56 VV. Vidhu and DA. Evans
from bite site showed lack of co-ordination in
movements and finally died. The body weight
of a major worker with body weight of 11.8 ± 0.8
after 25–30 min of prolonged biting was re-
duced to 60 % of its original weight and it was
6.6 ± 0.4 mg and at that state there was no detect-
able quantities of FA in the body (Fig. 3 ). Con-
tinuous disturbance made on the nest, resulted in
a increase in FA in major workers.
After prolonged bite of 25 min total protein
content of head and thorax showed a sharp eleva-
tion at the same time the total free amino acid
contents showed a sharp decrease. Acetylcholine
after 25 min of biting showed a significant eleva-
tion both in head and thorax. The content of lactic
acid did not show either significant increase or
decrease (Table 2 ).
Prolonged bite resulted in sharp decline in the
content of urea and uric acid in the head region
but in thorax the amount of the above constituents
did not show any significant change (Table 2 ).
Glucose content of head and thorax showed sig-
nificant decrease after 25 min of biting, but the
glycogen content did not show any change both in
head and thorax. Activities of both transaminases
AsAT and AlAT showed sharp decline in head and
thorax after 25 min of continuous bite. Protein
profile of both head and thorax showed additional
bands when the ants were allowed to bite continu-
ously for 20 min (Fig. 4 ). Thorax region (T2) of
dead ants showed formation of new protein bands
in between 30–66 KDa and 25–30 KDa.
Among the worker castes, minor workers pos-
sessed very high content of FA followed by in-
termediate and major workers (Table 1 ). Minor
workers have an important role in nursing the
brood (Holldobler and Wilson 1990 ) and hence,
the FA present in them may have role in protection
of brood from microbes. It was reported that FA
has antimicrobial activity and it is used as an anti-
bacterial agent in poultry industry and in live stock
management (Thomson and Hinton 1997 ). Larvae
and pupae had no traces of FA in body. Winged
males and females also showed some amount of
FA in body (Table 1 ). Adult males and females did
not show any tendency to bite while handling. It
was reported that the winged males and females
at the time of rain make a nuptial flight and after
that the female shed their wings and start a new
colony (Sudd 1967 ). Traces of FA present in body
of reproductive females help from predation dur-
ing their reproductive phase as a solitary, apterous
organism.
The minor workers did not show any signifi-
cant fluctuation in the content of FA during dif-
ferent time intervals of 24 h cycle. It was reported
that in O. smaragdina temperature has profound
influence on the foraging activity (Rossy and Na-
rendran 1988 ). Hence, it can be concluded that
the FA content in the body of major workers is
directly proportional to the physical activities
such as predation, maintenance of territory and
scavenging. It was observed that ants became
active in sunny days especially after one or two
days of rain, at which time the temperature and
humidity will be high. The minor workers were
mostly confined within the nest itself and thus
not encountering with prey’s and intruders and
hence FA content did not show any fluctuation
during the 24 h cycle.
Poison gland secretion of formicine ants is be-
lieved to be the simultaneous secretion of both
of these glands. Poison gland secretes FA and
Dufour’s gland secretes mixtures of hydrocarbons
and long chain aliphatic compounds (Hermann
and Blum 1968 ). It was reported that in work-
ers of formicine ant Formica rufa L., the formicFig. 3 Variation in the content of FA in relation to dif-
ferent physiological states of major workers of O. sma-
ragdina (Values are expressed as mg/gm fresh tissue. All
values are mean ± SD, n = 4)