1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
|
Throughout the animal kingdom, animals have been constantly competing
for limited resources across limited amounts of space.
The interaction between animals of the same and different species is the
focus of numerous scientific disciplines, but the focus of most has been
mammals and other complex species rather competition within species like
insects.
Rather than focus on the effect of spatial constraints an organism with
complex brain and social hierarchy the study aimed to focus on a smaller
and less complex organisms to determine if the same spatial patterns
that appear with mammal groups still appear as an emergent result of
environmental pressures, which is demonstrably true if antlions also
display similar behavior.
On the basis of this, it was examined as to how antlion pattern
themselves in groups, namely by measurement of how pit depth, width, and
nearest neighbor and behavior, such as cannibalism and temporary
reclusion, vary with respect to spatial constraints and temporal change.
Through prior investigation and research it was determined that antlions
generally tend to avoid highly aggressive competition and likely form
semi-hexagonal patterns to evenly distribute resources across the
population (given that each individual could only consume so many ants).
However, it was determined that antlions sometimes exhibit extreme
behaviors such as cannibalism and reclusivity when under significant
environmental pressure.
The preliminary research provided background for the following
hypothesis: ``As the space available to antlion groups decreases, each
claims less territory, and the populations tend towards more extreme
behaviors, such as cannibalism and reclusivity, to limit competition for
ants as an emergent feature of individual interactions.''
Throughout the experiment several dependent variables were tested, with
the independent variable acting as the size of the container, which
changed from trial to trial, but did not change due to any other
variable.
In continuation of this, the dependent variables throughout the
experiment were the settlement patterns and behaviors of the antlions,
which were quantified through the nearest neighbor calculation, pit
depth and width, and the number of cannibalized antlions.
The control trial of the experiment was the 32x32 trial, as it shows the
spatial patterns and behaviors of the antlions with the most available
space, limiting the effect of competition on settlement patterns, which
qualifies it to be a good control group.
|
