Study: How Indian jumping ants use scent

No Tinder app needed for this pair of Indian jumping ants.
Photo: Dr. Jürgen Liebig/Arizona State University

According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vanderbilt University biological sciences professor Dr. Laurence Zwiebel led a multi-university team that looked at how Indian jumping ants (Harpegnathos saltator) use scent to organize social behavior.

They were building upon the results of an earlier study, which found that when ants get their sense of smell taken away, chaos ensues. The goal is to develop a new class of repellents (“excito-repellents”) that Dr. Zwiebel explains would be similar to “being closed in an elevator with someone wearing way too much perfume. If it overwhelms your sense of smell, the net result is repellence.”

The findings have implications for mosquito repellent as well.