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International Journal of Zoology and Applied Biosciences Research Article
Responses of ground-dwelling ant behavior and nesting patterns in prediction of monsoon season in and around Nagpur city, Maharashtra, India
Seema. G. Kadu, Mrudul Jane and Pooja Waghmare
Year : 2026 | Volume: 11 | Issue: 4 | Pages: 131-136
Received on: 20/04/2026
Revised on: 23/05/2026
Accepted on: 17/05/2026
Published on: 01/07/2026
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Seema. G. Kadu, Mrudul Jane and Pooja Waghmare( 2026).
Responses of ground-dwelling ant behavior and nesting patterns in prediction of monsoon season in and around Nagpur city, Maharashtra, India
. International Journal of Zoology and Applied Biosciences, 11( 4), 131-136.
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Abstract
Ants play a crucial role in the ecosystem, showing species-specific variations in their behavioral responses according to climatic conditions. This study focused on ground-dwelling ant species behaviors and the building of nests before monsoon rains in Nagpur City, Maharashtra, India. The study was carried out from March 2025 to June 2026 during the pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons across various habitats of ant species such as gardens, farmland, open areas, and residential neighborhoods. The recorded eight ant species, including Camponotus compressus, were the most abundant (25.6%), followed by Solenopsis geminata (18.5%), Paratrechina longicornis (16.2%), and Monomorium pharaonis (12.6%).and Tapinoma melanocephalum (12.2%). The species-specific behaviors of ants studied during the dry days under nest modification, transporting brood, relocating colonies, increased foraging, and reproductive flights before monsoon rainfall. Also, the ant nest mound height increased from April to May, and brood transport occurred in 72% of the monitored colonies before the pre-monsoon season. There was a strong positive link between ant activity and relative humidity, even in and around Nagpur city. The behavioral responses of ants observed before the heaviest rainfall suggest that ants may act as biological indicators for the arrival of the monsoon season and forecasting of whether, as per the traditional knowledge. These findings indicated that ground-dwelling ants could be valuable for ecological forecasting and monitoring environmental changes.
Keywords
Ant behavior, Monsoon prediction, Ground-dwelling ants, Bioindicators, Monsoon.
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© The Author(s) 2025. This article is published by International Journal of Zoology and Applied Biosciences under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (creativecommons.org), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
