Does Colour of the Food Attract Ants?

Milky white, brown, yellow and pink sugar grains along with normal sugar grains in equal number were offered to the ants at different sites, in the foraging ground of a garden locating at Garia, Kolkata, India to note the role of colouration of the food in food selection, if any. It is revealed that the ants Anoplolepis gracilipes procured all the supplied colour sugar grains from the offered sites between 1 and 43 min and the normal sugar grains between 1 and 38 min from the offered sites. Results of statistical analyses clearly indicate that the colour of the food has no role to attract the ants A. gracilipes in respect to procurement times of the sugar grains noted. This suggests that the colour of the food does not act as an attractant for the ants A. gracilipes in food selection.     

Ants’ capability of associating odors with time periods of the day

Journal of Ethology - The mental association of perceived signals is a characteristic held by animals. Here, we examine whether Myrmica sabuleti, an ant belonging to a species with no particularly...     

Assessing Projection Bias in Consumers’ Food Preferences

The aim of this study is to test whether projection bias exists in consumers’ purchasing decisions for food products. To achieve our aim, we used a non-hypothetical experiment (i.e., experimental auction), where hungry and non-hungry participants were incentivized to reveal their willingness to pay (WTP). The results confirm the existence of projection bias when consumers made their decisions on food products. In particular, projection bias existed because currently hungry participants were willing to pay a higher price premium for cheeses than satiated ones, both in hungry and satiated future states. Moreover, participants overvalued the food product more when they were delivered in the future hungry condition than in the satiated one. Our study provides clear, quantitative and meaningful evidence of projection bias because our findings are based on economic valuation of food preferences. Indeed, the strength of this study is that findings are expressed in terms of willingness to pay which is an interpretable amount of money.     

The Immediate Influence of a Food Safety Incident on Japanese Consumers’ Food Choice Decisions and Willingness to Pay for Safer Food

In January 2008, 10 people from three families living in Chiba and Hyogo Prefectures in Japan were found to be poisoned after eating frozen dumplings that had been imported from Tianjin, China. This incident had a big influence in the short term on Japanese consumers’ consumption choice of imported food from China as well as the willingness to pay (WTP) for food with higher safety guarantees. Using data from a Web-survey of 1500 respondents covering the whole of Japan, two regression models show that firstly, after the incident, consumers intending to buy Chinese food products reduced from 92.5% to 27.6%, and the change of purchase decision is mostly affected by consumers’ prior risk perception and attitude about Chinese products and presents a regional difference. Secondly, Japanese consumers are willing to pay 64,300 yen per year for safer food on average after the incident, and those whose purchase decision is influenced by the incident have a higher WTP of 54,000 yen than those who are not influenced. The most significant factor to decide the WTP is the framing of questions in the survey. The influence of demographic factors is less important and inconsistent in the two models.     

Food packaging’s materials: A food safety perspective

Food packaging serves purposes of food product safety and easy handling and transport by preventing chemical contamination and enhancing shelf life, which provides convenience for consumers. Various types of materials, including plastics, glass, metals, and papers and their composites, have been used for food packaging. However, owing to consumers’ increased health awareness, the significance of transferring harmful materials from packaging materials into foods is of greater concern. This review highlights the interactions of food with packaging materials and elaborates the mechanism, types, and contributing factors of migration of chemical substances from the packaging to foods. Also, various types of chemical migrants from different packaging materials with their possible impacts on food safety and human health are discussed. We conclude with a future outlook based on legislative considerations and ongoing technical contributions to optimization of food–package interactions.     

Post-Mortem Examination in the Diagnosis of Johne’s Disease in Goats

Post-mortem examinations play an important role in Johne’s disease programmes in Norway. The results of such examinations of samples of viscera from 2997 goats carried out during the 5-year period 1972–1976 are given. The investigations show that the demonstration of macroscopical changes in mesenteric lymph nodes and small intestine has only limited value as a guideline in the post-mortem diagnosis of Johne’s disease in goats. Often macroscopical changes were not seen or they were non-specific. Caseous and/or calcified foci in mesenteric lymph nodes in infected animals were demonstrated quite often whilst observed intestinal changes were strikingly few. Corrugation of the mucosa was rare. However, in sections of macroscopically unchanged intestine marked epithelioid cell infiltrations and abundant acid-fast bacilli were not uncommon. In sporadic cases productive inflammation with tubercle formation was seen in lymph nodes in infected animals. Bacteriological culture was by far the most reliable post-mortem diagnostic method. By this method 92% of the infected goats were detected. The corresponding figures for histological examination and microscopy were 54% and 47%, respectively.     

Phosphorus Cycling in Montreal’s Food and Urban Agriculture Systems

Cities are a key system in anthropogenic phosphorus (P) cycling because they concentrate both P demand and waste production. Urban agriculture (UA) has been proposed as a means to improve P management by recycling cities’ P-rich waste back into local food production. However, we have a limited understanding of the role UA currently plays in the P cycle of cities or its potential to recycle local P waste. Using existing data combined with surveys of local UA practitioners, we quantified the role of UA in the P cycle of Montreal, Canada to explore the potential for UA to recycle local P waste. We also used existing data to complete a substance flow analysis of P flows in the overall food system of Montreal. In 2012, Montreal imported 3.5 Gg of P in food, of which 2.63 Gg ultimately accumulated in landfills, 0.36 Gg were discharged to local waters, and only 0.09 Gg were recycled through composting. We found that UA is only a small sub-system in the overall P cycle of the city, contributing just 0.44% of the P consumed as food in the city. However, within the UA system, the rate of recycling is high: 73% of inputs applied to soil were from recycled sources. While a Quebec mandate to recycle 100% of all organic waste by 2020 might increase the role of UA in P recycling, the area of land in UA is too small to accommodate all P waste produced on the island. UA may, however, be a valuable pathway to improve urban P sustainability by acting as an activity that changes residents’ relationship to, and understanding of, the food system and increases their acceptance of composting.     

