The nest maintenance workers become foragers.

So for example, if I put out extra food, everybody else the midden workers stop doing midden work and go get the food, they become foragers.

And I've been working for the past 20 years on a population of seed eating ants in southeastern Arizona.

This is really a picture of ants, and the rabbit just happens to be there.

Like I just said, if there is more food to collect, the patrollers, the midden workers, the nest maintenance workers will all change to forage.

Then they're pupae. Then they come out as adult ants.

And in harvester ants, I divide the tasks of the ants I see just outside the nest into these four categories where an ant is foraging, when it's out along the foraging trail, searching for food or bringing food back.

I'm less likely to forage.

And then a delicate dance between dinner and death the mycelium is consumed by the ants, they become mummified, and, boing, a mushroom pops out of their head.

And this is true of most ants that the ants you see walking around don't do much eating.

The patrollers that's supposed to be a magnifying glass are an interesting group that go out early in the morning before the foragers are active.

But when do you have pizza?

I will eat coffee flavored pudding.

I will eat century egg.

I eat a banana roll.

I eat pineapple sherbert.

So for example, if I make a mess that the nest maintenance workers have to clean up, then I see fewer ants out foraging.

I eat Japanese food.

This is the nest of the mature colony, and there's the nest entrance.

They bring it back and feed it to the larvae.

Do you eat meat?

Will you have some coffee flavored pudding?

Would you like to eat strawberries?

Do you eat pasta?

We eat many kinds of food.

What do you have for breakfast?

Do you have bread for lunch?

I have lunch at noon.

What do you eat for breakfast?

She is having dinner.

I eat noodles.

I am eating noodles.

I'm eating a pear.

I am eating a pear.

I will eat a Hallowen Blue Berry Jelly Dessert.

I am eating bread.

They are eating bread.

So take food.

Would you eat something that looks like an airport runway?

Yes.

Better eat up.

There's no explicit communication.

But not every transition is possible. And this shows how it works.

I had breakfast in pajamas.

I ate breakfast in my pajamas.