February 21, 2025
Meghan O'Toole
Sean Menke receives NSF grant to uncover ant reactions to periodical cicadas
Last summer, Lake Forest's landscape was changed by the emergence of periodical cicadas that surface every 17 years. Professor of Biology Sean Menke partnered with fellow scientists to explore the impact of these cicada emergences on ant populations, and the project received a grant from the National Science Foundation to enable further research.
The title of the project is Collaborative Research: RUI - Emergent Properties of Biomass Pulses: Uncovering the Ant-mediated Effects of Periodical Cicadas on Forest Ecosystems, and Menke is working in conjunction with John Lill at George Washington University and Martha Weiss at Georgetown University.
The impact of grant funding
The grant will fund at least two Lake Forest college students to do research in Menke's lab every semester for three years, along with full-time work and housing over the summer for the students who work in the lab.
“One of the huge limitations for students wanting to conduct summer research is that opportunities are limited to students who don't need summer jobs to pay for college,” Menke explained. “The funding from this grant makes the research opportunity and lab work more competitive for students who need jobs during the summer. The grant funding also helps underwrite housing and food costs.”
Overall, Menke is receiving a $364,196 share of the grant to support Lake Forest College students and his continued research. The grant includes additional money to support a recent graduate to work full time in the lab for the next three years. Funds will also cover travel expenses for students to visit and collaborate with the teams at Georgetown University and George Washington University.
Understanding how ants react to periodical cicada emergences
How do ant populations react when there is a sudden abundance of new food, such as a periodical cicada emergence? This is the question at the center of the project, which began a year before the 2024 cicada emergence.
- The researchers hypothesize that most ants will opportunistically adjust their foraging to capitalize on the sudden abundance of cicada prey.
- They also predict that changes in ant foraging behavior will have indirect effects in the forest community.
- The project enables the training of undergraduate researchers and enables the creation of resources for community engagement.
This is the first study that explores how ants are impacted by periodical cicada emergences. As such, it sets up future research; the results of this study will serve as a baseline for other researchers to reference and expand upon.
“This project is exciting because it helps us figure out what questions to ask in the future,” Menke shared. “We are also looking at this super important group of organisms—ants—and figuring out if they keep doing what they normally do or if their behaviors change when there is suddenly all this free food everywhere.”
Friends to Cicadas: Bilingual community education
The research team has created a free bilingual digital education program, “Friend to Cicadas,” that provides teachers with engaging activities around periodical cicada emergences that spark wonder and curiosity in their students.
Because these emergences happen across North America almost yearly, the educational resources will have a broad reach and build enthusiasm and appreciation for cicadas among students.
“Friends to Cicadas gets kids outside and shows them how cool these cicada emergences are,” Menke explained. “The program helps people tackle their fear of cicadas, educates people, and facilitates engagement with this wonderous thing. The research is not going to stay in a dusty tome, but it will be engaged with by so many people because of this outreach.”
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