ABSTRACT
Many studies have been done on the recruitment and foraging behavior of ants; it is the subject of at least two reviews (Wilson 1971; Carroll and Janzen 1973). Sudd (1957) discusses the recruitment activities of pharaoh ant, Monomorium pharaonis (L.), workers in small artificial colonies containing three to nine workers, one queen and a small amount of brood. Later, Sudd (1960) discusses the recruitment and foraging behavior of a large natural population of pharaoh ants in Nigeria. These two studies, however, do not compare the recruitment and foraging behavior of pharaoh ant workers to the major food groups: carbohydrate, protein and lipid. The purpose of this study was to compare the recruitment and foraging activities of pharaoh ant workers from medium-sized standardized colonies in response to three different representative food baits.
