Interactions
How an organism interacts can cover a variety of different subtopics, such as: the organism’s symbiotic relationship, if it provides food (directly or indirectly) for other organisms, how the organism obtains its own food, where it is placed on the food web, if it serves as a host to other organisms, and if it can be used by humans or if it has effects on humans. The interactions of different organisms can play a huge role on the environment. These alone can decide whether a species can survive in the shared environment. Inversely, they can decide whether that organism survives, as well.
Food
As I mentioned in the Adaptations page,
Cataglyphis bombycina has a very unique and intelligent way
to retrieve food for the nest. The colony sends out scout ants to
check the area to make sure that it is clear of predators and to
monitor the temperature. Once these scouts decide that the area is
safe, they secrete multiple pheromones such as citronellol, citral,
and a few others. These pheromones that are secreted by the ant’s
mandibular glands indicate to the rest of the nest that it is all
safe. Suddenly, ants start to bolt out of the nest in an explosive
manner knowing that they have limited time due to the
life-threatening effects from the midday sun (Wehner and Wehner 2011).
Since C. bombycina comes out to find food during the middle
of the day when it is the hottest and all the other animals are
protected by their shelter (Holden 1995; Myers 2013), it is
considered to be a scavenger. As scavengers, these ants feed on the
corpses of other insects that have fallen to the powerful sun
(Holden 1995). However, just because the ants hunt when there is no
other animals around does not mean that they do not have a predator.
Symbiotic Relationship
As aforementioned, C. bombycina is a scavenger that only
makes an appearance above ground when all the other animals have
taken shelter. This behavior hinders these ants from making
relationships with other organisms. It may even prevent it from
becoming a host for other organisms.
Other than the sun, the main threat to the survival of these ants is
Acanthodactylus dumerili, otherwise known as the
Fringe-toed Lizard. This desert lizard is known to frequently burrow
and take shelter very close to the nests of C. bombycina
(Marsh, Wehner, and Wehner 1992). Since this ant eats other
heterotrophs and falls prey to other animals, we can conclude that
C. bombycina is either a secondary or tertiary consumer in
the food web. This depends on what the insects, which these ants
feed on, consume.
Humans
Considering that C. bombycina lives in the Sahara Desert
and very few humans choose to live there, if any at all, it is rare
that we come into contact with this species. This being the case,
there is little information on whether this organism has any effect
on humans or if it provides any uses that we may benefit from. However, the
heat shock proteins and the use of them by C. bombycina may
provide a way for us to learn more about genes and how they regulate
the body’s “thermometer” (Holden 1995).
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