Nest Etiquette—Where Ants Go When Nature Calls

Sanitary behaviour is an important, but seldom studied, aspect of social living. Social insects have developed several strategies for dealing with waste and faecal matter, including dumping waste outside the nest and forming specialised waste-storage chambers. In some cases waste material and faeces are put to use, either as a construction material or as a long-lasting signal, suggesting that faeces and waste may not always be dangerous. Here we examine a previously undescribed behaviour in ants – the formation of well-defined faecal patches. Lasius niger ants were housed in plaster nests and provided with coloured sucrose solution. After two months, 1–4 well defined dark patches, the colour of the sucrose solution, formed within each of the plaster nests. These patches never contained other waste material such as uneaten food items, or nestmate corpses. Such waste was collected in waste piles outside the nest. The coloured patches were thus distinct from previously described ‘kitchen middens’ in ants, and are best described as ‘toilets’. Why faeces is not removed with other waste materials is unclear. The presence of the toilets inside the nest suggests that they may not be an important source of pathogens, and may have a beneficial role.     

Examining Cassava’s Potential to Enhance Food Security Under Climate Change

Approximately 925 million people are undernourished and almost 90% of these people live in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), Asia and the Pacific. Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, continues to have the highest proportion of chronically hungry individuals, where 1 in 3 (ca. 240 million) are undernourished in terms of both food quantity and nutrition. The threat of substantial changes in climate raises concerns about future capacity to sustain even current levels of food availability because climate change will impact food security most severely in regions where undernourishment is already problematic. Estimates of future climate change impacts on crops vary widely, particularly in Africa, due in part to a lack of agricultural and meteorological data. To more accurately predict future climate change impacts on food security we must first precisely assess the impact of climate change drivers on crops of food insecure regions. Recent advances in biofortification, a substantial yield gap, and an inherent potential to respond positively to globally increasing CO₂ levels are synergistic and encouraging for cassava in an otherwise bleak global view of the future of food security in the developing world.     

Herbivores’ Impacts Cascade Through the Brown Food Web in a Dryland

Ecosystems - Food webs can be conceptualized as being powered by energy derived from living and dead vegetation, respectively. Most food web research has focused on “green food webs”...     

Ants of Ambon Island – diversity survey and checklist

The present checklist of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Ambon is the first comprehensive overview of ant species recorded on the island during the last 150 years. The species list is based on literature and museum collections’ records combined with data from our field survey in 2010. In total, there are 74 ant species and subspecies representing 34 genera and six subfamilies known from Ambon. Five of the species found in undisturbed forest were exotic and indicate the overall habitat degradation on the island. The largest proportion of Ambon ant fauna are species with affinities to the Oriental region and species of Oriental-Austro-Melanesian origin. At least 20% of the species are regional endemics. In comparison to other islands in the region, the Ambon fauna seems more diverse and better sampled; however it is clear that a large part of it still remains to be described.     

The Role of Latin America’s Land and Water Resources for Global Food Security: Environmental Trade-Offs of Future Food Production Pathways

One of humanity’s major challenges of the 21st century will be meeting future food demands on an increasingly resource constrained-planet. Global food production will have to rise by 70 percent between 2000 and 2050 to meet effective demand which poses major challenges to food production systems. Doing so without compromising environmental integrity is an even greater challenge. This study looks at the interdependencies between land and water resources, agricultural production and environmental outcomes in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), an area of growing importance in international agricultural markets. Special emphasis is given to the role of LAC’s agriculture for (a) global food security and (b) environmental sustainability. We use the International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT)—a global dynamic partial equilibrium model of the agricultural sector—to run different future production scenarios, and agricultural trade regimes out to 2050, and assess changes in related environmental indicators. Results indicate that further trade liberalization is crucial for improving food security globally, but that it would also lead to more environmental pressures in some regions across Latin America. Contrasting land expansion versus more intensified agriculture shows that productivity improvements are generally superior to agricultural land expansion, from an economic and environmental point of view. Finally, our analysis shows that there are trade-offs between environmental and food security goals for all agricultural development paths.     

Are Ants Useful Indicators of Restoration Success in Temperate Grasslands?

Assessments of restoration are usually made through vegetation community surveys, leaving much of the ecosystem underexamined. Invertebrates, and ants in particular, are good candidates for restoration evaluation because they are sensitive to environmental change and are particularly important in ecosystem functioning. The considerable resources currently employed in restoring calcareous grassland on ex‐arable land mean that it is important to gather as much information as possible on how ecosystems change through restoration. We compared ant communities from 40 ex‐arable sites where some form of restoration work had been implemented between 2 and 60 years previously, with 40 paired reference sites of good quality calcareous grassland with no history of improvement or cultivation. A total of 11 ant species were found, but only two of these were found to be significantly different in abundance between restoration and reference sites: Myrmica sabuleti was more likely to be present in reference sites, whereas Lasius niger was more likely to be found in restoration sites. Myrmica sabuleti abundance was significantly positively correlated with age of restoration sites. The potential number of ant species found in temperate grasslands is small, limiting the information their assemblages can provide about ecosystem change. However, M. sabuleti is a good indicator species for calcareous grassland restoration success and, alongside information from the plant community, could increase the confidence with which restoration success is judged. We found the survey to be quick and simple to carry out and recommend its use.