Camponotus ants mine sand for vertebrate urine to extract nitrogen

Abstract

The ability of some ant species (including Camponotus spp.) to forage on vertebrate urine to extract urea may extend their niche in competitive and strongly nitrogen‐limited environments. We examined the preference of Camponotus terebrans, a sand‐dwelling ant widespread in southern Australia, for baits including urine, and the duration of their foraging on those baits. We baited ants with liquid stains of urine (human and kangaroo), urea in water (2.5%. 3.5%, 7.0%, 10.0%) and sucrose in water (20% and 40%) poured directly on the ground, as well as hard baits in plots drawn on sandy soil (Kangaroo Island, South Australia). We counted individuals of this mostly nocturnal species to determine their attraction to different baits for one month. We checked plant growth on the plots after nine and 13 months. Ants collected insects and meat; they foraged for at least 29 days on stains. Ants were most numerous on 10% urea, followed by 7% urea, 3.5% urea, urine (which contains ~2.5% urea) and 2.5% urea, 40% sucrose and 20% sucrose; sucrose was less attractive to them than equimolar urea bait. Ants were attracted to human, kangaroo, and unidentified urines, and they collected bird guano. Baits and ant foraging did not affect plant recruitment in plots. We observed incidentally Camponotus consobrinus foraging on urine, which may be a common resource for this genus at the site. The remarkable ability of C. terebrans to extract nitrogen from dry sand over weeks explains partly its success on sandy soils. Foraging on urine may be an important strategy to address nitrogen limitation on sandy soils and exploit commensally niches in which hosts are kangaroos, wallabies and other vertebrates. The understanding of plant–vertebrate interactions must factor in the role of ants as commensal organisms. Such ants could also reduce greenhouse gas emissions from urine.

Malaria mosquitoes acquire and allocate cattle urine to enhance life history traits

“…Malaria mosquitoes acquire and allocate nitrogenous compounds through compensatory feeding on cattle urine, i.e., puddling, to enhance life-history traits, similar to that of other insects [ 2 , 4 , 24 – 26 ]. Cattle urine is a readily available and renewable resource found in close association with resting sites, e.g .…”

Floral and Bird Excreta Semiochemicals Attract Western Carpenter Ants

“…The ants' endosymbiotic ability to process urea as an amino acid precursor may also explain their lack of attraction to other protein sources, such as mouse carrion (Figure 2). Several species of carpenter ants selectively feed on urea (Shetty, 1982;Feldhaar et al, 2007;Menzel et al, 2012), and worker ants of Camponotus terebrans even sift through sand containing urea to acquire it (Petit et al, 2020).…”

The potential of arboreal pitfall traps for sampling nontargeted bee and wasp pollinators

“…The main explanation for arboreal pitfalls' higher diversity (and lower specificity) is probably related to the broader spectrum of offered resources and the lack of bias for bees and wasps of specific sizes. First, we baited pitfall traps with human urine, which has many chemical elements that can be attractive to various insects, including bees, such as carbohydrates (Brodschneider & Cralsheim, 2010), amino acids (Inouye & Waller, 1984; Cook et al, 2003), and sodium (Brodschneider & Cralsheim, 2010; Clay et al, 2014; Petit et al, 2020). Additionally, arboreal pitfalls are relatively wide and deep (5 cm wide and high), allowing the collection of bees of different sizes, including large Xylocopa and small Augochlora .…”