How Good Is An Ants Sense Of Smell?
WouterConsidering how good an ants sense of smell is, it’s amazing to consider that they don’t actually have noses. Instead, they use antennae to pick up pheromones. These pheromones are chemicals that help the ant keep its colony together. They are also used to communicate.
A recent study found that ants are able to smell cancerous cells. This is possible because ants are able to sense tiny differences in pheromones.
Researchers conditioned the ants to recognize cancerous cells from healthy cells. They put the ants into a glass dish with two different chemical smells. One of the smells was associated with a sugar solution that would reward the ant if it detected the cancer. The other smell was a low-volatility hydrocarbon that would cause the ant to search the dish.
The ants had a high-definition sense of smell, which was much more sensitive than the human sense of smell. The ants’ sense of smell was also linked to their nervous system. The researchers found that the ants’ sense of smell could distinguish between two different types of breast cancer.
The researchers discovered that ants have four to five times more odor receptors than most other insects. The receptors are located on their antennae, which is likely a unique property of social insects.
The researchers also found that ants are highly sensitive to changes in chemical compounds. For example, ants are more sensitive to non-nestmate cuticular hydrocarbons than nestmates. This may have been important for the ants’ ability to navigate social networks.
