Longshaw.

“The way the ants use this network has important implications for how they interact with their environment. And the way information is passed through the network may even have implications for our information and telecommunications networks.

“Findings will also influence the land management of Longshaw as the ants depend on sap-sucking aphids that favour oak, birch and pine trees, but northern hairy wood ant populations struggle in dense woodland of this kind.

The ants use the honeydew produced by gently stroking these aphids to feed their young and in return the ants protect the aphids.

Chris Millner, National Trust area ranger at Longshaw, said: “The study will give us a real picture of where the ants are and how we can improve the habitat for them and other wildlife without causing disturbance.”

The northern hairy wood ant has an international nearthreatened conservation status, with the two main populations in England found in the Peak District (including Longshaw) and in the North York Moors.